My girls are ages 8 & 10. We live in CCDC and have a very small grass yard with a nice patio area. Our yard is primarily used for playing fetch with our 60 lb golden receiver (aka Goldendoodle). We all occasionally use it for outdoor dining and COVID safe activities with neighbors/kids. However, there just isn't much space for anything but playing Nerf guns, water balloons and sometimes kicking a soccer ball around. We live on a dead-end street and our kids ride bikes/scooters on the sidewalks and at the end of the block.

They run through it on the way to other yards

Trampoline, Swing set, Slid n slide, Sprinkler, growing flowers and veggies in an earth box. Balls, jump rope, hula hoops, hid n seek not many hiding places. Yard Jenga game and side walk chalk on the patio. They built a big nest out of sticks one time. In seson jump in the leaves, sled on the small hill, snowmen.

Anonymous wrote:Our yard is square and flat so it's versatile. While DD doesn't use it solo (she's an only) we get quite a lot of use out it during playdates and parties. She has a trampoline and the kids love that. There's enough space to kick the ball around. They've had water balloon and water gun fights. Bubble machine dance party. We build snow forts in the winter on those now rare snow days.

Get a house with a nice driveway. We've used that for basketball, hockey and sidewalk chalk.

+1 My kid is older elementary and driveway gets used all the time with neighbor friends not backyard.

Our yard is square and flat so it's versatile. While DD doesn't use it solo (she's an only) we get quite a lot of use out it during playdates and parties. She has a trampoline and the kids love that. There's enough space to kick the ball around. They've had water balloon and water gun fights. Bubble machine dance party. We build snow forts in the winter on those now rare snow days.

Get a house with a nice driveway. We've used that for basketball, hockey and sidewalk chalk.

Play. Kids play soccer, tag, football, games, swing, ninja line, and other kid things. The yard is a very popular place among siblings and neighbors. We also have most of our gatherings in the yard on the patio. We are rarely inside in the late spring - fall. Luckily, we have a perfectly square, flat backyard that has proved endlessly usable. It was our saving grace during lockdown.

Our kids spend massive amounts of time in our yard. Running around, driving their little electric cars around, making up games, hide and seek, tag, soccer and baseball practice, water balloon fights in the summer, playing in the sprinklers, shooting hoops, sledding when it snows, catch fireflies…so much stuff. Today when even laid out reading on a blanket enjoying the weather. We also have a zip line and slack line that they use frequently.

My kids play with their toys and with their play equipment. They find frogs, turtles, pick flowers and make fairy gardens. They cartwheel, run through the sprinklers and race. We have Easter egg hunts, water balloon fights and laser tag at night in the summer. We also have a lot of fire pits.

The kids use the driveway to ride bikes, skateboard and jump rope.

I love seeing my kids play on the yard and will miss the days they no longer play.

Agree with the pps but will add if looking at houses things like a culdesac or quiet road, or flat long driveway also can get used even more as kids get older than the backyard sometimes. Or a nice front yard. For basketball hoops, skateboarding, etc etc

Goals and a basketball hoop. The neighbor's trampoline is very popular

Running around and playing. We have a flat backyard so catch, soccer, and other games. I can see a yard with a hill being used for sledding when we get snow, rolling down the hill, king of the hill, and other games. Kids are pretty good about coming up with games that make use of the space that they have.

Grow a garden, play anything with a ball, play hide and seek, swing in the swing, walk on the slack line, play in the sprinkler, play with friends - they are out there all the time.

They kick a ball against the wall, lay in the hammock and read, play on the trampoline, play ball games they make up, make a fairy garden and tend to it, grow vegetables, have picnics, water fights, etc.

Our kid doesn't really use it. Occasionally for water balloons or something like that with neighbors but really not that often. They end up playing in the cul de sac

What do they do in the yard? We’re moving from a condo to a SFH and I’m trying to decide if some of the yards I’m seeing are useable. And then I realized I don’t actually know what kids use yards for. Kicking a ball around? Playing hide and seek? Just running? Several of the yards I’ve seen have quite a slope, hence the question.