Center Parcs and Tots 100 February challenge

The Tots 100 and Center Parcs blogger challenge has been running for some time – every month there’s a new fun creative challenge for the family to do, with the winning bloggers bagging a family break at the Center Parcs of their choice. Two winners will be chosen in April 2014, two in July 2014, and two in September 2014.

The February challenge is to make an indoor game that the family can play. Over at the Center Parcs page there are tips from their games guru Lisa Brown on making your game – this is my favourite, as I’m a big fan of recycling:

An empty cereal box, once opened up, makes a great surface to draw your board onto. Try adding different textures to the board to give it a 3D feel – you could even make your own Center Parcs game, using bubble wrap to create the iconic dome and painting some cotton wool balls for trees!

I decided to make a portable marble game inspired by those little toys with tiny metal balls – the type you got as freebies with Whizzer & Chips or in Christmas crackers! To make my oversize version – take a sturdy box lid (gift boxes or shoe boxes are perfect) and draw your design inside. I drew monster outlines and then Ryland coloured them in!

Then I carefully used a scalpel to cut out small circles for the monsters’ eyes. These were about 8mm in diameter, smaller than marbles but big enough for marbles to settle in and not roll out straight away.

Then – drop in your marbles! Gently tilt the box until one by one they settle in the eye holes.

This is a little tricky if you’re small, so start with just one marble and build up to the full set of five!

For grown ups, you can time Mummy vs Daddy to see who can get all the balls settled in the shortest time!

This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots 100 February challenge. If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Longleat Forest!