Backyard Baseball Fun

It's never too early to instill the love of baseball. For the young preschooler, it's easy to hit the ball from a stand made especially for her from household recyclables. Fill the center of an old tire with cement. Place the handle of a plunger in the cement. Let your child place the ball in the upside-down plunger and hit it with a bat. Use a larger soft ball for the younger set to prevent bumps and bruises. Play some games that reinforce the basics; start with running the bases in order. Have the kids yell the base number when they hit it and just go all the way around.

Another fun game is called bottle catch. Ask an adult to carefully cut off the bottom half of a plastic milk jug (a half-gallon jug will do). Now turn the jug top upside down and hold it in one hand. Toss the ball up in the air. Try to catch it in your bottle catcher. Toss it higher each time. As the ball hits the bottle, bring your hand down gently. If you move the bottle catcher in the same direction that the ball is going, the ball is less likely to bounce out of it. Cut another bottle and have a friend play catch with you. Score one point for each catch you make. Play until someone collects 11 points.