For an older child, you can play lava tag, where you are immune if you've climbed on top of the play structure's roof/into a free, etc.
Make games up! Write a hopscotch board with letters and race to see how many words you can hop to in a minute! Draw a number line and race to solve equations using different movements (jumping, skipping, running, crab walking, etc).
Other fun ideas:
- Sports! Kids are never too young to learn them, and they promote the kind of vigorous exercise that children (and their parents!) need. As a rule, I keep a general purpose rubber ball, a practice rubber softball, and a bat in the stroller for impromptu park trips. It doesn't matter if they have no ability or are athletic prodigies. Fun is the name of the game. For older children, a few skipping roles of different lengths are, IMO, essential. Compete on broad jumps, pull ups, high jumps, somersaults and kartwheels, etc.
Thanks for some great ideas. I will start bringing more sports equipment when we go to the playground/parks. Nature exploration works only sporadically with DS5, though DD2 could stare at the forest for an hour I think! It is so important to be creative with interactions. Though I agree with another poster that sometimes anything planned (or unplanned), has a low success rate of lasting more than a few minutes.
