I was looking for something to do with my kids to keep them busy indoors due to the rainy and muddy conditions over the last few days. Last night, we got over 4 inches of rain alone! I am only aware of that because my oldest is working on his weather merit badge for Boy Scouts and has a handmade rain gauge outside. I had seen this in a Family Fun magazine and thought it was such a great and frugal idea.
I grabbed a pool noodle from our pool stuff (which originally only cost me $1 at the Dollar Tree) and basically butterflied (cut it in half without going all the way through) it with a serrated knife.
First, I cut through the first layer, then I held it flat with my hand and cut ALMOST, but not COMPLETELY through the second layer.
I flipped the noodle over, pushed it flat on the ground, and used packaging tape to hold it in place.
We added some signs and racing flags that we cut out and taped to toothpicks and leaned the marble race track against our coffee table... We grabbed our marbles and were ready to race!!
After some runaway marbles, I decided to place a baking sheet at the end of the track to help catch them.
My kids raced over and over! We got hours of play out of this at our playdate today too! It really came in handy since the kids could not play outside like they wanted to due to the rain and mud. The kids had so much fun and I believe I finally retrieved all of the marbles they had!
**Another fun idea-- Tape 2 race tracks side by side to accommodate more racers!
