Five great late-summer games

■ Play Reverse Pickpocket
Who would have thought putting things in people’s pockets could be so much fun? Well, believe me, children find it incredibly entertaining. This one has saved many a parent’s summer holiday sanity. The game is simple: challenge your child to see who can sneak the most items into various family member’s pockets without them noticing. If you’re going to get serious about it, get your child to stick coloured stickers on each item so you know who’s the most successful pocket-pusher.

■ Go tarp surfing in your back garden
If you’ve got some surf- or skate-loving children who are deeply unimpressed with the holidays, kit them out with an old tarpaulin and a skateboard and introduce them to the art of tarp surfing in your back garden. Type “tarp surfing” into YouTube and watch their sneers of derision disappear as the cool dudes of California show how it’s done.

■ Try Shoe Tag

So you’ve worked your way through all the activities in the house and the children are now resorting to feeding the goldfish to the cat. Time to get them stuck into a game of Shoe Tag. The game follows the same rules as a traditional game of Tag, but this time children poke their shoes out of the tops of their waistbands and these act as “lives” that the child who’s It has to snatch away.

■ Who’s the Last Bike Standing?

As there’s only so much cycling up and down the garden path that any child can take, introduce a game for them to play with their wheels of steel. Last Bike Standing needs a minimum of two players and a maximum of as many as you can gather. The aim is to force your opponent to put their feet on the ground by blocking their path. Takes a mastery of bike balancing, with stabilisers being a definite advantage.

■ Tight Squeeze 
If the summer rain
has temporarily called off outdoor play, then this particular game is very amusing to watch. Get children into pairs (it might involve the grown-ups as well if children are a bit thin on the ground), with one person sporting a pair of old tights. The aim of the game is to get the greatest number of items from around the house squeezed into your tights within a set period of time. Small items such as marbles or coins are not allowed.