Mini Golf at Home!

August 22, 2020

There’s a pandemic, so we have to stay home. There are fires in California and the air is depressingly smoky outside, so we can’t even play in the yard. There are two children in the house who I had promised a beach trip to last week, and I continue to learn the painful lesson that I really have no control over what’s happening next week, tomorrow, or even today. Like, will we have power, and will I actually get to cook dinner tonight? Who knows.

Another place I had been planning to bring them was to the local mini golf course. I had brought them before, but they didn’t seem to appreciate the fun of it that time: the hills, slopes, open-and-shutting-door, excitement of getting a low score. Hm, I thought to myself, maybe we’ll do a practice round at home first. Then they can see how the whole thing works and maybe appreciate the real thing more when we finally get to it!

So a couple days ago, in the midst of a depressed indoor slump, we decided to make our own mini golf course in the house! We already had a pile of recyclables (old cardboard boxes and sheets, cardboard tubes, etc.). I gave them six red disposable cups and we went around the house setting up obstacles together. The first hole started at the top of the stairs. I tapped my ball down and… got a hole in one! The kids didn’t understand the game well enough at that point to appreciate my accomplishment, but at least Ben cheered for me 🙂

*Those foam things have lived lives as horses, swords, bumpers, and boat paddles so far!*

The second hole had a ramp:

*Keeping it classy with blue tape and red Solo cups.*

The third hole had a tunnel and two tissue boxes to knock down:

*We moved the starting circle closer to the tunnel when the kids went. Do whatever you need to keep it fun (and not frustrating) for the kids!*

The kids were really into the ramps:

*The round alphabet circles marked the starting point for the tennis balls we used as golf balls.*

We kept score, which was good number-writing practice for the younger one and good adding practice for the older one:

We had a great time working our way around the house, hollering at exciting moments and high-fiving like it was a championship event. We taught the kids little things like waiting for the ball to stop before hitting it again and tapping the ball instead of pushing it around. It was really fun! We were so loud with our cheers that I worried the neighbors would be concerned, but I guess no one was outside to hear our ruckus. The kids were beaming and Ben and I had our share of laughs and it was seriously one of the best nights we’ve all had together in a long time!

At first I thought I’d have to play easy so one of the kids could win, but by hole four, I started to realize that they didn’t need me to go on easy mode. It was too late–the kids were in the lead, and in the end, the youngest one won! It was so cute. When I declared his totally legitimate victory, he had such a strong emotion he ran around the house in a circle in excitement! It was so cute!

This can be a fun activity for all ages. Older kids will really enjoy the opportunity to get creative with the obstacles and probably require less help tearing tape and setting things up. They have also probably had more experience at an actual real life mini golf course so they’ll have more ideas for each hole. If you find yourself stuck at home and unable to go outdoors safely, maybe this is the activity for you and your family tonight, too!

Here are some basic guidelines for setting it up:

Materials:

Wide mouth cups
Blue tape
Random household objects or clean recyclables
A tennis ball (or maybe an actual golf ball for older kids)
Something to act as a putt (we used a cardboard packaging related thing, but any stick-like object should work)

Instructions:

Map out a general course around the house. It can start upstairs, be creative!
Use something to mark the starting point for each hole. We used these round alphabet circles, but an “X” made with blue tape works just fine, too.
Set a cup down sideways as the “hole” and secure it with blue tape.
Use household objects or clean recyclables to set up obstacles in between. Get creative!
Get a piece of paper to keep score.
Gather everyone and play!

Tips:

Have younger kids? Subtly make adjustments to make the course easier for them as you go. It’s not supposed to be too frustrating or challenging!
Even though kids usually go first, we found our kids preferred for us to go first each round. I think they wanted to see how to do each hole and get ideas for how to hit it.