Remember the good old days of summer vacation? The ones when you woke up each morning, laced up your shoes, and played outside with your friends until the sun set? I consider myself to be one of the lucky kids who grew up in the era right before the invention of the cell phone and tablet stole away the endless hours of playing fun, active games and socializing with your friends. I was also lucky enough to have parents who banned us from playing in the house and watching TV when the sun was shining. As a result, my neighborhood friends and I have many great memories from playing tons of awesome games, none of which involved staring at a screen. Here, I have a list of some of my favorite childhood games, some original and some variations of popular games. I encourage everyone to limit "screen time" and share this list with their children and little siblings so that they can have fun, be active with their friends, and create some life-long memories.

1. "SPUD"

For this game, all you need is a playground ball and a bunch of friends. Each player is assigned a number. Whoever has the ball, who we'll call the "ball thrower," throws it up in the air and yells a number. Whoever has that number must catch the ball while everyone else runs as far as they can. When the player catches the ball, he or she yells "Spud!" and everyone must stop. The player with the ball can take up to three steps and then can thrown the ball to try to hit one of the players (why you use a soft playground ball). If the ball holder hits a player, that player gets a letter. If the ball holder misses the player or the player catches the ball, then the ball holder gets a letter. Whoever gets a letter becomes the next ball thrower. When you get to all four letters in "SPUD," you're out! You play until there is only one player left standing. In retrospect, it's a pretty dumb game, but we had a blast playing it!

2. "Running Bases"

This game was actually passed down to me and my friends from my father and his friends. You set up two bases. Two people play catch between those bases and one person is the base runner. The base runner must lead off and try to steal the base when the ball is thrown. The runner's goal is to steal as many bases as possible before getting thrown out. You can adjust the distance between the bases based on age and skill level.

3. "Base"

This is a variation of the game "tag" and is a great game to play if you have a backyard playhouse with multiple entrances (such as the one pictured below) or if you are at a park with an intricate playground. One person is "it" and the floor of the playhouse is "base." Whoever is "it" counts to thirty while everyone else hides around the yard or playground. The goal of those hiding is to touch "base" with his or her foot before being tagged by whoever is "it." If you're tagged first, then you're "it" the next round. If everyone makes it to base safely without being tagged, then whoever was "it" that round is "it" again the next round.

4. "Flashlight Finder"

This is in many ways an indoor variation of "Base." It is best played somewhere dark like a basement. The way we used to play was whoever was "it" would count to thirty at the top of the basement stairs while everyone else hid. When whoever was "it" finished counting, they would head downstairs to guard a flashlight sitting in the center of the room. The goal of everyone else was to turn on the flashlight and the goal of the "it" person was to tag them before they could. If you were tagged, you were out, but the rest of your team still had a chance to win by one of them safely grabbing the flashlight and turning it on. However, if one players was tagged while holding the flashlight or if all players were tagged before the flashlight was turned on, the whole team lost. We made it more interesting my incorporating tricky moves like distracting the guarder while your teammate grabbed the flashlight or drop kicking the flashlight to your teammate across the room.

5. Nerf Gun Battles

I am not ashamed to admit that I played this game with my neighborhood friends well into my high school years. We create awesome set-ups in our basement, incorporating folding tables set up on their sides as coverage and running around with plastic bin lids as shields. The best part of nerf gun arenas is you can get as creative as you want.

6. "Capture the Ball"

The way we used to play was we split up between the front and back yard. We would hide a baseball somewhere on each side. One person would guard the ball while the other went to find the other team's ball. You could not tag the player unless they were holding the ball and it was legal to throw the ball to your teammate on the other side as long as it never touched the ground. Whoever got the ball back to their side first wins.

7. Backyard Survivor

This was based off the TV show. Basically one person would be in charge of making up random games like races and obstacle courses. The game master can be as creative as they want! The winner or winning team would receive immunity and everyone else was at risk of being voted off. Last one standing wins.

8. Ultimate Frisbee

This is a great sport because all you need to play is a disc. The rules are basically that you can't run with the disc; you advance the disc by passing it to your teammates. If a player catches it in the end-zone, you score. The disc is turned over to the other team if it is dropped or goes out of bounds.

9. Backyard Baseball

Nothing beats the simplified version of America's favorite pastime. Of course, to play baseball in a backyard (and with only two players on each team as we used to play), you have to make some modifications. We used a net as our catcher (if you threw the ball in the net when someone was running home they were out. We also had a pitcher's poison rule (if the pitcher had the ball in the diamond before the runner made it to first, they were out) and we only played to two outs per inning and only a total of three innings. Sometime's we'd also mix it up and have tennis-ball home-run derbies!

10. "Categories"

This one is pretty popular and great if you have access to a pool. One person stands outside the pool and comes up with a category (i.e. Sports). The swimmers inside the pool each have to come up with something from that category (i.e. golf, tennis, baseball, etc.). The person outside the pool turns his or her back to the pool and starts listing off items from his or her category. When a swimmer's item is called, they must try to swim across the pool. If the person outside the pool hears someone splash, they can jump in and tag them before they make it across the pool to win. However, if the person outside the pool turns when no one is going, they are penalized by taking a step farther away from the pool. The objective of the swimmers is to all make it safely across the pool and the objective of the person outside the pool is to tag one of them before they do.

BONUS MATERIAL (play at your own risk)

We also played a few games as kids that I'm a little surprised never landed any of us in the emergency room. Here's a few:

11. Ripstik Battles

I'm sure many of you have heard of the popular 2000s skateboard-scooter hybrid known as the "Ripstik." As if the two-wheeled beast was not a death trap enough in and of itself, we created a game where the objective was to push one another off of our Ripstiks with the goal of being the last player standing. Everyone would ride around the "arena" (the top of our driveway) and you were out if you were either pushed off or if you went out of bounds. Helmets, knee pads, and elbow pads are highly recommended.

12. "Sparkler Race"

This was a Fourth-of-July tradition for me and my neighborhood friends. The game was a relay race in which the first two players on each team would light their sparklers, run around the house, and light the next person's sparkler, who would in turn run around the house. In hindsight, it wasn't very safe but it was tons of fun!