Remember the days when going out to play with your neighborhood friends meant going completely off the grid? As long as you were accompanied by trusted friends and go home by dinner time, you were free to roam as far as your little legs could take you. And this helped you learn how to:
Make friends: Sure, kids probably have plenty of opportunity to do this at school, but it's just not the same as socializing at your neighborhood grounds. Now kids are constantly watched by guardians, which kinda interfere with the friend-making process sometimes. Of course in this day and age, it's safety first.

Learn how to assimilate: Kids in the neighborhood are usually of different ages, so it's a good chance to mingle and discover what it's like to interact with someone much older or younger than yourself.

Feel independent: Hovering over your kid is not going to allow them to develop the skills needed to develop into an independent adult. Sure there's always risk involved, but the earlier you teach them to think on their own, the more confidence they will have in making their own decisions.

Explore: When you're small, just visiting your neighborhood best friend down the street can seem like an exciting feat. And if you have a bunch of friends, you would get on your bikes to go on all sorts of adventures - even if involves riding to a spot 100 meters away.

Use your imagination: A child's imagination is one of the most amazing things in the world. A box was never just a box. It was a fort, a castle, or secret hideout. And a playground was the ultimate place to act out all these elaborate fantasies.
Unfortunately, children of today seem more content staying home in the comfort of the television, video games and mobile devices. Some studies claim that this sedentary lifestyle might be the reason behind the rising childhood obesity epidemic. And we don't blame them.

Then again, reports about random kidnappings certainly don't help parents feel safe about letting their kids run loose outdoors. We totally understand that.

This list of games is a tribute to all the stuff kids of tomorrow might miss out on, if we don't teach them to pass the game on to friends they meet.



Rock, Paper, Scissors: Paper traps rock, rock breaks scissors, and scissors cuts paper. No kid can say they had a complete childhood without at least knowing how to play this game, which was the ultimate way of making decisions on who wins.


Hide and Seek: There are a few variations to this game, but it usually involves counting to twenty while everyone else tries to find a hiding spot. You could always wait to be found, or designate a home base to run to be “safe.”


Hopscotch: Who knew a bunch of boxes drawn on the ground could be so much fun? The point was to toss a small object (stone, bottle cap) inside the square without touching the border or bouncing out before retrieving it by "hopping" on one leg. If you failed, you lose your turn and the next person gets to play.


Tag: WE LOVE TAG! This game usually involves two teams of at least 3 kids each. One team would be the runner and the other as tagger. The object of the game is to get through the lines controlled by the opposition know as taggers. The number of runners able to get across the line to the other team's turf without being tagged is the winner. Another variation is one person is selected as the tagger, while the others run to freedom. If a runner gets tapped (or, tagged) by the tagger, it becomes that person's turn to be the tagger. And it can go on, and on, and on.


Blind man's Bluff: Similar to tag, except that the person who is "It" will have their eyes covered. Any person they touch or tag then becomes the next blind man. Obviously, not recommend to be played in an area full of dangerous obstacles (roads, pool, etc) to avoid tripping over or hitting something. That would really, really hurt.


"Eagle (or wolf) catch Chicken": Kids are assigned to play the role of the eagle or wolf (different variation), hen and chicks. The hen must protect the chicks who will line up behind the hen and follow closely whenever the hen goes. The eagle's job is to tag a chick who couldn't follow closely behind. Once caught, the chick will play the role of the next eagle.


Gasing: Spinning tops to balance on a point while spinning on an axis takes serious skill. You could either do this by twirling the stem using your fingers or whipping the top by tying it with a small rope or string. The goal back then was to hit the other opponents top, sometimes to the point of breaking it. Or you could just spin it to see whose top lasts the longest.


Batu Seremban: Another great game that requires some hand-eye coordination. Played by two or more people, this involves trying to pick up pieces of small stuffed cloth sachets while simultaneously tossing one in the air, and catching them all at the same time. And you usually had to this using just one hand.


Lompat Tali: This game involves creating a giant chain rope (about 8-feet long) by looping rubber bands together before tying the ends to secure it. Two children will be assigned to hold the ends (or just tie one on a pole if there aren't enough players) while each player takes turns jumping over the rubber band loop. With each round, the height of the band will be raised higher.


Chinese Jump Rope: Another variation of lompat tali, kids had to follow a sequence by jumping in a square. Each round passed would increase the height of the square.


Spider wrestling: Way before WWE, kids would actually spend hours outdoors trying to catch “leopard tiger” spiders and train them to become warriors. Two spiders will then be put on opposite ends of a stick which is tilted back and forth until both spiders meet at the center, and the one that falls off the stick loses the game.


Bottle caps: Fun games that involved collecting caps from used glass bottles. The clips above show the types of games that can be played using bottle caps.


Marbles: Usually made of glass or clay, these balls vary in sizes and colors. There are many different games that can be played which usually involve taking turns to knock other players' marbles out of a ring/area.


Congkak: A traditional game involving a board with fourteen holes in two sets of seven, with an additional bigger hole for each player to store marbles. Seven seeds (or marbles) are placed in each hole except for the players' stores. The objective of the game is to capture more seeds than one's opponent.