I wound up having an interesting conversation at coffee hour today with several parents of Sunday school children. We were standing out in the church garden, watching children run around like wild things. As such things go, we have a pretty good garden for children to play in: there are some safe trees to climb (with low branches overhanging soft grass), and a small grassy lawn to run around on. But….
But it’s a small garden, a fairly formal garden, and we don’t really have room for active games. I mentioned that I’ve been thinking that we could install a couple of tetherball posts — tetherball is good because is doesn’t take much room, and you can take the whole thing inside when you’re done (even though we have a fence around our garden, it is a city garden, and things do get stolen). One of the parents suggested one of those moveable basketball hoops — there’s not enough room for a real game of basketball, but you could play shooting games like “Horse.” And what about Frisbee golf? — we don’t have enough room for a real Frisbee golf course, but we do have enough room for a child-sized course (if you’re willing to lose the occasional Frisbee over the fence).
I would be very curious to know if any of my readers might have suggestions based on their own experience in churches that have very little space. How have you integrated sports and/or active games into your church grounds?
Basketball withou question- In Indiana there is no other way.
Four square might be a good choice. It is quite the rage at the kids’ schools right now. Kind of depends on the age group you are thinking of. At the church where I worked this summer a small play structure worked nicely (though really they had two play areas, one in the church courtyard and then a larger area which had been the back yard of the parish house.
A lot of the schools here, in addition to tetherball have a game played on a pole with basketballs (or rubber play balls) where the kids shoot the ball into a big funnel top and score points based on which shoot at the bottom it exits. Looks like it is called funnel ball by some vendors.
Wow. It just dawned on me that at my church, large as it is, there is no outdoor play area for the kids. We have a courtyard (that the kids helped decorate), but it’s used as a patio when it’s not empty. Actually, we have two courtyards now, but no play or sports equipment.
Wow.