Park Games for Everyone

Once the weather becomes warm enough to go to the park, that's the place everyone wants to be. There are family reunions, teen age get togethers, and barbecues. There are all sorts of excuses as to why people show up at the park. Sometimes people show up at the park just to get out of the house after a long icy winter.Once you get there, what can you do? One games that great for all ages is tag. There are so many variations and additives to the great game of tag, you wonder if there was ever one essential way that the game was suppose to be played. Since this is the essence of the game, it seems to me a perfect opportunity to a great game. The tag-relay.

All you need to play tag-relay is people and the ability to move. Once you have your group, and you're ready to play make sure that everyone understands all the rules first. Because you will no doubt be playing with various age level, all of the participants have to understand the game.

Tag-relay always begins with traditional tag. One person is it(it's best if one of the adults or older kids that are playing would volunteer for this) and they have to tag someone else to be it. There is a base where you are safe from being tagged. This is the end of the rules for basic tag. There are a lot of little kids through out the eons that have made various other rules to this simplistic game of tag. Rules such as no guarding the base (puppy dogging), no tag backs, etc etc are no longer part of the game.

This is where the Tag Relay begins. Every 6th or 7th person to be it, the tag game and the base changes. You can choose any number you like, but it's very important to keep it relatively small. The person who is it at this time now gets to choose the base and what kind of tag they are playing. They can choose from any of the large varieties of tag. They can choose TV tag, where a person is safe if they sit down and say a TV show or character. Using this same theme and rules, there is Movie tag, cartoon tag, video game tag, football team tag, etc, etc. Then there are other variations such as freeze tag, where the person tagged is frozen and can be released by another person touching them. There's also non-walking tag, where everyone has to only move on their knees, or they have to hop, or even heel to toe. With the many ways of moving a person along, the varieties of this tag are endless.

If you put your head together with the younger group of tag players, they could come up with a few other thousand variations they have either heard of or played. With the base and the rules changing every 6th tag, and the power of what to play and when in the hands of the participants, the game becomes an activity that forces you to constantly pay attention.

This is a great game for those younger kids who often space off. After being tagged a few times because of not paying attention, they will suddenly begin to. This also empowers the children by being able to dictate the rules of play and where they think the base is. This i s a great skill and tool for the last born group, who never seems to get to decide anything..