DIY Fun: Foil River

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Andrew’s sister-in-law Kristin (who has four kids under the age of 8!) recently sent me a couple of pages from a parenting magazine that had some great ideas for summer activities for the rug rats. One of these ideas was a foil river. We, having foil in our drawer, decided to give it a try.

First, we found a spot in our back yard with a slight slope so the water would run downhill. We unwound a good amount of foil, being careful not to let it tear, and carefully folded up the edges. Then, we turned on the hose at the top, and let the water flow down the foil.

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The boys had fun rolling items down, including a whiffle ball, various leaves, little foil boats, and even a little flower!

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As far as activities go, this was fun and easy, and I enjoyed watching Milo and Oliver figure out how to make the river go faster (moving the sides up and closer together); make a foil tunnel; and race their little boats and flowers down the moving water. The only downside is, it only works if the water is running, and there was no easy way to collect it at the bottom to reuse it for watering the plants. So I felt pretty guilty wasting water and turned off the hose after 15 minutes. It was a fantastic 15 minutes, though! Thanks for the idea, Kristin!

14 thoughts on “DIY Fun: Foil River”
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  1. I feel guilty as well when we play in the caterpillar sprinkler in the front yard – totally wasteful but it’s either that or have an atomic melt-down trapped inside the house! I think we’ll give the foil river at least a 15 minute try too. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    xo
    cortnie

  2. Wow Lauren, this blog is really becoming the GO-TO source for super creative, super fun and super inexpensive activity ideas for kids! I love it. Hope you guys had a fantastic 4th of July! Emil’s first ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Wow, you are incredible destructive to the Earth. First you waste all that foil. Then you waste all that water. And let me guess, Oliver is the one that floated the flower down the stream. Here’s a good game for them to play…get a back and pick up all the dog poop in the yard. Or, here’s a vacuum and sweep all the rugs. But no. You have to waste all those precious resources.

    1. You obviously dont have a child and if you do, you must not spend very much time with them. If you did, then you would know that 5-10 minutes of letting a child enjoy a foil river is memorable and educational! You can reuse the foil afterwards and you can put a bucket at the end of the river and reuse the water. Get a life and quit making ridiculous comments on a board you apparently have no business being on!

  4. Proudie looks like a giant in that photo!
    What if you tried a spiral track of water that collects in a large bucket or kid’s pool? Maybe make it out of the 3″ flexible duct hose, cut in half? Spiral it down from a 3-4 foot height? Or if it’s on the ground, gentle curves w/rocks as obstacles??
    Makes me wish I could have summertime adventure days!

  5. It looks super cool and all reflective-river-like. These kids have so much fun, I wish I was lucky enough to get entertained by such creative ideas week after week!

  6. At least the grass got watered, and you can crunch of the foil afterward into balls and can throw them into a laundy basket for a game.

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