Rainy Day Fun...Balloon Baseball

It's pouring buckets of rain today. It's finally feeling like Spring outside but we are stuck inside. Boredom was sneaking up on my kids and they were beginning to ask for the TV to be turned on. I said, "I have a better idea".

I happened to save a couple of cardboard paper towel tubes (for a rainy day activity) so that we could make telescopes. I gave my kids some markers and told them to decorate their telescopes. After spending awhile decorating, they were finished and ready for their next adventure. The telescopes were fun for a few minutes but quickly turned into swords and my couch pillows became shields. It was a creative use for the tubes but I wasn't sure that I really wanted to encourage that game for very long so I suggested an alternative that was an instant hit.

I blew up a balloon (I always seem to have a bag of balloons on hand) and showed my girls how to play balloon baseball in the living room. They loved it! I probably should mention that although they played very nicely and had a lot of fun, after awhile, they became weary of sharing one balloon (a natural and frequent occurrence with preschoolers ;-)) I blew up a second balloon so they could just hit it around with their "bat" on their own. I didn't have to worry about the "ball" breaking anything, knocking anything over or anyone getting hurt so that made me happy. It was an easy and fun way to pass about an hour of time.

The next time you finish off a roll of paper towel, save that tube. When you and/or your kids start feeling stir crazy or bored, give this easy project and game a try.