Episode Seventeen: Painters Tape Target Practice

There have been a lot of rainy day activities trialled in our house lately. I'm very much looking forward to Summer and being able to get out and play around with some of the outdoor ideas I've got stocked up. In the meantime, here is an idea that is the perfect rainy day distraction.

All you need for this idea is painters tape and a newspaper. Seriously.

Stick the painters tape across a doorway in a criss-cross fashion and get your kids to thrown scrunched up balls of paper at it. I found this idea online and I thought it was so simple that it had to be tried. In the original idea, the aim of the game seemed to be getting the paper balls to stick to the tape. Instead of using a door way I used a clothing rack I happened to have lying around and it worked a treat.

I thought an interesting variation of the idea would be to make a 'hole' and make that the goal. So, five points were given if you could get the ball through the goal and, after realising how hard it is to get the balls to stick to the tape, 3 points were given for that feat. This point system may work well when you have children of different age groups. Littlies may find it hard to score a goal. My middle boy got it first go but then struggled for a while after that.

I have to say, I was pretty surprised how long the boys stayed interested in an activity so simple. It is a great idea for hand-eye coordination, for aim and friendly competition. We played this for about 45 minutes. A few hours later we had a visit from the grandparents and they dragged the stand out and started up another game with their Koro, with no real prompting from me. I was stoked.

It really goes to show, organising activities don't necessarily have to be big productions. Just a simple $2.00 roll of painters tape can be all it takes to engage with your children and keep them giggling while the rain comes down.

Have fun!