Fishy Races

Whilst reading Lisa Brown’s top tips for making the most of what you’ve got at home, we liked the idea of turning screwed up old newspaper into a ball, then using empty toilet roll holders to make our own indoor ten pin bowling.

This made us think about making an indoor game where we could have a healthy family competition and race, hence, we came up with ‘fishy races’.

Fishy races game

The aim of the game is to be the first person to blow your fish along a piece of string to the finish.

For fishy races you need:

  • Pieces of foam (or paper or card if you prefer)
  • Some straws
  • Sellotape
  • Scissors
  • String

First we cut out fishes, from pieces of foam and decorated them. You could also use paper or card, if you don’t have foam. We then sellotaped a piece of straw to the mouth of the fish, to make it easier for the fish to move along the string.

We threaded each fish’s straw onto a piece of string which was tied tight between two chairs, one for each fish to race on. We were all set.

We all lined up ready……set……GO! They were off, blowing their fishes along the string, puffing away, desperately trying to work out how best to blow their fish to get it to move the quickest.

The whole family joined in, big Cousin, Mummy, Daddy, Nana and Grandad. We all had loads of races, with lots of cheering, laughter and giggles!

I think the best laugh we had was watching Daddy attempt the race. It was a real picture, as it made him look quite like a puffer fish!! Unfortunately Daddy came last, but he didn’t mind, it was such a laugh taking part, it didn’t matter who won.

One of the fantastic things about this game, is that it’s so adaptable. We chose fish because we are hoping to get some new pet fish this week. However, you could use horses at the time of the Grand National, or boats at the time of the boat race, or any other animal or vehicle you can think of.

We are looking forward to playing this again with lots of different variations.

Additionally, the children have the fun of making the fish/animal etc before playing the game and it is something the whole family can join in with, young and old.