One of my all-time favorite things about our bounce house is the creativity that comes with it. There is not just one set of rules that you have to use to play with a bounce house and therefore – the possibilities of games and hours of entertainment are endless!! There is definitely a time and place for board games or toys where you follow specific directions until you reach the end and then you’re done. However, there is so much to be said about toys and games that do not spell out exactly how to play and allow a child’s natural creativity and innate ability to play and discover to thrive. For that reason, I beg of you- to please use this list as a backup and not the requirement to play! Use this set of games as a way to extend the play time when their own creativity starts to die down. Allow them plenty of time to just jump and play and I think you will be amazed at the games that they come up with on their own. In fact, most of the games in this list are just favorites that my kids made up themselves or with friends.
- Obstacle Course- This idea works best outside or when your bounce house is set up in a location with a lot of space around it. This game also feels like it extends the size of the bounce house if you have more kids than can play safely at one time on the bounce house. Instead of just looking at the bounce house as the toy, envision your whole yard or space as the game and the bounce house as just a piece of it. Use yard toys of all sorts, landscaping tools, trees and flowerbeds as part of your imagination as you create the coolest obstacle course possible ( a garden hose can make a fun obstacle as you can lay it in a design for them to jump side to side or in and out of). Once the kids catch the vision of the game, allow them to help in the creation of the obstacle course. You can use a timer and turn it into a race or set up two identical courses side by side so they can race simultaneously. While the bounce house can really be set anywhere in the course, we have found it makes a fun beginning or end to the race.
Make it Pop- This game can be played in any location and with a fewer amount of people which makes it great for a simple, family game. It also allows for a certain amount of ingenuity and creativity to include the older kids. Find a small stuffed animal or some kind of light object that will be safe on the bounce house like a kitchen towel. Now, make it “pop”. Try different ways to get the object to bounce higher and higher in the air. Can you figure out how to make it pop in a certain direction or even out of the bounce house? Can you make it pop without jumping? Grab a slightly heavier object like a glove or soft hat and guess which one will pop higher.- Make a Fort- I’m not sure what it is about kids and forts, but I have never met a kid (of all different ages) that doesn’t love them! Grab a pile of sheets or light blankets from your linen closet and use the base of your bounce house as the base of your fort. I prefer to only make forts inside so my sheets don’t get horribly dirty outside but if you are using picnic blankets or old sheets I bet a fort outside would make a really awesome tent! Forts always seem to entertain my kids for hours without any additional guidance but give them a few flashlights for shadow puppets to make it last even longer.
- Inflatable gym- a bounce house makes the perfect gym! From the day they attempted their first somersault, my kids love trying new tricks and flips like the true Olympic gymnast they believe they are! However, a hard floor or new couch don’t always provide the perfect place to practice. Even a small bounce house can give them the perfect amount of lift to master their hardest flip or make a simple somersault feel like a cartwheel. From a parental perspective, I love the safety that the bounce house gives their landings. I can be much more supportive of them trying new flips when I know they will always land softly on inflated air rather than the unknown in my living room!
Stuffed Animals- I have a love hate relationship with stuffed animals because of how much my kids love them and how they annoyingly tend to multiply and take up so much space in the play room. However, bringing stuffed animals onto the bounce house always creates a whole new level of fun- especially for younger kids. ( I would recommend only allowing soft stuffed animals and not the ones with hard plastic additions to them.) For young kids, it can feel like bringing a friend to the party- especially since they seem to bounce along with the kids when they pop up as the kids jump around them. Additionally, if you have a plethora of stuffed animals like we always seem to have, my young kids always love to throw them all in the bounce house and then hide themselves under a pile of them. It makes a fun, bouncey- yet soft hide-and-seek game as you try to find them or as you work together to find a specific hidden stuffed animal.- Tag with balls- We have a handful of soft balls we have accumulated through the years that are allowed on the bounce house. A simple game of tag is quickly raised to the next level of fun when both competitors are jumping in all directions and heights as they play. We also bought a pack of plastic balls like they have in ball pits to go along with our bounce house that has added a lot of fun. Here’s a link to some soft ones without any plastic seams that work well for a bounce house.
Tag is probably the most natural game to play once these balls are added to the bounce house, however they come up with some creative ways to play with the balls. Even just jumping into a pile of them is more fun than a ball pit because they bounce around you as you jump.
- Line them up! This is another fun game with the plastic balls that requires a bit more skill for the older kids. Around the edges of your bounce house, there will be a small dip in the inflation where the seam comes together with the sides. Try to balance as many balls as you can along the edges of the bounce house without them falling in towards the center where you are. Once you have them all lined up around the edges, jump one huge jump in the middle and watch them all simultaneously pop towards you! This sounds easier than it is to perfect and may take a few tries to get more and more balls lined up before they fall towards the center.
- Basketball or “horse”- You have probably played some version of this game with your kids before, but playing on a bounce house can make it much more fun and creative! For younger kids, this can be as simple as putting a soft ball (or the plastic balls mentioned above) through some kind of basket, net, or hoop that you have set up at different heights on the bounce house. (Some bounce houses even come with a built-in hoop like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Tikes-Junior-Sports-Bouncer/dp/B00AU0O8TE/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=bounce+house+with+hoop&qid=1564406271&s=gateway&sr=8-5 ) For older kids, it is fun to add a level of competition as each player tries to get the ball into the hoop in a creative way and then challenging the other player to copy their move.
Dance Party! Who doesn’t love a good dance party?! Especially kids that haven’t developed any inhibitions yet! Throw on some tunes and let the bounce house magnify their moves! We rarely need more than music and possibly some kind of costume/dress-up to keep the dancing going at our house but for older kids, try turning on a kids dance show for them to copy while on the bounce house. (There are a lot of free versions of Just Dance for kids on youtube)- Freeze! My kids LOVE the “Freeze game”. You can use a version of the “freeze song” on youtube or just make up your own. The idea of this game is to dance or jump around on the bounce house until you or a designated caller yells out “Freeze!” The players have to freeze in place for as long as possible without falling- this is tricky because the bounce house will still be stabilizing from their bouncing but they have to try to hold still. If this is too easy for older kids- make them freeze on one leg or doing something silly.
- Jump like a…. This game is simple and gets everyone acting silly without any preparation at all! Simply call out “Jump like a…. kangaroo” or “jump like a monkey”. Younger kids love to impersonate anything from an animal to a tree and older kids can jump like a famous singer, actor or family member.
- Jump, Jump, kangaroo! This is a bounce house version of duck, duck goose that is surprisingly fun for older kids too! Have a group of kids sit in a circle inside the bounce house- the number of kids will depend on the size of your bounce house but try to make sure there is room on the outside of the circle for kids to jump around the edges safely. One child starts by walking around the outside of the circle and tapping each player on the head and saying “jump….jump…” until they reach someone who they call a kangaroo and who chases them around the circle. Whoever gets back to the circle in time takes a seat while the other player is now the kangaroo and walks around the outside of the circle picking the next kangaroo. You could also play where everyone’s name is put into a hat and a caller yells out two names who must switch places in the circle. The last person to sit down is the new caller.
Break the Statue- To start this game have one child stand in the middle of the bounce house. The other children jump around the person in the middle and try to get them to break their statue position without touching them. For younger children- instruct the child in the middle to stand in a sturdy position with their legs spread apart, knees slightly bent and arms out for balance. If the child in the middle is older or to make the game more challenging as you go along have the person in the middle stand in more challenging positions. For example, tell an older child to stand in a difficult yoga position or to try balancing on one foot.- Simon Says- There is not much different about this commonly known game- except the fact that it can be so much sillier and more challenging on a bounce house! One person acts as “Simon” who calls out different instructions beginning with “Simon says to…” while the rest of the kids copy exactly what he/she says. The trick is that when “Simon” doesn’t start his instructions with “Simon says to…” then they are not supposed to obey. If they do then that child is eliminated until the last person standing becomes the winner and the next “Simon”.
- Attacking Ball- This is a silly and simple, yet very entertaining game. All you need is some kind of soft ball (or any soft object really) to be placed in the center of the bounce house while the kids jump around on it. The object of the game is to NOT get hit by the ball. Once they are hit with the ball, they are eliminated and the last person standing is the winner. Players can try to jump in a way that makes the ball hit their opponents but they must always be moving to keep the game going. For older kids or to make it more challenging, throw in additional soft balls gradually as they move that must also be avoided
Just like adding soft balls or objects to the bounce house adds many game possibilities, adding balloons, water* or best of all- friends to your bounce house can make it tons more fun! Since not many families own their own bounce house, bounce houses make an exciting addition to any playdate. It is new and fun for them and also great for you because they come with new creativity and game-inventing ideas.
I’m sure this list could go on exponentially but hopefully you found a few ideas that sparked your interest and can keep your kids playing happily for longer. Happy Bouncing!
*For tips on adding water to your bounce house check out THIS article.