DIY Bowling Pins: #CLAugBox

"Play to learn is what's it's all about at this stage, so let the games begin!" 

-Citrus Lane August 2013 Insert

 This month, Citrus Lane included a new trial concept item under the heading of "special activities" in some of the August boxes. They're looking for feedback on whether or not this was appreciated and used and whether or not parents would like to see this sort of item in the future.

•  Do-It-Yourself Bowling Pins - The templates we received in our box were printed on heavy card-stock with letters on one side and numbers on the other. Citrus Lane had a small explanation at the bottom with simple 3 step instructions to create them. You color the pins yourself. I'm going to let K- paint hers since that's what we're into right now and then I'll assemble them. The idea is that you can use them with the ball from this month's box for some good old hallway bowling! Sounds fun, can't wait to see what K- thinks! Personally, I think this idea is a great one, as long as the special activities aren't considered part of the 4 or more items that come in the box each month and aren't necessarily incorporated into the total box retail value. If the activities are bonus items that enhance or build upon the other items in the box than that would be a fantastic addition to the box each month! If it turns out they're really just in the box as filler than I'll be far less impressed and very unlikely to use them.

Painting our Pins

 

 K- is super into paint right now, so we used the good old standard Crayola Washable Watercolors. This was a brand new set and she was so excited to get to use them. K- can name all 8 of the colors and is very decisive about which ones she wants to use. She started with red.

Painting is Serious Business

Testing the Green Paint for Use.

The Two Brush Technique Approach.

After painting the pins we of course had to clean up and we used our new Clean Well wipes from our August box, they worked great to wipe the green paint off her finger quickly and easily. One wipe covered our hands and the table, not bad! Then we had to let the paint dry out.

Once dry, I separated the pins along the perforated lines. Then decided that it made the most sense to tape them together so that we could play with them right away. If I wanted these to last a long time, I would have laminated them. Seeing as I'm currently all out of quick laminating sheets and K- was excited to use them this afternoon, I just left them as they were. If I were still teaching 3 year old kiddos, there is no way these would have gone on the floor without being laminated. As it was we were ready to use them and I just have one kid using them with supervision, so they had to work like this.

Creating a Tab to Easily Attach the Pins Together.

I was a little bummed that there wasn't an easy tab line on the bottom to fold up to either glue or tape these to the other side of the pin and feel like this might have been a bit of an oversight on the part of the activity design, so I just used the bottom of the instructions as an easy line for all our pins and created the tab that I needed to reinforce them at the base. 

Play Time!

We set the pins up in the hallway and used the new ball to try and knock them down. Hooray for hallway bowling! They were definitely a hit!

Getting it all set up.

Successful first bowl!

Missed.

The two hand ball drop.

 Then after bowling we set the pins up like cones and practiced running around and through them and then driving our Green Toys around and through them. I'm sure we'll come up with other innovative uses for them as the week goes on!

Driving Baby Dump Around the Pins... She was careful not to knock them down.

Final Thoughts

If the "special activities" are bonus items that enhance or build upon the other items in the box than that would be a fantastic addition to the box each month! If it turns out they're really just in the box as filler than I'll be far less impressed and very unlikely to use them. I like this idea as long as the "special activities" included are age appropriate and tailored to what's in the box that month. I like that they not only gave us the opportunity to color them, but then we also got to put them to use. I think this is actually helpful and would love to see them include other games, tips and craft activities or suggestions for using the things in the box in the future! Did you get this activity in your Citrus Lane box this month? Did you try it? What did you think?

All thoughts, opinions & photos included here are my own. No compensation was received for this post. If you use my referral links listed (I appreciated it and thank you, if you do!) I may receive some credit toward my own future boxes. I have been a subscriber of Citrus Lane's monthly boxes since June 2012.