Nerf guns are toys that fire foam darts, and for a long time, the only acceptable use for them was “whacking your younger brother over the head.” But now there are so many more options for parents and kids alike! One of the best parts of summer is playing outside with your kids, but when was the last time a game of baseball or hide-and-seek got your heart racing?
You can do many things with a Nerf gun, but without a target to shoot at, they don’t make much sense. We’ve put together some favourite DIY targets that are easy to make and help you and your kids get outside, active, and competitive in a fun way.
Capture the flag
We’re calling it Capture the Flag. It’s pretty simple: there are two red and blue teams, and each has to capture an opposing team’s flag. The first team to capture their opponents’ flag three times wins the game. You will need to set up a base camp for each team. If a player on a team is hit with an opposing nerf bullet, they will need to make their way back to their base before they can continue in the game. The game’s objective will be to find the other team’s flag. Usually, you can use a bandana that can be thrown away if it gets too muddy or ruined. The great part of playing capture the flag is that no one will ever be sitting out of the game. Everyone can keep playing as long as the game is going on.
Freeze tag
When it comes to playing freeze tag, you will also need to create two teams of kids. If a player is hit with an opposing team’s nerf bullet, they will need to freeze on the spot. The only way they will be able to get unfrozen is to have them hit with a nerf bullet from their team. The main objective of this game is to freeze all of the players on the other team first. In the end, the team that is unfrozen will win the match. One more thing you can do is set a timer to make the matches shorter. With this method, the winning team would be the team with the least frozen players when the timer rings.
Hide and seek
All kids love to play hide and seek, so why not try and mix things up by including nerf guns? For this game, you will again need two teams, one of them will be the hiders, and the other will be the seekers. After the hiders are finished hiding, the seekers must locate them. The challenge will be that the hiders can shoot seekers while they are hiding and take them out of the game. The seekers can shoot the hiders once they find them, and they can then be eliminated.