Skittles, croquet, quoits and hoopla have been uniting children of different ages in British gardens for two centuries, and the reasons they work so well together are now confirmed by developmental science.
The short answer is: several, and more easily than most parents expect. Skittles, garden croquet, quoits and hoopla all emerged or were widely popularised in nineteenth-century Britain, and every one of them shares a quality that makes them forgiving across a three-year age gap. The rules are simple enough to hold in a young child's head, success depends on physical coordination rather than accumulated knowledge, and turns are short enough that neither child waits long. A three-year-old and a six-year-old can set these games up, play them, argue gently about them, and resolve those arguments largely without a grown-up stepping in. That is not a selling point invented by toy companies. It is exactly what the research on mixed-age play predicts.
The key is choosing games where distance, number of pins, or scoring can be quietly adjusted by the children themselves in the moment. When the three-year-old stands closer to the skittle pins, or the six-year-old takes on the role of scorekeeper, neither child has been demoted or promoted by an adult. They have worked it out. That negotiation, frustrating as it sometimes sounds from the kitchen window, is the whole point.
Victorian families were large, gardens were social spaces, and games needed to accommodate a grandmother, a six-year-old and a toddler at the same Sunday afternoon party. The games that survived were the ones elastic enough to manage it. Skittles had been played on British village greens since at least the seventeenth century, but lawn versions with turned wooden pins became popular domestic gifts through the 1800s. Croquet arrived in Ireland in the 1850s and was formalised and sold to the British public by Jaques of London, which established the game's rules and equipment. Quoits, older still, moved from fairground to garden lawn. None of these games requires literacy, a long attention span or an adult mediator. They require only a willing body and a sense of where to throw.
Developmental researchers have been interested in mixed-age play for decades, and their findings are consistent. Lev Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development holds that children learn best when stretched just beyond their current ability by a more capable partner. A six-year-old explaining how to hold a quoit ring is not just being bossy. She is consolidating her own understanding by teaching it, and her younger sibling is learning from someone whose vocabulary and patience is closer to his own than any adult's could be.
What the research tells us
Jaak Panksepp identified play as one of the primary emotional systems in the mammalian brain, arguing that freely chosen, child-directed play activates neural circuits associated with joy, social bonding and self-regulation. Games that children run themselves give those circuits far more exercise than adult-organised activities. Sergio Pellis's work on social play similarly concludes that the negotiations and minor conflicts arising in child-led play are not problems to be prevented but skills being practised.
Kirsten Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff's research on playful learning adds another dimension. Games with simple physical goals and immediate feedback, a pin falls or it does not, a ring lands or it does not, give young children the cause-and-effect clarity that sustains attention and motivation without requiring adult reinforcement at every turn.
Garden skittles requires a child to roll or throw a ball at a set of standing pins. The appeal to a three-year-old is immediate and physical: pins fall over, and falling-over things are delightful. The appeal to a six-year-old is strategic: she can aim, count the pins, and keep score. Both children can play because the game is turn-based, brief, and requires no shared decision-making during the actual throw. When the three-year-old stands two feet from the pins and the six-year-old stands six feet back, no adult has imposed a handicap. The younger child has simply chosen where to stand, which is a freedom Victorian children would have recognised instantly.
A good wooden skittles set will have pins weighted enough to stand upright on grass but light enough to topple satisfyingly. Sets made from turned, dense wood develop a pleasant patina with outdoor use and are far more durable than plastic alternatives.
Browse Jaques of London skittles sets, made to the same exacting standards the company has applied since the Victorian eraCroquet was introduced to British gardens by Jaques of London in 1851. The company codified the rules, made the equipment and sold the game to a public that took to it with remarkable speed. What many parents do not realise is that junior croquet, played on a shortened lawn with lighter mallets, is one of the most naturally inclusive garden games available. A three-year-old can swing a mallet and hit a ball. She may not send it through the hoop on the first attempt, but the attempt itself is satisfying, and the six-year-old can be genuinely useful as a guide without being condescending, because the younger child is doing the hitting.
The asynchronous nature of croquet, with each player taking their own turn, means the two children are rarely in direct competition at the same moment. The game also has a long history of informal rule-bending, with players quietly agreeing to move a ball that has landed in a flower bed or to allow a second attempt. That flexibility is not a corruption of the game. It is how Victorian families played it.
A note on child-led rule-making
Peter Gray, whose research on self-directed play spans several decades, argues that children negotiating the rules of a game, including changing them mid-session, are engaged in some of the most cognitively demanding work available to them. The frustration a six-year-old feels when her younger sibling decides the hoop has moved is not a problem to be solved by parental intervention. It is an exercise in perspective-taking, compromise and emotional regulation, skills no worksheet can teach as efficiently.
Quoits, in its garden form, involves throwing rings over a central pin or post. The rules can be explained in a single sentence, which means a three-year-old can understand them entirely. The physical action, a gentle underarm toss, is within the motor range of most children from around two and a half. The six-year-old can throw from further back, attempt precision, or take on the counting. The younger child throws and retrieves, which is, for a three-year-old, entirely sufficient entertainment. Hoopla, in which rings are tossed over upright pegs, follows the same logic and is equally scalable by distance. Sets with multiple pegs of different heights allow the younger child to aim for the lowest, most forgiving target while the older one attempts the taller pegs.
The material matters more than it might seem. Wooden sets develop character with use, survive a light shower, and can be handed down. They also feel different in a child's hand, weighted and warm, in a way that plastic does not replicate. Jaques of London has been making traditional game sets since 1795, longer than any other games company in the world, and the quality of the turning and finishing on their wooden sets reflects that accumulated knowledge. A well-made skittles set bought now will still be usable when the same children are teenagers, and by their own children after that.
The closer the equipment is to where children play, the more likely they are to use it without prompting. A skittles set stored in a lidded box by the back door is available instantly. A croquet set propped in a corner of the shed is five minutes of adult retrieval away, which is five minutes too long for a three-year-old's attention span. Keeping two or three game sets within independent reach, and letting the children know they may get them out without asking, removes the adult from the loop before the game has even begun. The best garden games for mixed ages are the ones children reach for themselves, disagree about pleasantly, and run entirely on their own terms.
This is one of the most useful conflicts available to both children. Peter Gray's research on self-directed play identifies rule negotiation as a core developmental activity, not a disruption to be prevented. If you feel you must step in, try naming what is happening rather than solving it: "It sounds like you two need to agree on the rule before the next throw." Then leave the immediate vicinity. Children resolve these disputes faster without an audience, and the resolution they reach, however imperfect, belongs to them in a way that an adult-imposed decision never does.
This is a reasonable question, and the answer depends on the finish. Look for sets finished with water-based or food-safe lacquers rather than solvent-based paints. Jaques of London uses child-safe finishes on its wooden sets. The components in skittles and quoits sets are also large enough to pose no choking risk for a three-year-old. If mouthing is a regular behaviour, wipe the pieces down with a damp cloth periodically, just as you would any shared toy. Dense, close-grained wood holds up to moisture and does not splinter under normal play conditions.
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development works in both directions. The six-year-old benefits from being the more capable player, but only if the younger child is genuinely participating. Before intervening, watch for a moment: younger siblings are often more resilient to being directed than their parents fear, and a three-year-old who is losing a game is frequently still having a very good time. If the exclusion is real, the most effective quiet intervention is to give the younger child a specific role the older child cannot perform: holding the score card, retrieving the quoits, deciding where the pins are set. Responsibility, rather than enforced equality, tends to settle the dynamic.
Most Victorian garden games were designed to be scaled. A skittles set for children needs perhaps two metres of clear space. A junior croquet set with two hoops can be played on a lawn no larger than a generous living room. Quoits requires only the space around a single post. If your outdoor space is genuinely small, skittles and quoits are the most naturally compact options. Hard paving works for both, provided the ball or ring is appropriate to the surface. Some sets include a small mat that stabilises the pins on smooth paving. On a patio, the containment of the space can actually help a three-year-old stay engaged, as there is less temptation to wander away mid-game.
Britain's oldest toy maker. Every toy open-ended, wooden, and built for exactly the kind of play the research recommends.