Craft/game: Indoor Tennis!

As the weather is starting to get colder, we need to have physical activities inside for our children. 

Indoor tennis is so much fun for  "children" of all ages. I put quotes around children because even I like to get in on this game! Here is what you will need:

• A wooden ruler for each person (I got mine for 50 cents at target)
• acrylic paint and brushes
• paper plates, if a special holiday is coming up use that theme.
• knife or sharp  pair of scissors
• clear packing tape

First thing I did was give each child their ruler to paint the way they like it. 

 Here is a close up shot of my daughters ruler. Then I let them fully dry.

 This next step will most likely will be done by an adult. I used a knife to cut two lines in the middle of a paper plate. About and inch apart and as long as your ruler.

 Then you weave your ruler through your lines and tape it in place. I taped the back and the front sides.

 Here is our finished product. These are the paper plate paddles for the game. We also taped the ruler a little, where you would be holding it but you don't have to do this. Since it's Halloween time, we used halloween paper plates. Get thanksgiving plates and play with your family after dinner to burn off some extra calories or get christmas plates and pull them out when the kids have nothing to do on that long break from school!

Now all you have to do is blow up some balloons and use those as your balls. If you have little ones, I would blow up a balloon for each child and let them try on their own to keep it off the ground. With school age children you can have them play a game and hit it back and fourth to each other over a line on the ground or a piece of furniture. The video below is me and my son playing a short game!