My kids love to play in the water. They
love to swim and they love to run through the sprinkler. I have been toying
with the idea of a water slide for a while now and am still unsure if it is a
good idea for my boys… I will have to give that particular summer activity some
more thought. Another summer water activity that I have been on the fence about
is water fights. I worried that the boys would hurt each other throwing water
balloons and so I looked for alternative materials to use for this activity and
came across the idea of the sponge ball.
What you need:
Sponges {I bought the three packs from the
dollar store}
Hair Bands
Scissors
Bucket
Water
How to Make It:
Take the sponges and cut them length-wise
into 3 strips.
Create a 3x3 cube of cut strips
Tie a hair band around the center of the
sponges.
Pouf out the ends.
Toss in a bucket of water and let the games
begin!
Tutorial adapted from Martha Stewart
I was worried that my oldest would be pelting
these at my youngest, but they both did a really great job of tossing the sponge
balls at each other without being too aggressive. While my oldest thought that
throwing these at mom with as much force as possible was hilarious – I have to
say that it did not hurt a bit. Because they are made of sponges they are soft
and do not hurt on contact.
This was the most fun I have ever had in a
water fight. The boys and I spent well over an hour just tossing these sponge
balls at each other, running around the backyard, and refilling our buckets
with cold water. They giggled like mad when they “caught” mom and I laughed
just as hard when I missed them. They are after all very quick moving kids.
I was a big fan of the amound of water these
sponges held and the fact that there was virtually no clean up needed once we
were done playing. I had not bits and pieces of balloon to pick up from the
yard. The prep work to make these was simple too {say goodbye to pinched
fingers from trying to tie balloons and accidental soakings from accidentally
burst balloons}.
I bought four packages of sponges and made
four sponge balls. I can see that this was not nearly enough for the serious
water fighting that my oldest had in mind. I will be heading back out to the
store soon to purchase more sponges and make more of these sponge balls so that
we are fully stocked up for a summer of water fighting fun.
Do you participate in water fights with the kids?