3-pin bowling – a Toddler Trick for indoors

This is a great game for wet days and one that you can generally convince older siblings and adults to join in too.  If you have a hallway this is a perfect game.  If you don’t – create a ‘lane’ with pillows or cushions. You can use more than three pins but it is the minimum to make a wall that is relatively easy to hit.  You will find that many toddlers will have just as much fun righting the ‘pins’ and putting them in a row as they will bowling the balls to hit them.

What you need:

•  - Three(or more) empty large soft drink bottles
• - A length of tape or piece of string to mark the start
• - A tennis ball
• - A hallway or a ‘lane’ created with pillows or cushions either side.

What you do:

1. Put your pins up at one end of the hall or the lane.

2. Mark the starting point with a line of tape on the floor or a piece of string

3. Each player takes a turn bowling the ball from behind the tape/string  to try and hit the ‘pins’.  You may need to help your toddler to get the right action going to bowl the ball forward and to release it along the floor…after a few ‘assists’ they usually get the idea.  Or they may lose interest totally in bowling and get more involved in putting the pins upright once they are bowled.  If you have more than three ‘pins’ try putting them in a ‘v’ formation like you will find in a real bowling alley.  This is a cheap, simple, fun game that will help burn a bit of energy on  wet day.