Non contact garden games

A nice sitty down one.

You both take your own paper and crayons. Hide your paper from each other and then one of you takes and draws and the other has to follow instructions.

I'm drawing a girl. Shes very tall and she has brown curly hair and brown eyes. She's wearing a red dress etc.

Or a house or an animal. Whatever.

Then you hold them up to see if they are the same or different.

Tossing something (e.g. a small ball, a bean-bag, a small soft toy) into a designated area (e.g. defined by a hoop, or some string, or garden canes, or even onto a piece of fabric, such as a pillow-case) can be fun. If you each had your own "item(s)" to toss, (and everyone fetches their own back) then that shouldn't be a problem. Keeping a score can be fun as well. A four-year old should be able to manage a simple tally sheet, if helped by an older person.

Read or tell a story that has her doing actions.

One day I went to the farm (jump up sing first line of Old Mcdonald) Now every time you say the word farm she has to jump up and sing.

And the first thing I saw was a horse.. (gallop round garden every time you hear horse)

The horse was in a field with some cows (on all fours pretend to eat grass)

Now she has to gallop round and pretend to eat grass one after the other because you said horse and cow.

You get the idea.

Treasure hunt. Wrap about 10 little stones/ pebbles in silver foil and hide them around the garden for her to find.

Depends how well you know the garden but a kind of scavenger hunt?

Have a list of things to find like a rose petal, a feather, a white stone etc

You tell her one, she finds it and holds it up to show you, returns it to where she found it, gets the next one on the list.
You could do hot/cold if she gets a bit frustrated but I'd let her have a good hunt first.
When she's found them all Mum will have a little prize to give her.

You won't have touched anything. I'd do about ten things but it can always be lengthed or shortened.

And a little tip. Don't let the grown ups help. In my experience they can't resist and take over!