Indoor Basketball

One of the things we miss most when it's too cold to play outside is sports. One cold day I braved the elements all the way to the shed and found the pool noodle rings we made last summer, and an idea was born: indoor basketball! 

If you haven't made noodle rings, here's the quick low down: 

[Slit a toilet paper tube along the side and roll it tighter to fit inside the noodle, slipping each end over half of it. Then use duct tape to secure the noodle ends together. The TP tube just helps give it stability and not come apart so easily. For this large one I used two noodles, and used packing tape on the one side (which is why you can't see both connections).]

Since I already had some single noodle rings along with the double I decided it would be even more fun to put them all up and make multiple targets. 

For in-the-house-play a beach ball is my weapon of choice for the boys. It worked perfectly for the big one. It's a tighter fit for the single hoops, but we found a light weight foam ball for those. With multiple players we needed multiple balls any way. To keep the duct tape from peeling off the wall, I suggest going over the part where it's taped with another couple perpendicular pieces. I did that on the larger one.

Then we experimented with other ways to play.

Up, down and sideways, it was a great way for the boys to use up some energy and do something active in the house.

I want to say this activity is a slam dunk, but I don't want to be cheesy like that so I won't : ) ...but your kids really will love it! I took the hoops down at the end of the day and didn't have any trouble with the tape sticking to the doors. If you leave it up longer that could be a problem.

Hope you are having fun today even if you're stuck inside.