Get creative!
There are so many ideas that can be adapted for a backyard carnival. Do you have a budding artist? Let them run a face painting booth.
Does your child have a skill they can use to give a performance? Each child can pick something they’d like to do and put on a show or walk around the “carnival grounds” as a traveling performer.
They can be a magician, clown, juggler, or mime for the day (that one might be fun for parents!). You can take it up a notch by finding or making a fun costume for their performance – old Halloween costume pieces or Dad’s oversized clothing work great.
You can even make the kids their own stilts by drilling a hole on either side of the bottom of a small (use heavy plastic) bucket, running a long piece of thin rope or twine through and tying it off at a length that is about the distance between your child’s feet and mid-torso. Make two of these per child and they can walk around on their “stilts.”
If your carnival goes into the evening, there are ways these fun games can be adapted with glow paint, glow sticks, and light up toys.
The possibilities really are endless, and the kids will have just as much fun preparing for their carnival as they will taking part in it. Invite the neighborhood kids or some of the children who may be in your child’s class for the school year. It’s a great way for them to get to know one another before school starts.
We hope you and the kids enjoy your backyard carnival and the special memories it will create. You’ll be the hit of the neighborhood, and it just might become a tradition you want to repeat every summer!
Do you have creative ideas for do-it-yourself games and activities for a backyard carnival or kids’ parties? Leave us your thoughts.