For us who live in the colder climates, winter can tend to get long and children tend to get antsy since they can’t get outside and burn off excess energy. How about some different types of bowling? It is a whole lot cheaper than going to the bowling alley and you don’t have to wear those [ugly] bowling shoes!

Indoor Bowling You can create your own bowling pins by using 10 empty  2 liter plastic bottles. Set the empty bottles up in a V shape where the first row has one pin, the second row has 2 pins, the third row has 3 pins, and the back row has 4 pins. You can set the pins on a mat if you’d like to minimize the pins flying everywhere. Use a tennis ball with each player, having two attempts for each of their turns to knock down all ten pins. Children should be 15 feet away, but you can shorten the distance if you do not have the space or you have younger players. Each player gets 5 turns. The one who knocks down the most pins after 5 rounds is the winner.

Table Bowling Use paper cups and arrange with the drinking side up. (The table should be at least 4 feet long.) Have children stand facing the bowling pin configuration. Use a tennis ball to roll and either knock the down “pins” or completely knock them off the table. The first one to reach 50 points wins.

Wii Bowling Tournament We had a bowling tournament a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I found a bowling tournament template on the internet that was set up for double elimination. Each person had to lose two games to be “out”. I went to the thrift store and found a ceramic gold star so the winner got to sign his name with permanent marker on the star. We even had iTunes gift cards for winner and runner-up. That kept everyone excited about winning! Our oldest son was the champion and he strutted around the room showing off his name to everyone as the 2013 Bowling King. We are looking forward to playing next year.

Hope you and your children have a ton of fun!
~Lisa