Every week we are greeted with yet another newspaper article about how children today are in danger of morphing into the sofa. That the amount of time spent outside has decreased by a hundred percent since 1950 and we are raising a generation of soft, mole-like offspring. 

These articles don’t help with general parental anxiety. We all would love our children to be able to roam free from dawn to dusk in dappled glades returning home invigorated from damming streams. But we are entirely aware that it’s not going to happen in Shepherd’s Bush and Islington.
There is a way though to maximise the time children want to stay outside. Whether it’s in the park or in a garden, it just takes a little bit of groundwork.

Getting started
Get rid of all books on ‘how to build a tree house/rocket/small chalet in the garden’. They will only demoralise you and have you reaching for the Party Rings. Especially if you’re expecting a father to get involved. Just remember that it has taken your other half over a year to mend the broken hinge on the garden shed. They are not going to suddenly leap out of bed on a Sunday morning, disassemble an old pram and start building a go-cart.

Old-fashioned games
Teach your children a few old fashioned games like the sort of ones you played at school. All the rules are on a great website called  c playgroundfun.org.uk  but here are some trips down memory lane.

Elastics or French skipping  
Remember ‘Jingle jangle centre spangle jingle jangle out’? The joy of hopping in and out of a parallel line of elastic? Get down to John Lewis haberdashery, set your children up and sit by smugly as they exercise energetically without your involvement.

Hopscotch
Be brave and draw a course outside your front door. I guarantee in seconds old ladies passing by will be wiping their eyes and remembering the Blitz as children queue up to play.

Sevens
Think Steve McQueen in ‘The Great Escape’ bouncing his ball against his prison wall: seven clean catches against a wall, six with one drop on the ground, five turning around before you catch the ball etc. If you drop the ball you have to start again.

Bringing inside out
Putting on a pantomime
Bring out as many dressing up outfits as you have. Tell kids to keep all plot lines very basic. Someone has to get killed (gently) and someone has to do pantomime running away. Love scenes are to be avoided if you don’t want small boys making vomiting noises. Lots of props needed and stage makeup (left over Halloween face paints?).

Potion Making
Collect some water bottles and sticky labels and see what the kids can collect in the garden. A few twigs, an old leaf and a worm can be recast as ‘flying potion’ with the odd incantation. Remind them that the best magic potions are simply wafted under someone’s nose or dabbed on their wrists NOT drunk.

Dolls’ Tea Parties
For the younger audience. If at all possible buy a really cheap china set as
that ‘clink’ is so much more satisfying.

Robin Hood
Every child likes to feel like an outlaw and building dens and making bows and arrows fulfils that fundamental ‘wild’ gene.

Den Making
This may take a little longer to set up but once it’s there you can retire to a sunny patch with a cold glass of rosé. Take three bamboo canes (you can never have too many of them they fulfil so many functions) and bind their tops to make a tripod. Then fill in the sides by weaving in long
strips of willow, trailing ivy or honeysuckle. Buy some old cushions from a charity shop (nylon works well here  - if you leave it out in the rain it doesn’t matter) and put a blanket inside.

Bows and Arrows
Here you need a long stick and some garden twine. Tie the garden twine firmly onto the stick at top and bottom and, hey presto, you’ve got a Boy’s Own weapon. Break some short lengths of bamboo for arrows and make a small slit at one end for the twine to sit in. It’s never going to bring down the Sheriff of Nottingham but it will (after a bit of practice) knock a can off the garden wall.

Catapult
Every time you go for a walk, train your children to look out for Y-shaped sticks. This is half the fun of the perfect catapult. Back to John Lewis for that knicker elastic and you’re there. Some people like to add a small cup-like shape made of cardboard to thread along the elastic but it’s not strictly necessary. Remember to remind your children that you’re going to have the same neighbours for a long time so firing at their cat is NOT a good idea.

Tree platform
It’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to put a platform around a tree than a full-blown tree house. You may need to call in a carpenter at this stage if you’re nervous about your construction skills. Ask them to build a platform about 5 feet up around the whole tree with six supporting posts. They can shape it according to the tree. This is high enough for a bit of jeopardy but not so high it needs a fence. You can then hang some rope higher up the tree to swing off, hook a slide to it or, if your garden’s big enough, a zip wire to another tree. The underneath of the platform can be turned into a hideaway by draping a few blankets off the side.

Get Competitive
Mini Olympics
You need a bit more space here but buy a stopwatch and children can compete individually. Some events like ‘how long you can hop for’ may never be seen in London 2012 but you can still include heats,  an over anxious coach, a flag to run around with and a podium for the awards ceremony.

Horse-riding
Set up a course of showjumps with bamboos between chairs as obstacles. Use a skipping rope as reins (round the back of the neck and under arms is most effective I’ve found) which are then held by ‘a rider’. You need someone to make a claxon sound to start and at least one horse to refuse at the water jump (the paddling pool).

The Ashes
Obviously you’ve not got the Oval but French cricket can be played in a tiny space. The idea being to hit the person holding the bat on the legs. They can’t move from the spot they started on and
you have to throw the ball from where it’s landed.

Worm Racing
Draw a big circle of chalk. Let everyone dig up a worm. Place the worms in the centre of the circle and whichever one crawls out first, then its owner is the winner. Can also be done with a bigger circle and crawling toddlers.

Know when you are beaten!
Finally, know when to admit defeat. If it’s pouring with rain outside and everyone’s getting tired and grumpy – put on the DVD, light the fire (using the newspaper with the latest ‘child expert’ report) and crack open the marshmallows. I bet they’d have done the same in the 1950s if they could have.