Family Fun at the Beach
A day at the beach is always huge fun for the whole family! If you booked two weeks on Koh Samui and decided to spend every single one of them relaxing on the beach, then your little ones might mess with your plans because they need a little more action!!
Here's how you keep them busy so that everybody gets the holiday he or she wants. Try our amazing sandy game ideas to give your family the best beach days ever.
Funny shadow faces
Enjoy the sun and the shadows it casts. Have everybody in your family draw a funny face in the sand and then take a picture with your shadow heads and the funny faces.
Sandman
Everyone can build a snowman in the middle of winter, so how about a cute little sandman in summer? Use wet sand, small shells or stones and a little stick to make it. You could even make your whole family!
Sand angels
Speaking of snowy things in summer: How about making a snow angel on the beach, or better put, a sand angel. Even the youngest can join this fun activity.
Highest peak and bottomless hole
First round: Every player gets a shovel and 5 minutes time to make the highest peak. The highest one gets 3 points, the second highest 2 and so on.
Second round: Every player has to dig as deep as possible with just the hands in 2 minutes. Who gets 3, 2 and 1 point?
Who wins the game?
Sandy clues
Press some random things into the sand while your kids aren't allowed to look. Use keys, shells, your feet, ice cream sticks or anything you'll find. Then have your kids guess what it was that you used to make the print.
Basic course in architecture!
Show your kids how to build a mighty sandcastle with buckets full of happiness!
Building drip castles competition
A new discovery for me via my own children... a very therapeutic activity for parents and so much fun for the kids. Have a competition in your family: Who can build the highest drip castle?
Tic tac toe
Bring a pastime classic to the beach by simply carving the basic game layout of tic tac toe into wet sand. Use moulds or shells or whatever you can find or carve crosses and circles with the stick. Who has the best strategy to win the game?
Baking competition
Have a taste of your kids' most delicious sand pie or help them with the family recipe for sandy cake with sandy crumbles. Who can make more sandpies in 1 minute?
Stranded mermaid
Look, the little mermaid on the shore! Use stones, shells and seaweed to create a mermaid on the beach.
You could even build a mermaid tail for one of your kids by digging their feet and legs in the sand.
Sand darts
This is a variation of the sponge darts game. Use a stick or your finger to draw big circles into the sand to create your dartboard. Then collect shells of different colours as your arrows and start the game!
Sandy painter
Have your kids draw masterpieces into the sand with a stick or their fingers. You might have the next Picasso in your midst!
Shell hunt
Look for all the different sizes, colours and shapes of sea shells that you can find on the beach. Turn it into a scavenger hunt by asking your kids to search for one shell as big as their hand, a black one, or two that have the exact same size and colour.
Fill the bucket!
If you're playing all these fun games at the beach, don't forget about that huge body of water! This great game (a personal favorite) refreshes and cools down your active kids (or more often the parents)! Two opposing players sit on the beach next to each other, holding a cup or a bucket on their heads. Their teammates run to the ocean, fill a small cup of water and run back to dump it into the bucket. The first team to fill the buckets wins!
Who let the sharks out?
Another great game is "sharks on the beach". Every kid sticks a small towel or ribbon in the back of his swimming pants. All kids run in the aquarium, a big rectangle on the sandy floor, and try to catch the other kids' tails without being caught themselves.
And finally....
And don't forget about the classic group beach games!
Help your kids to make new friends by bringing a ball or frisbee to the beach. You can relax while your little ones tire themselves out by playing soccer, football, volleyball or frisbee with all the other kids on the beach.
Have fun at the beach!