5 Summer Relay Activities to Try with the Family
Looking for some more fun family activities? Relays are a summertime tradition that encourages summertime fitness and building relationships through cooperation and teamwork. Here are some fun summer relay activities that the whole family will enjoy:
Sponge Race
Beat the heat with this water-filled relay while getting in some cardio! Set up a playing field and split into two teams. Then, fill two buckets with water for each team and place them at the finish line. Give the teams an empty bucket and a big sponge and have them line up behind the starting line.
Then, when the signal is given, players have to run down to the finish line, fill their sponge up with water, and run back to empty it in their empty bucket. Afterwards, the sponge is handed off to the next teammate. The first team to fill their bucket wins.
Wheel Barrow
This classic relay activity is fun for the whole family and will help build up everyone’s upper body strength. Splitting into teams of two, one teammate will get down on all fours and their teammate will carefully lift up their legs while they support themselves on their hands. The first team to reach the finish line wins.
Remember to stress the importance of listening to your partner—especially if the person playing the wheelbarrow cannot keep up with how fast their partner behind them is moving. Not communicating could lead to accidental falls.
On a Roll
This relay race is a fun family activity that promotes learning how to following directions and cardio exercises. To begin On a Roll, mark out a playing field with a start and finish line and get four dice, two for each team. Each roll of the dice determines how many steps a player need to take, while the other determines what step they will take. The first team to cross the finish line wins.
You can change the steps of each die roll to make it unique to your family, but generally, the rolls are:
- 1: Take a giant step
- 2: Leap forward
- 3: Twirl
- 4: Hop
- 5: Jumping jack steps
- 6: Take steps backwards
Egg Toss
Another classic relay game, the egg toss helps improve hand eye coordination by having players make sure that they don’t drop and break their egg. All you need for this game are raw eggs, and it’s a good idea to have your family wear old clothes so nothing gets ruined. Split into teams of two and stand close together. Then, the egg is tossed from one teammate to the next. Each time the egg is caught, have the players take a step back to make it extra challenging. The first team to crack their egg loses.