I just love cool games for kids that are fun while providing an opportunity to strengthen skills. My kids had a good time racing against the clock in this Fine Motor Marble Race and they worked on building fine motor skills at the same time. The game requires concentration and coordination and the more you play, the better you get at both those things. If you are looking for more cool games to play with your kids, then try Toilet Paper Knockdown, one of our favorite frugal games.
*Please supervise your child with any activity. This activity contains small beads which could be a hazard to very young children.*
The object of the game is to place your marbles on all the tees in the shortest time possible. You can do this with more than one person and have the winner be the one who gets their marbles on first. If your kids are not great at losing (like mine) you can have them try their best to beat the clock and keep trying to better their time.
Before you can begin, push some golf tees into a large piece of Styrofoam. Make sure they are straight so the marbles won't roll off. I pushed mine in at varying heights to make placing the marbles a little more challenging. You can use more golf tees for older kids and less for younger kids. Fill a bowl with marbles. I found it was a good idea to have a few more marbles than golf tees since some tended to fall and roll away during the marble race.
Before we started the game I let my daughter practice placing marbles on the golf tees. This requires a steady hand. I just love the look of concentration on her face!
Once she got the hang of it, my daughter was ready to be timed. I used a stopwatch app on my phone to time her. She was able to finish her first attempt in one minute and twenty seconds. She was pleased with herself but wanted to try and beat her time.
Now that she knew how to place the marbles she was able to work quicker. This is not as easy task, let me tell you. I timed myself and played, and between accidentally knocking down marbles and picking them up, it took me a lot longer than I thought it would.
But my daughter shaved almost 10 seconds off her time on her next attempt. The more she practiced, the better her time got.
My older daughter played the Fine Motor Marble Race too and when she was done with her game, she decided to rearrange the golf tees and push them through the back end of the Styrofoam block.
She then made an obstacle course where she had to get her marble through the course, out of the hole, and into the bowl. I was proud of how she used the materials at hand to create her own game.
If you are looking for more cool games for kids check out:
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