Family Bowling

Have fun burning off energy and learning about physics with this simple and earth-friendly family bowling game. We have had a cooler than normal summer in the Pacific North West, unfortunately, my kids don’t have lower than average energy. Sometimes getting out of the house isn’t an option but you can still have fun and burn some energy without trashing your house. I love making things with family pictures but you could easily number the pins, label them with shapes or letters too.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some paper towel rolls ( toilet paper will work but don’t topple over as easily. I highly suggest paper towel rolls), pictures of your family printed out on regular printer paper, tape, scissors, and a ball.
2. Print out pictures of your family.  You will want pictures that are vertical .
3. Tape and roll.
4. And tape again.
5. Make as many or as few as you want. We didn’t play by real bowling rules , instead we just tried to knock as many down as possible.
6. Then we set the pins up in a different formation to see if that would help knock more down . In all we tried 4 different set ups, I was just looking to have fun and play and we ended up with a physics lesson! See learning through play people!!
7. After we were done my daughter enjoyed talking to the pins while I cooked dinner.  So the family bowling game was a win with both kids. Perfect!

Books About Family

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton. This author is a preschool parents dream, short and easy to read melodic books with illustrations to die for. The story is simply a little love song about all the ways the dog loves the puppy, simple and touching. As an educator something I love is that the dogs don’t have an obvious race, they don’t even have an obvious gender which is perfect. Regardless of who loves who in your family your child can see you in the dog and themselves in the puppy! I think that is the perfect valentine! My son didn’t warm up to this book right away, but now not only does he love it he is very very specific that only I can read it to him. It’s become a big favorite in our house.

Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas: Not Mommies and Daddies by Gayle Byrne is a wonderful book about grandparents who are raising their granddaughter.  There is no long drawn out explanation about where her parents are, or what led to her grandparents having custody and I don’t think there needs to be. They are her parents, love her, snuggle her, read with her, and love her just like any parents.  She does wonder about her parents and shows signs of feeling different but the security and love her grandparents provide overcome those insecurities. The author’s note at the back of the book explains that she herself is raising her grandchild and offers more resources for grandparents who are primary caregivers as well.

Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler had my son clapping and be-bopping in his jammies before bed. This book is so fun to read, the musical words are impossible not to dance to. My son loves jazz, and his only disappointment was that there were no trumpets in the book. He didn’t understand that the family in the book, which included grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were listening to a record. I tried to tell him it was like a cd but the illustration was clearly a record player and he wasn’t buying it. Still, we loved this book, the family was loving and I loved that the older brother was holding the baby, not common in kids’ books to see a boy holding a baby. Great book even without a trumpet.