A lockdown can be a real bummer, especially when it’s been an extended period and you are starting to feel antsy. That can even be an even more challenging time when there are kids involved. Eventually, screen time is no longer that stimulating or even healthy to be overexposed to, so it comes down to finding new ways to feel engaged and creative at home. Thankfully, a little DIY magic can go a long way, and from prep to using the things you’ve put together, it can take up the time in an exciting way. These projects can be done or more intricately depending on how much time and resources you want to put in, and they are not restricted to kids’ play either.
Image by J Garget
While you can always create a makeshift pole, this will be much easier and more intensive if you can use one of the fishing rods you may already have at home. If you want to up the ante, use ShimanoStradicspinning reels so that you can reel in bigger or heavier things from higher places. That works perfectly if you have a balcony or a lawn you can play around in.
All you need for this is some magnets that would replace the “hook” end and serve as the “fish.” You can craft some fake fishes and stick the magnet disks onto them so you can pretty much simulate some fun fishing adventures without the need for actual fish or a body of water. If you don’t have magnets lying around, you could also opt for some felt to hook onto, though this would prove a bit more challenging to fish.
If you enjoy playing Twister but don’t exactly have the actual game on-hand, you need to have some different colored paints or some art paper. You can then get any plain old cloth lying around or stick together a bond paper to form a bigger canvas and start creating those colored circles. That may take just a bit of time but is relatively simple in itself. What may take more effort is making the board that determines where your feet and hands go.
For that board, you’ll want to use a smaller sheet or an illustration board if you have it. Simply write the designations on each corner of the board (“right foot,” “left foot,” “left hand,” and “right hand”). Punch a hole in the middle and attach a spinner using a plastic spoon, old clock hand, or whatever you have lying around, then draw or paint some colored circles corresponding to your larger cloth. From there, you’ve got your DIY Twister game!
There are various ways to make a ring toss game, and this is a challenging enough activity to while away some hours. You can go for a more intensive build with a fruit crate and some jute rope to create rings, but you can even go simpler. As long as you’ve got some bottles lying around and you can lay them out on a surface, you’ve got yourself the stands that will lay down the game.
For rings, you can use rubber bands, bracelets, or anything you feel comfortable enough throwing on glass bottles with enough heft but not too much weight that it might break things. You can also consider using plastic bottles if that’s on hand, as it could be a safer alternative around kids. To weigh it down, fill the bottles with water.
This one is the most intricate of all the DIY projects on this list, but it’s also the one where you have the most flexibility. The final product will rely on your own ingenuity and imagination. Of course, it can take much preparation, timing, and calculation, with some trial and error to boot, but the outcome can be a satisfying thing that you can share online with friends and family. The great thing about it is that you are not confined to any rules and that you can use up your items and space in whatever way you want.
If you’re not confident about starting from scratch, you can check out some basic designs and guidelines to start with. That should get things off and run with just some select pieces that are likely to be in your house without much thought, but results in a creative and fun-to-watch final machine that will only take a few hours to complete.
Boredom can be one of the most pervasive annoyances that can ruin the whole mood for the day, no matter what age you are. With just some time and effort into these DIYs, though, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.
