5 Fun Games That Encourage Your Little One To Play Outside

The digital age has seen more kids staying inside. Whether it’s cable cartoons, Legos, or PS5 games, there’s lots of indoor entertainment for little ones. Couple that with the coronavirus pandemic and children are spending more time indoors than ever before.

As the world slowly goes back to normal however, and with summer fast approaching, it may be time for your little one to spend a little more time outdoors among the fresh air and sunshine.

If you’re finding it tough to lure your kid out of the house and enjoy the great outdoors, fret not! Here are five games to encourage them to get outside and play.

1. Pokemon Go

One of the most popular smartphone games, Pokemon Go takes the cuddly little monsters from Nintendo out into the real world. The characters are brought to life using augmented reality (AR), which overlays them on top of real-life locations using the phone’s camera, GPS, and cloud connectivity.

The game’s objective is to collect Pokemons, raise and upgrade their abilities, and do battle with other creatures. This is done by scouting out actual places, encouraging your child to go out and explore. Thankfully, the game’s developers have gone out of their way to make it child-friendly.

Parents simply register with a guardian portal called Niantic Kids, which allows them to control personal information and permission settings. The service is ESRB Privacy Certified and has passed the kidSAFE Seal Program.

Pokemon Go is available on the Apple Appstore, Google Playstore, and Samsung’s Galaxy Store.

2. Magical Park

If your little one is tired of going to the same old park everyday, give it a makeover with Magical Park! This handy little AR game transforms any ordinary park into a magical fantasy land.

The app allows you to place 3D models on wide open spaces, ranging from scary monsters to cool aliens and larger-than-life dinosaurs. What’s more, there are missions designed specifically for outdoor play, such as hunting cute little creatures and collecting hidden objects.

Finally, the game has some educational content built in, like teaching the values of recycling. To ensure that kids don’t accidentally go wandering out of the park, the game uses geofencing so that the game stops when the user goes out of the playspace.

3. Laser X

This modern take on the old laser tag game is chock-full of features. First, there are different models to choose from, from Micro Blasters perfect for little hands, to longer-range blaster that can “fire” up to 500 ft!

Each pack comes with two blasters good for 2 players, and can light up to 20 different colors. The higher end lines also come with an interactive voice coach for more fun and replayability. The premium models even offer cool stuff like long-range scopes, headphone connectivity, and haptic feedback for better immersion!

Once your kids are exhausted from chasing each other, you can add optional packs to keep the fun going. These include a laser “equalizer” disc, a frisbee-like object that can blast an entire team at once, and a laser gaming tower that comes with 9 games and which can function as a remote turret.

There are 8 Laser X blaster models to choose from, and all of them work together regardless of the model.

4. Nature Cat’s Great Outdoors

Based on the Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS TV series Nature Cat, this game follows the adventures of Fred the nature cat and his adorable group of friends as they have fun outdoors.

It provides a new adventure everyday that encourages kids to explore their surroundings and learn about nature. For every daily adventure they complete, they can earn achievement badges and stickers. Adventures can be filtered by rain, snow, sun, and indoor to suit the climate, so there’s always a quest for them to do regardless of the weather.

To record their adventures, the game provides a handy virtual Journal where they can draw, paint or stamp, as well as insert photos and sound recordings. Their achievements and stickers are automatically saved in the journal, giving them something to look forward to each day!

The game is available on iOS, Android, and the Kindle Fire.

5. ARrrrrgh

Bring a new twist to the classic hide-and-seek game with this pirate-themed adventure game! The game allows players to “bury” a treasure, then have someone else try to find the hidden loot!

To guide players, there is a colorful parrot that offers assistance at each step of the way. The magic of augmented reality means that the treasure can be “buried” anywhere, from the ground to indoor floors. There’s even a cool animation for the digging part that shows the floor actually being broken into as the treasure chest gets hidden!

One thoughtful touch is that the game alerts you if you’re staying too close to the treasure before you hand the phone over to the seeker. The game definitely has good replay value, since everyone can take turns being the hider and the seeker, and the loot can be hidden in a different place each time.

The game is available on both iOS and Android platforms.