Playing together in the pool is an ideal way to build a closer relationship with your kids or grandchildren (see Part 1). A side benefit is that everyone will be spending plenty of time in the great outdoors taking in all that fresh air and sunshine. Here are some more pool game ideas to get your family off the couch, away from the electronics, and in the pool for some summer fun!
Burn Calories and Build Memories With a Game of Pool Keep Away
You may remember playing Keep Away on the playground when you were a child. In this game, one player is chosen to be the person that everyone else has to keep away from a certain object. When playing Keep Away in the pool, a waterproof ball works well. The person who is “it” stands in the middle of the pool. Everyone else has to toss the ball around to each other while “it” tries to jump up and grab the ball. Once “it” finally has the ball, the last person who touched it before them gets to take their place in the middle. Kids, teens, and parents go crazy for this high-energy game. It’s like Monkey In The Middle with a pool full of splashing, jumping monkeys!
Count Up the Laughs With a Ping Pong Ball Points Contest
One fun game that will take a little bit of preparation is a Ping Pong Ball Points Contest. You’ll need as many ping pong balls as you want to use for the game and a permanent marker. If you have 30 balls, number them in order from one to thirty. Split up the family and any friends that are participating into even teams. Then give a signal for everyone to jump into the water and start grabbing the ping pong balls. Have the team deposit their balls into a bucket. You can go until all the balls are gathered up or set a certain time limit. To find out who wins, total up the numbers written on each team’s ping pong balls. If you have younger kids, a simpler way to play the game is to leave the balls blank and just total up the number of balls for each team to see who wins.
Celebrate Your Family Members’ Creativity With a Jumping Contest
This game works great if you have a diving board, but you can still do it even if you’re jumping off the edge of the pool. Designate one person to be the judge. Then let each family member choose their own wacky way to jump into the pool. You can have the judge pick just one winner or award different family members for coming up with their own unique or silly dives or jumps. Be sure this game takes place in the deep end of the pool if you’re planning on allowing participants to dive.
In our next article in this series, we’ll share even more wet and wild ways to dive into family fun in the pool.
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