Soccer is sometimes played in fall and sometimes in spring. Here’s a good way for kids to get exercise when playing by themselves, and also hone their soccer skills at the same time. Croquet [kro–‘kay] is a very old game, wherein players hit their wooden balls through a series of metal arches with wooden mallets, until they manage to make their balls strike the stick at the end of the course. By combining the kicking of a ball as in soccer and the arches of croquet, a player can practice soccer skills all alone, and have fun doing it.

All you need is four sturdy, standard-sized metal clothes hangers, a strong wire cutter, needle-nose pliers for bending the wire (optional), some bright spray paint, and a soccer ball or comparable playground ball. Most people have a few metal hangers from dry cleaning. If you don’t, maybe a friend, relative, or neighbor has a few they don’t need. Make sure your arches and your ball are the right size to allow the ball to pass under the arches when they are planted in the ground. Bright spray paint that contrasts to the grass is best. As you can see, yellow paint isn’t the best contrast if your grass is dried.

To play this game, the player can start at one end, kicking the ball through each successive arch. After making a “goal” through the last arch at the other end, they can start over from the other end and go back the other direction. For variety, you could change the positions and/or angles of the two inner arches. You could also time the amount of time it takes the child to make a goal on the other end, and let them see if they could beat their time. There could be a reward after a certain number of goals are accomplished, if you choose.