More Things To Do With Chestnuts And Kids

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On Monday I shared the first part of 'Things to do with chestnuts & kids' (go check it out here if you haven't already), which makes this part two of our chestnutty fun!

Please note horse chestnuts should not be eaten!

8 - Counting with chestnuts (conkers)
For a bit of after school counting fun I put numbers on one row of the muffin tray and got Bud to count out the conkers for me, made it a bit more interesting for him (and me!)

9 - Chestnut golf

I took a box and cut out a couple of archways to create a very simple mini golf game and then Champ rolled the chestnuts.  He wasn't very keen to keep score or compete with me, but he really enjoyed himself.

Although, no wonder he was so good at it if he sat that close!

10 - Chestnut Structures

Having seen Mermaid Making's conker animals I knew that chestnuts were soft enough to poke cocktail sticks or toothpicks in, so inspired by The Artful Parent's grape structures we came up with... conker structures!  Champ had a go, but my pictures weren't great he kindly made Hubby a conker sword!

11 - Roll your chestnuts down a pipe

Yes, we were inspired by marble activities.  Pick your chestnut carefully and you can create all kinds of marble runs, fortunately we have some old pipes in the garden, so Champ used those, but you could go super elaborate and build a whole chestnut run!

12 - Chestnut threading

In preparation for activity number 13 I made holes in a number of conkers using a screwdriver and Champ enjoyed threading these onto string.  I had planned to do this to loads and make necklaces, but we only ended up doing a few.

13 - Play conkers

Ah yes, finally the true classic!  I remember playing this in the playground myself, for those unfamiliar with playing conkers basically you thread a conker onto string and then try and bash your opponents conker with your own, the winner being the person who's conker isn't shattered.  For details of how to make a really strong conker check out this link (hint it involves vinegar and an oven!)

Now this was the activity I'd been waiting for, but it turns out my kids had neither the patience nor possibly the hand eye co-ordination to give this a go (humph, spoiling my fun!).  All they wanted to do was swing them round their heads and bash each other on the bottom with them.  Never mind, we'll try again next year!!

Still looking for more ideas? 

You could check out my previous post, try marble painting with chestnuts, Red Ted Art's chestnut pencil toppers and chestnut streamers, or try planting a chestnut tree

Failing all that why not keep a bowl of them in the house which apparently keeps spiders and moths away - who knew!

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