{Think Outside the Toy Box} Glow Sticks: Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling

Welcome to the first week of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series!

If you are here for the first time or missed Friday's post, you can check out the Introduction the Think Outside of the Toy Box for all the details of this awesome new series. 

Now on to this week's fun with:

 GLOW STICKS

This week's item was a tough for me! I wasn't too worried about engaging Myles because he has a pretty big fascination with glow sticks, so I figured he would love whatever we did with them. However, I wanted to start this series off with something that would BLOW YOUR MINDS... and well... I feel that I fell a little short of my expectations. I seriously racked my brain for days and even went so far as to ask my boyfriend for ideas! In the end, the right side of my brain totally failed me on this one. But I will say that both Myles and I had a pretty good time, even if it wasn't the most creative!  

Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling

What You Will Need:
 
1 container of 10-15 glow bracelets (found at the dollar store or Target's One Spot)

10 (empty) plastic juice bottles, rinsed out and dried

1 small to medium sized ball

Directions:

For this game to be played to its full potential, wait until it is dark outside or set it up in a room that can be made mostly dark. Also the best ball to use is one that is heavy enough to knock the bottles over, but light enough to be rolled by your little one. The first ball we used was a little too light. It worked okay, but when we switched to a heavier ball (toddler sized basketball), it worked a lot better.

1. Break the 10 glow sticks, shake them, put one in each bottle, and then screw the top back on. To be honest, this was Myles' favorite part. He loved breaking the sticks and putting them in each different bottle. This entertained him more than the actual bowling! That's a toddler for ya!

2. Set up the 10 plastic bottles (with glow sticks in them) in bowling pin formation.

3. Turn off the lights (or set them up outside at night time). You probably need a little light, but make it as dark as possible without endangering you/your children!

4. Play! 
I wasn't able to get any very good action shots because I was having to set the bottles back up every 5 seconds. And then Myles thought it would be fun to just kick them all down instead of using the ball.

Variations: Use less bottles if you don't have ten. Use plastic 2 liters, or for a small version, use 1 liter pop bottles. Put 2 or more glow sticks in each bottle.

After our bowling, it was bed time, so we used the rest of the glow sticks to take a glow-in-the-dark bath. We just used the 5 we had left over from the pack, but I think it would have been better if we used more.

So there you have it: week one of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series is in the bag! Also don't forget to check out what all of the other ladies put together for this week's item in the link-up below. 

And if you have a post (new or old) that you created showcasing glow sticks in a kid's project, craft, game, experiment, etc., submit it below as well. No post this week? No problem; join us next Monday when we will be using plastic pop bottles! 
 
Also just in case you want to get a head start, here is the complete list for the coming weeks:
June 2 - Plastic Soda Bottles
June 9 - Paper Grocery Bags
June 16 - Kool-Aid
June 23 - Ice Cream Cones
June 30 - Pool Noodles
July 7 - Wax Paper
July 14 - Puzzle Pieces
July 21 - Paper Cups
July 28 - Plastic Milk Jugs