Water Games for Children: Our Top 10

Water games are delightful and fun activities for children. During summer vacation or when staying at a camping with water park, your little ones can spend long joyful days there.
Water balloons, water guns, water tables, bath sprayers, diving, aqua-petanque… Here are some water game ideas to brighten your children’s day while helping them cool off and have fun.

Water Balloons

Easy to make, water balloons are at the top of the list of must-have water games. This activity involves filling rubber balloons with water and closing them with a knot or string. There are several ways to play a water balloon game:

• Organize a filling race where the winner is whoever fills the most balloons;
• Create an obstacle course for a spoon race using a large wooden spoon and replacing eggs with balloons;
• Turn the balloons into a piñata by hanging them high, which lets children get a cool shower without swimming in the pool.

Water Guns

Water guns are classic toys for children and even for teenagers. Here are some ideas for entertaining days at the campsite with water guns:

• Shoot each other in the garden or on the beach to cool off;
• Play a target game that involves filling a cup with a water gun from a certain distance;
• Create a theme (cowboy theme, police theme…) and let the little ones shoot at a target (small plastic figures, ping-pong ball balanced on a bottle neck…).

The Belly Slip

The belly slip involves sliding on a plastic tarp made very slippery with harmless products like soap or shampoo. It’s a very fun variant of the water slide in the campsite’s water park. To make the game more fun, you can create a race course where children must run across the slippery tarp to grab an object (glass, piece of wood, etc.) on the other side and bring it back to the starting point.

Snorkeling with Mask and Snorkel

Snorkeling with a mask and snorkel allows children to observe underwater life and discover marine plants and animals. The crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean offer beautiful snorkeling spots for children. But the campsite pool will work too! Here are some basic rules:

• Snorkeling is generally accessible to children 8 years old.
• You must know how to swim and be accompanied by adults to practice this activity.
• Prefer a short distance course and stay as close as possible to the shore.

Water Tables

These are tables equipped with water trays that let your children have fun and cool off during summer vacation. They are usually accompanied by various containers to fill or transfer water according to the child’s creativity. There is a variant that has both a sandbox and a water tray. Sand and water can be used separately to create various fun games: create a mini beach, make bubbles, build a sandcastle… It’s a game you can set up in your mobile home garden. To make the game even more fun, use kinetic sand, or magic sand, which allows you to easily create various shapes.

Bath Sprayers

Bath sprayers are essential accessories that accompany children in their bath or at the water park’s wading pool. They are soft plastic toys, colorful and taking playful shapes (animals, vehicles, etc.). They spray water, which motivates children to stay longer in their bath.

Diving

The small pools in water parks are perfect places to teach children how to dive. Most campsites with water parks have instructors or lifeguards who can guide your child in their first diving experience. But you can also help your little one do it, it’s easy:

• Have your child sit at the edge of the pool or a less deep body of water;
• Ask them to stretch their arms toward the water, tuck their head between their arms, and keep their hands together;
• Gently push them into the water, asking them to dive as far as they can before coming back up.

Aqua-Petanque

Aqua-petanque follows the same rules as traditional petanque, except it’s played in the pool or basin of a water park. Children must use plastic balls that sink and must throw them as close as possible to the target ball. To count the points, just put on your mask and snorkel and go check where the balls are in relation to the target ball.

Watering Toys

Plastic watering cans are fun accessories that children can use at the beach, by the water, or in a campsite garden nestled in nature. Children can have fun drawing water, watering garden plants, wetting sand, or playing transfer games. Besides the watering can, there are other watering toy options for children: watering flower, fire hydrant, garden hoses, etc.

Sponges

Let’s finish our water game ideas with an easy-to-find and cheapest accessory: a sponge. The basic idea is to give each child a sponge and a tub filled with water where they can have fun soaking their sponge. Here are some sponge activities to liven up the day:

• Make water bombs with sponge;
• Let children wash their toys by providing them with appropriate materials for their age;
• Sponge toss where the winner is whoever hits a target or throws their projectile the farthest.

Here are some aquatic activity ideas to cool off during vacation, whether at a campsite, on a white sand beach, or in nature near a river.

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