Five Fun Trampoline Games

I don’t know what we would have done over the past two months without outdoor toys. Or without being outdoors at all! All of you imaginary friends living in cold places, I tip my hat to you. I don’t know how you’re doing it in those cold climates! Having the outdoors here in Orlando has been like having double the space for the kids to play and we have definitely taken advantage of it!

While the pool is always the #1 favorite in our backyard, Santa brought the kids a trampoline a few years ago and it has been a saving grace during this time at home, too. Full disclosure: Our kids don’t use the trampoline a lot. They use it when they have friends over (which has been non-existent lately) and sometimes they’ll use it when it’s just the two of them, but bouncing around by yourself gets boring after a while.

We have a few go-to trampoline games that we play, though, and that always gets them excited and expends some energy. I thought I’d share them with you today, in case you need to revive your trampoline-life during quarantine, too!

COW – I have no idea why this game is called cow. I found it on Pinterest the year we got the trampoline. It is the kids favorite trampoline game, mostly because Chris loves to play it with them! One person is the “cow.” They get down on hands and knees and close their eyes. Everyone else runs around the trampoline trying not to get tagged by the (weirdly blind) cow. The cow tries everything they can to touch someone without looking or standing up. Pro Tip for all you dads out there: Chris likes to barrel roll across the trampoline when he does it.

Slip and Slide – A close second to Cow at our house is turning the trampoline into a slip and slide. To be honest, I really don’t like this one because it involves dragging the hose all the way across the yard to the trampoline. But the kids are big enough to do that themselves now, so the slip and slide happens more often these days. Take some dish soap, body wash, or bubble bath and pour about a cup of it all over the trampoline. Now, grab a garden hose. You can either spray down the trampoline until it gets sudsy or you can just give the whole darn hose to the kids and let them do crazy. You do you, boo. This game is infinitely more fun when you give your kids water balloons, too! When my kids were younger, I had them wear swim goggles when they did this to keep the soap out of their eyes. Might be helpful if you have little ones.

Balloon Keep Away – For this one, we have used balloons or whatever sports balls we have laying around. Any kind of ball works. The kids dump them into the trampoline net and the game starts. Pretty simple, right? The goal is to jump or run around (or wallow around, if you’re like me) without the balls touching you. The more you have in there the more fun, and you’ll need a net to make this one work. Heads up: It takes about 10 minutes before someone picks up a ball and throws it at someone else, which changes the game entirely and/or sends someone to time out inside the house. Your call.

Follow the Leader – Always a classic trampoline game. Someone is the leader and everyone else has to mimic what they attempt on the trampoline. So, if the leader runs around the trampoline four times, everyone else has to do it, too. You can stretch the fun out (and make it slightly safer) if you have everyone do their own turn following the leader instead of everyone doing the trick all at the same time. Also, you might want to have younger kids start first so they get a turn as the leader before the older kids turn this into a death test, as mine are prone to do.

Popcorn – Yes, this is the same game we played in the 80s, only we didn’t have nets around the trampoline and so someone inevitably would break their arm/wrist/leg/finger/toe. Someone sits in the middle of the trampoline and balls themself up tightly by holding their knees to their chest with their arms. Everyone else bounces this popcorn person, trying to get them to let go of their legs. This game is even more fun/dangerous when you get dad in on it. Chris has been known to bounce our kids over his own head, but they aren’t allowed to do that during the pandemic because ain’t nobody goin’ to the hospital right now for being stupid.

So, there you go. Five trampoline games that might give your kids something fun to do outside and maybe buy you a half hour without your name being called over and over again. YOU’RE WELCOME!