Bowling for Pop

Kids love bowling but sometimes struggle with the heavy balls and the precision required to succeed. Give kids the home advantage with a large-scale bowling alley in your own home or yard. Create pins from half-filled two liter pop bottles. Arrange them at the end of hte alley and roll a large ball, such as a playground ball or basketball, toward the pins.

You can label each pin wtih a point value and keep score to complicate the game for older players.

Chasing Tails

At least three kid are required to play this game.

Have the kids line up and place their hands on the shoulders of the kid ahead of them to form a snake. The kid in the front is the head. The last child is the tail. On the signal, the head chases the tail. All of the kids have to stay connected. If anyone loses their hold on the person ahead, they round is over. The head becomes the tail, and it all starts over.

Giving the child in the middle a whistle to blow for the signal helps the children in the middle have an important role as they wait to be the head.

Tie Dye Fashion

Kids love making tie dye and the possibilities are endless! Make tie dye shirts. pants, purses, pillowcases, sheets, belts, headbands, socks, bandanas, table clothes, underwear, or anything else. Simply mix the dye, wrap rubber bands around the fabric and dip it in the dye. If you can wrap a rubber band around it, you can tie dye it.

Instead of buying new clothes to dye, consider dying clothes that are already stained or discolored in some way.

Bubbles Everywhere

Pour 8 cups water, 2 cups dish soap and a half cup of corn syrup into a clean gallon container. Let the children add a few drops of food coloring and shake the container vigorously. Children may enjoy rolling or tossing the container back and forth to mix the solution. When it is completely mixed, pour the mixture into a bowl and give children different objects, like cookie cutters, to blow bubbles with.

Balloon Darts

Treat the kids to an indoor or outdoor carnival game. Build an easy carnival-style balloon booth by taping or tacking balloons to a large poster board. Place the board against a wall. Gather the kids and let them throw darts at the balloons. Older children can build skill with balloon challenges, such as popping only blue balloons or popping an X pattern.

Multiple balloon boards can be prepared in advance for extended play.

PVC Football Goal

Kids and adults can work together to build a football goal out of PVC pipe. The construction requires one 5 foot PVC pipe, two 2.5 foot PVC pipes, two 2 foot pipes, a T connector and two 90 degree elbow connectors. Start by digging a hole and inserting the five foot pole into the ground. Place the T connector on top of the pole so that the other openings are parralel to the ground. Place a two and a half foot pole in each opening. Put an elbow connector on the ends, curved upward. Insert the remaining pipes in the upward openings.

Pasta Toes

Set up beforehand by cooking pasta and dividing it into bowls in equal portions. Mix marbles into each portion. Place a bowl in front of each seat. Placing a tarp or sheet on the floor underneath the bowls will make the clean up easier.

Gather the kids and get ready to play! Each kid sits in a chair and must retrieve the marbles with their toes. Kids will enjoy the messy, squishy feeling.

Handicap skilled players with extra marbles or pasta to make marble hunting harder. New or young players can be given less pasta to make it easier.