Summer is here which means it’s pool season! On the hunt for the best pool toys for tweens and teens? These are a few of our top picks! Adding to your backyard or looking for a gift idea for teenagers, we’ve got a great list of the best toys for the pool. Time at the pool is a great way to get teenagers away from their video games and off their phones.
When we moved from San Diego to Arizona, I insisted we put in a pool and it was one of the best decisions we made when building our home. Most summer days are over 100 degrees, some even hit 110 or 120. But we don’t want to spend the entire summer indoors. Load up on sunscreen and beach towels, pull out the lounge chairs, and get ready for a summer of fun!
You must also check out our Summer of fun – Outdoor Toy Guide for Tweens and Teens.
With a teenager in the house, it’s a great hangout place for when his friends come over. We’ve hosted many pool parties for the baseball team.
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12+ Pool favorites for the tweens and teens
One: Large blow-up rafts: These aren’t just for little kids – there are so many fun styles adult (or teenager) sized. Not only are they fun, but they add to our pool decor.
A few of our favorites:
- Big Mouth Pineapple Pool float
- Coconut Flamingo Pool Float with sunglasses
- Giant Unicorn Pool Float
- Pizza Pool float
For more floats, check out our Pool Floats for Teenagers roundup
Two: Foam Pool Noodles: noodles are a pool toy essential and these foam pool noodles are supersized.
Three: Nerf Super Soaker: A few water blasters and you’ve got a pool party! Great way to stay cool and some competitive fun!
Four: Poolside Basketball Hoop: swoop! My son and his friends can spend hours shooting hoops in the pool. This is the one we have and it even converts for pool volleyball. This floating basketball hoop looks fun too.
Five: Hydro Football: sports, sports, sports. Hydro footballs are waterproof and perfect for tossing the ball in the pool.
Six: Goggles – kids seem to misplace these all the time so we start with a few fresh pairs every year.
Seven: Ecoxgear Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker: Teens are always playing their music. These Bluetooth speakers are wireless, waterproof, and even float. We use them around the pool and also take them along for kayaking and camping trips. They’re so easy to connect to our phones and stream Spotify (or any music streaming service). We have two for a stereo effect.
Eight: Portable Projector and Outdoor Inflatable movie screen: Not really a toy, but our new favorite things for outdoor entertainment. Portable projector – we can stream from our phones and project to the wall by our pool. Our own ‘dive in movies’. We stream by connecting our Chromecast but you can also connect a laptop with HDMI or AV cables. Set up the movie screen poolside for nighttime movies that you can watch from the pool…kick off the season with Jaws…
Nine: Water Skipping Balls: Toss, skip, throw, these small squishy balls will keep the kids busy in the pool
Ten: Underwater LED Disco Lights: fun disco lights for nighttime swims. Or hang color-changing lights around the pool.
Eleven: Floating Ball Toss: teens always love a competition and bringing it to the pool is always more fun
Twelve: Waterproof playing cards: solitaire, poker, what’s your game?
Thirteen: Wiffle bat and balls: not a traditional pool toy, but has been used many times in our home in the pool.
Fourteen: Emoji Beach balls – a bunch of beach balls makes time in the pool fun – my son and his friends are always creating crazy games with beach balls (they’re teens so that usually means trying to beam each other and tricks like jumping in the pool while catching the ball)
Fifteen: Water bouncing frisbee – balls, footballs and frisbees – you can never have enough for teens to toss skip across the pool.
Hot tip – invest in an air pump because you really don’t want to be blowing up the large pool float with your mouth. Trust me. We used our Advanced Elements pump for our pool floats and also our inflatable kayak.
Need a way to store all those toys?
Besides, lots of time in the pool this summer, are you running out of ideas to keep your teens busy this summer?
- Pool Floats for Teenagers, an Amazon roundup
- 50+ Things for Your Teens To Do This Summer
- Summer of Fun, Outdoor Toy Guide for Tweens and Teens