1. Broom Stick Barrel Racing
This activity will show off everyone's imaginary horse riding skills. All that you need to set it up is a broom stick and several large cones or piles of stacked empty boxes. In a backyard, driveway, or nearby park, arrange the cones or boxes in a tight course that the little ranch hands will have to race around. Here is the catch - they will have to complete it as quickly as possible without knocking over any of the cones or boxes. If they do knock anything over, they will receive a time penalty of 5 seconds. To make the course more difficult, you can add balloon 'rattle snakes'. Just get some long balloons and then put a few dozen dried beans in each one so they will rattle when shaken. You can tie these off after they are blown up and place them throughout the course. Whenever someone steps on the 'rattler' they will be 'bitten' and receive another time penalty of 3 seconds. The fastest rider can get a prize, like a toy harmonica or a sheriff's star for coming in first place.
2. Sharpshooting Contest
Any cowhand worth his or her salt will know how to shoot. This activity lets the kids show off their marksmanship skills and water guns. Beforehand, freeze a few small trinkets like cowboy toys or wrapped candy in small plastic containers. Then, right before the activity, remove the blocks of ice, or just place the containers so that the opening is facing the kids. Once everyone is ready, an adult can load up the water guns with warm, but not hot, water. An easy way to do this is just to run a bathtub faucet at a warm temperature to fill up the squirt guns. Only an adult should do this step to prevent kids from getting burnt. The objective of the game is to melt the ice cubes by squirting them with warm water until the toy or candy is completely free of them. Depending on how many water guns are available, the kids can go one at a time and see who is the quickest, or they can go against each other in a head-to-head competition.
3. Lassoing a Rocking Horse
If you have a rocking horse toy in the house, now is the time to bring it out. If not, you can use a cone from the barrel racing, a tee ball tee, or any other small pole that will stand up by itself - this will be the runaway stallion that needs to be lassoed. Then, get a hula hoop and attach a length of string to it. About 10 feet away (make the distance shorter for younger children or further for older) from the 'horse', mark a line that the cowboy kiddies will need to throw from. The next step is to divide the kids into two groups. Each member of their group must get the hula hoop around the horse, and if they miss, they have to pull the hula hoop back to their side of the line using the string and throw again. The group that has each member lasso the horse in the least amount of throws wins. If there is a tie, a fun thing to do can be to have a lasso off where one person from each team throws at a time. If both make it, then the 'horse' gets moved two feet further back and the next two people go. The first team to miss loses.
From roaming the ranges to lassoing wild steer, a cowboy's life sure does seem like a fun one. By throwing a cowboy or girl themed party with activities like broom stick barrel racing, ice cube marksmanship, and a lassoing competition, you can give your child and their friends a taste of what it would be like to be a cowboy. So tell your kids to saddle up and get ready to party!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment