This book has a lot of fun-sounding ideas for older kids, but not many suggestions for preschool and kindergarten age kids. I’m going to try to remember to check this book out again when my kids are at least 8 or so.
Title: Mom’s Handy Book of Backyard Games
Author: Pete Cava
Publication Year: 2000
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Review: Right now my kids are 5, 3, and 1. By and large the games in this book are not helpful for this age group. There are a few activities with minimum ages of 3 years and 5 years, but they are mainly the games I already know (tag, mother may I?, simon says, leap frog, staring contest, etc.). My other problem with many of the games I haven’t heard of is that they are meant for large groups of kids. We have playdates once in a while with 2 or 3 other kids, but at this age I can’t imagine organizing a bunch of 5 year olds into a game.
I should have also known this book wasn’t meant for my family, because we don’t even have much of a backyard. I’m sure a lot of the games can be played at a park or any place with an open grassy area, but since we’d have to travel to get there, that sounds way too ambitious for me. However, there are a number of positive aspects to this book.
There is a wide selection of games of different difficulties, many of the games sound like activities I’m sure older kids would enjoy, and the instructions are easy to understand. The index lists the games by both age and supplies needed. I definitely want my kids to grow up with this kind of “good clean fun” so I’ll need to remember to check this book out from the library again in maybe 4 years or so. (Personal Rating: 7/10)
Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
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