Need a quick and inexpensive way to entertain your kids this week? Try making a foil river! It’s so simple and yet your kids will spend hours racing things down the river.
It has been a very hot summer here and I’m starting to run out of ideas for fun ways to entertain my boys and use up some of their extra energy, especially since they are cooped up inside all day. Anything that involves water and being outside is a luxury, so we took advantage of a cooler morning (you know upper 90’s) and played in the water.
How to Make a Foil River
All I had to do to make this is purchase the cheapest roll of foil I could find, (You can determine the length by how long you want it). Then roll it out on your lawn or in the driveway and roll up/scrunch (is that a word?) up the sides so the water won’t get out.
Then turn on the hose and let the fun begin!
We made these little boats using the lids from water bottles, some craft sticks we received from CraftProjectideas.com, and scrap paper for the sails. I glued the sticks into the lid using hot glue. Once that dried, we added the sails with tape.
Even though these boats were fun to sail, my boys had just as much fun racing sticks, grass and leaves down the river.
A couple of tips if you are planning to make your own foil river is make sure you don’t use full force water pressure if you have a lot of pressure. I turned it on full blast at first and the sides of the river couldn’t hold up to it. And, make sure your sails on your boats aren’t too big or they will tip over.
Other than that, this project literally took a couple of minutes to put together and provided hours of fun.
Are you starting to run out of summertime ideas? What is your go-to activity to help keep your kids busy this summer?
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Cute idea!! Is it wrong that my kid would probably just be happy to play with the foil, and not mess with a river? Ha!
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your fun foil river! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/foil-river-with-bottle-cap-boats/
If you have other kid-friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
What a fantastic idea! Pinning it! Looks like great fun!! #outdoorplayparty
I love this idea!! So simple and so much fun. Thanks so much for sharing at the Outdoor Play Party 🙂