Fun Marble Games for Kids

How many times have a I started a sentence with those five words?

“When I was a kid…”

Those words are usually followed up with a tale of growing up in an age before cell phones, iPads and computers. The “glory days” when summer meant playing outside all day and coming home when the street lights came on.

Kid games didn’t involve anything needing to be plugged in.

Right?

I try my best to introduce my kids to simple games and activities that I played when I was a kid. We jump rope, play hop scotch and build forts in the backyard. I recently decided to bring out the childhood classic game – marbles. Man, I had forgotten how much it hurts your finger when you flick a marble.

Fun Marble Game for Kids

The Marble Tunnel Challenge

empty cardboard box
scissors
markers
marbles
chalk or painters tape

Decorate the box any way you like.

Use the scissors to cut a small hole, that is a little bit wider than a single marble. Write “3” – 3 points – above the hole with a permanent marker.

Use the piece of cardboard that you cut out from the first hole, to make the second hole twice as large as the first. Write “2” – 2 points – above the hole with a marker.

For the final hole, use the cardboard you removed from the second and first hole, to make the third hole three times as large as the first hole. Write “1” – 1 point – above the hole with a marker.

Set the box down on a smooth surface, like the driveway, and use chalk or painters tape to mark the position where the marbles must start behind.

Let the kids shoot, flick or roll the marbles into the various holes.

If a marble makes it through a hole, the appropriate number of points are awarded.

The player with the most points wins.

In the end, I was not the player with the most points. It was a real challenge to get the marble through the 3 point hole. I know we will have a rematch.

Classic Marbles

The classic game of marbles was a favourite of my brother and his friends when we were kids. While I liked to make up my own games, he was busy playing by the rules and playing for keeps. The rules of a classic game of marbles are pretty simple.

Draw a large circle on the ground with chalk. Place 10 marbles inside the circle, in an “x”.

Each player takes turns flipping a marble into the circle – trying to knock another marble out of the circle. If you knock a marble out of the circle, you get to keep it.

The object of the game is to have the most marbles at the end of the game. It’s up to you if you are playing for “keeps” or simply for fun.

Is the low tech world of summer games more fun than today’s gadgets? These games certainly did engage my daughter and we laughed a lot. I love introducing my girls to the things I liked to do when I was a kid. Perhaps one day she’ll tell her kids all about playing marbles way back “when she was a kid”.

Today’s post is part of the Summer Throwback Blog Hop, being hosted by Playground Parkbench. Be sure to check out all the awesome classic games being shared. What cool game did you love playing when you were a kid?