Game of Outdoor Survival

With the kids on vacation this week there was plenty of down time earlier in the week.  They invented this game of outdoor survival.  It was a huge hit with them and even a bigger hit for Mom and you will quickly see why when you read the objective of the game.  They played it twice for hours (weather was damp and in the 50's) Here are the rules they created:

Objective of the game: who can stay outside the longest!!!!!

Preparation:  One person is mother nature or brother nature (she/he respectively).  This person packs a back pack for each person that includes a pair of shoes, one coat, a piece of fabric, some food, some water and one extra free choice item.  Each child playing can not have a coat on or shoes to start. 

Ready to Play:  Each child receives their backpack, opens it and inspects gear.  They put on or traded gear.  Then they headed outdoors and the game officially started.  You can not return indoors (unless to use bathroom as approved by mother/brother nature).

They each set up a little shelter and collected items from nature to make the shelter cozy.  Occasionally mother/brother nature comes by and brings some bad weather (i.e. sprays water on shelter as rain).  They played this for hours night one and finally called it a tie when it was dark out for an hour.  I did build them a campfire to keep warm by. 

The next day they invited some friends over to play.  This time they played with teams.  They also added in challenges to get rewards.  Pictured above was a knot untying challenge.  Whoever untied all the knots first got to pick a prize such as a blanket, gloves or a tasty snack.  They created all sorts of challenges - obstacle courses, tallest tower building, eating contests and more. 

Another addition was a store.  Brother nature opened up a store where you could only pay in sticks longer than 3 feet or pinecones.  He sold candy, umbrellas, hot chocolate and more.  Brother nature sold out rather quickly and was left with huge piles of sticks. 

At the end of hours of open ended play outdoors the kids came inside exhausted.  No one even cared who won (which is HIGHLY unusual in our house).  In the end it was all about how much fun they had.