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Garden obstacle course

Cushions, hoops and a stopwatch — the classic that works for every age at once.

  • Outdoors
  • About an hour
  • Active
  • Free
  • Ages 3–13

What you need

  • Cushions or cones
  • Rope or hoops
  • A phone stopwatch

How to run it

  1. Mark a start and a finish.
  2. Each child adds one obstacle to the course.
  3. Everyone runs it once slowly as a walkthrough.
  4. Time each run and try to beat your own best, not each other's.

Making it work for every age

Younger children: Run a shorter three-obstacle loop with them, hand in hand, and skip the timing.

Older children: They design the course, set the handicaps for younger runners and keep the leaderboard.

Did you try it?

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