We're (my wife and 3 boys) are fortunate to live in a neighborhood where all the neighbors are close. They seldom venture outside (in good weather) before one of the neighbor kids joins up to play with them. It's fun watching them 'invent' games. While they are also involved in structured sports (soccer, football, swimming), they don't require structure, they create their own as well.

We grew up playing impromptu games since organized games were not so organized during our time (The 60's).

There is a resurgence of the spontaneity of impromptu games in our neighborhood primarily football(our nations favorite pasttime!)
I don't want to take all the credit (I'll leave some for the other fathers in our neighborhood too.)
I remember saying to my son "hey lets get the guys together for some football" . It was a new concept for my son and his friends that stuck with them.
From that time forward the guys play football in the back yard and enjoy some great times together while getting some much needed exercise!

I agree. every thing is so organized now that kids have a hard time starting things on their own. We use to play outside all the time. There were no computer games or color tv at our house. We played stick ball, wiffle ball, kickball and kick the can and even tackle football. Another game we played a lot was STEP BALL (baseball rules): 2 or more players. For all of you that have a curb or steps in front of your house, you only need a good tennis ball with some bounce still left in it. The object is to score runs by tossing the ball against the edge of the curb or step and bounce the ball to the other side of the street. Our rules were a single if it made the curb on the other side of the street, double if it made it in the air, triple if it went passed a tree across the street in the air and in the garden was a homerun. You can set up your own distances for hits. If you have many players then you can run after you throw the ball! Have fun.

great idea. street hocke y is it game with small ball? during summer we play it with smal ball....

I introduced our kids to kick-the-can a couple summers ago and they were fascinated! The played it alot and still do occasionally.

We didn't have video games and the internet. They seem to have a whole lot more homework, too. It's probably good that we have the organized sports to pull them away from the rest. I think we had it better - playing street hockey and kickball with less home work and less time in front of a screen...