kids activities - The Idea Room

Potato race cars

I just recently spent several hours with some of my very favorite people at a family reunion. I feel like I must mention how lucky I am to belong to such an amazing family. We grew up going on trips to Lake Powell and St. George together every summer. And we just generally have a great time hanging out together.

And even now, as we have all gotten older and had families of our own, we still really enjoy getting together at our annual family reunion. My husband and kids also really enjoy these reunions. I ran my half marathon the morning of the reunion this year and my kids made me promise that we wouldn’t miss the reunion.

We always have a BBQ or some yummy lunch. We also always have a big water fight with the younger kids, while the older folks compete in friendly basketball, horse shoe, and sometimes a volleyball tournament. Most of the time we are able to have the reunion at a great location by a lake which we later get to play in together.

And we always have some other fun activities for the kids to participate in. This year my cousin Angie showed us all how to make a race car out of a potato and arranged for the kids to make some fun Potato Race Cars. Then they raced them down a Pinewood Derby race track.

They are really easy to make.

You will need the following for each Potato Race Car:

Potato
4 Pinewood Derby Car Wheels (can be purchased online or at a local Scouting store)
4 large nails
4 small washers that fit onto your nails
potato/cheese grater
decorations for your cars

You may need to shave your potato so that the wheels fit on nicely and roll without rubbing on the potato. You can also shave some from the bottom of the potato so that it will roll down the track easily.

Stick the nails though the washers and wheels and then stick them into the sides of the potato. Be sure to place them so that the car rides evenly.

Then bling out your car with your favorite accessories. This can be difficult to get it just right…haha! I love how serious she is about getting her car just right. Isn’t she adorable?!

Then when you have all the cars made…line them up and let them go!

We had some great cars. But wouldn’t you know it…one of the youngest competitors won the whole race. And this was his winning Potato Racer!

And this is the grand prize!

Such a fun activity that got all the kids old and young involved. It is similar to a Pinewood Derby activity I shared with you in an older post…Banana Pinewood Derby Cars.

Do you have any fun ideas that your family does to make your family reunions special? I would love to hear your ideas!

pvc sprinkler tutorial

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A few weeks ago I shared with you this PVC Sprinkler that I made as part of the #LowesCreator challenge. I am FINALLY getting around to sharing with you exactly how to make a PVC sprinkler for kids.

This is really a pretty easy and inexpensive project and the kids were all super anxious about helping us build it.

I originally saw the idea in the Family Fun Magazine and decided to design my own version. I wanted one that the kids could run under or ride their bikes and scooters under.

This is the original version that I sketched out. We used the design and then made a few modifications when we actually were building it.

You can make your own version or build ours. You will need the following:

Materials:

1o feet of schedule 40 1/2 inch PVC Sprinkler Pipes

Pipe Cutter

Four 1/2 inch three-way corner joints

Seven 1/2 inch T joints

Three 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows

One 1/2 inch threaded T joint

1/2 inch riser

Full Sprinkler Head

drill and a 1/16 inch drill bit

hose attachment

1/2 inch coupling (one side threaded)

We cut the PVC into 4 foot (top cross pieces) and 5 foot lengths. We drilled holes (with the water running to make sure we didn’t lose too much pressure) along some of the sides and top pipes for a fountain effect. You can always fill the holes with silicone if you get too many or one is out of place. We did a total of about 30 holes.

For the middle cross piece, we cut the four foot section in half and installed the threaded T joint for the sprinkler. For the house attachment, we put it on the bottom, front end.

We did not glue any of the pieces so we could store it easily. Sometimes a connection would come apart from rough usage but it was easily fixed.

The kids have loved the different ways to use this. They have ridden their bikes through it, run under it, and even used a giant sheet of plastic for a slip and slide.

Please let us know what other fun uses you come up with.

August 12, 2012 · Filed under: Kids Tagged with fun kids sprinklers DIY PVC sprinkler, ideas to entertain kids in summer, kids activities, Summer

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

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We made some SUPER easy Sidewalk Chalk Paint the other day when the summer “boredom” hit.

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I have seen this all over the net and we finally got around to making it. We simply took 1/4 cup of cold water and mixed in a 1/4 cup of cornstarch. Then we added a **small** amount of food coloring to give it a little bit of color.

*(Do not add a lot of food coloring…after washing the green paint off the sidewalk, I noticed it left a very light stain behind…so use food coloring at your own risk)!

But other than that…it really entertained the kids for quite a while. We even ended up making another round of paint after they exhausted the first ones.

The paints looked really great when they dried. The cornstarch shows up and the paint has a chalky look to it. We will definitely be doing this again. I also would not recommend using the foam brushes like we did. Next time we will use the cheap paint brushes. The foam brushes were getting pretty ripped up from the rough surface of the cement.

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