Good ol' pool noodles

See more pool noodle fun for additional noodle ideas!





















Pool noodles are pretty versatile pieces of foam.  We've used them for baby proofing (in order to achieve a look this snazzy, colored duct tape is a must),

jumping practice

elephant-calling (it makes a funny noise)

jousting, golfing (the noodles are the clubs and our ball pit balls are the golf ball) and we've used them as they were intended - in the pool.  

We've also used them as lacing and stringing practice.  Using cut-up pool noodles to string on a rope is not an original idea and there are many versions of this activity.  For a while now we've had a box of cut-up pool noodles and a rope that we use to string but during a recent play time with our noodle box, we did something new (to us, anyway).  


At first, Mini Me and I were just stringing the noodles and talking about patterns.  Circle, flower, circle, flower or pink, blue, blue, yellow.  

We also made a blue noodle snake and pretended he was slithering around 'eating' pink and yellow flowers.

 Mini Me was kind-of in a mood this day, however.  I knew he wanted to play but he was being a little whiny and weird about it.  You can see his smirk a little in this photo.  

In order to keep the fun going, I grabbed our silly foam monkey hat from a nearby basket and put it upside-down on my face, covering my eyes.  I proceeded to very dramatically narrate what I was doing - stringing a pattern of circle, flower, circle, flower while blindfolded.  I fumbled and bumbled and made silly mistakes.  It didn't take long for Mini Me to buy the act and ask to try the blindfold.  

He did wonderfully as he felt the noodles on the floor, trying to decide if it was a flower or a circle he was grabbing at.  Per his idea, we started a little 'race' to see who could string the most noodles while blindfolded in a certain amount of time and in a correct pattern (though we never actually got a timer... and he always won... hmm...).


We ended up giggling a lot and found a new blindfold lacing game to play with our noodle box.  I knew that silly monkey hat was good for something....