Win a Roberts radio and a copy of The Double Dangerous Book for Boys *NOW CLOSED*

I loved doing ballet, with the first time dancing on stage in the local Eistedford when I was 5 years old. However by the time I was old enough to dance on pointe I gave it up as the ballet teacher for the older children was an absolute dragon!

Stamp collecting! My dad was very much into his stamps and recruited me to help sort, catalogue and put in albums. It was our shared hobby, especially on winter evenings and wet weekends. When I think about sitting at the dining table with dad, poring over Stanley Gibbons catalogues, I get a cosy nostalgic feeling. We signed up to monthly “approvals” and I remember the excitement when the envelope arrived and we would spend ages studying and selecting which stamps to buy. Happy days!

Playing in my local woods. They were massive and there was so much to do. Sadly, it's now gone and is a couple of housing estates

It has to be tadpoles! I remember spending hours collecting them, and then watching them develop / grow into frogs in my dolls' pink bath. At about this time, I was also learning how to knit, and knitted a sleeveless pullover for one of the larger frogs - which took my angry father ages to strip off the frog the following day!

I remember chalking the pavement to play hopscotch and also playing twoball against the wall.

Playing the board game Halma with my grandad

My dad ran a building firm, so my play time was spent on building sites, as my dad would buy the land, build the first house to move us into and then go on to build the rest of the houses around us to form a small cul-de-sac.
My older brother and I were intrepid adventurers; we climbed long, long ladders to scale the scaffolding, dug out great big holes in piles of sand, jumped off towering piles of bricks and built our own houses out of whatever we could find.
When I was about 5 (1970!), I was out to play wearing a fetching pair of navy velour short shorts with a matching navy velour long-sleeved turtle neck top, accessorised with wellingtons! I was amusing myself exploring a new site. Suddenly I found myself up to the knees in some very smelly mud! The nasty, cold, stinky, sticky slime stung my bare legs as it slid down into my wellingtons. I couldn't get myself out of the slippery slime! Eventually my brother found me standing there crying, and laughed and laughed as he explained that it wasn't mud, IT WAS POO!! Yes, I'd literally stumbled across a backyard privy!!

Snakes and Ladders - exciting yet frustrating!

I enjoyed board games such as snakes and ladders and Othello. Also card games, patience etc.

playing classic games like monopoly and scrabble, and putting together puzzles

I used to love skipping games played with a long rope held by two people. The one skipping would go on until they tripped, and then it was the next person's turn.

I loved getting a pack lunch and disappearing with friends for the day, cycling round the beautiful countryside. Back in time for tea. We used to go into woods, castles, fields, etc. Climbing trees, building dens or just curling up with a book away from parents. No car horns honking that we were slow, drivers seemed to have a little more patience than now x

Action Man

I used to have fun paddling in my neighbours gold fish pond on hot days when they went to work.

These posts have jogged so many happy memories for me that I am finding it hard to decide which game was my favourite!
I think it would have to be dressing up. We had a basket of old clothes, scarves, hats etc under the bed and my sister and I used to act out stories. When there was a jumble sale at our church we would be given a penny or two to spend on 'new' items for the dressing up basket. As my parents were on the stalls, we hung around until they cleared up at the end and we were often given things for nothing. Such treasure!
When my own DDs were young they also loved dressing up. Each Christmas we would get together with my sister, her husband and their two girls and it became a tradition for the girls to put on a play for us after lunch. They mostly remember it fondly except the youngest, who was usually given a naff part, such as a reindeer or the donkey!

Foraging berries to make our own jams, pies and cakes.

I had the most wonderful Grandma. She had a very long garden with some lovely big trees so my brother and out friends Jojo and Catherine used to build amazing dens out of blankets, string, pegs, sheets and we would make an entrance door with a bell. Grandma used to bring us our lunch (always Shepherd's Pie and home grown beans), she would ring the bell give the pass word and give us our lunch. We read and coloured and played make believe games. I hope my Grand children will have such happy memories of me!

I’ve not read the whole 11 pages of this thread so apologies if this has already been asked but is there a DD book for GIRLS? ?

Lego - I was 6/7 when I got my first lot. From then on, I used to get some more nearly every Saturday when I went downtown with Mum and Gran. I remember there was a circular stand covered in the wee box sets and I would take ages to choose. I played with my Lego until I was 14/15, then not much after that. I went on a berry-picking "holiday" with a school-chum when I was nearly 17 and to my horror, when I got home, my Mum had given all my Lego away! By that time, it filled two wooden tea-chests so I can understand why she wanted rid of it, but at the time I was heart-broken. My own children, much to my dismay, never "got into" Lego, but my oldest g'son did. He's 17 next week and all his Lego is in the loft for future use.

Taught to play chess by my dad at a very early age and we subsequently played as often as we could into adulthood. Good memories.

We used to live in a house that had a clay bank behind. I had great fun making zillions of play crockery items, and sun-baking them.

I used to love French Skipping. Not sure I could do it now though! Also for some unknown reason we used to collect car numbers, I had a book full of them. Why?!

I remember doing a school project about New Zealand with student teachers. We even learned a Maori song which I still remember. For years later I said I was going to emigrate to New Zealand,sadly I never did. I often wonder if these students ever wondered what affect their project had on some of the pupils.

Treasure hunts known as Hare and Hounds where as children we split into 2 groups leaving clues around the village and the following group had to work out clues to next location ! Great free fun.

I loved playing with paper cut-out dolls. I had so many that I had a dedicated drawer for them. As well as the paper outfits that came with them, I used to make other clothes and colour them in.