• It is hot. All I want to do is sit outside in a pool with a drink that has an umbrella inside. My kids have other ideas though. They want to run and play, and get dirty. I am for all of those things, but occasionally their abundance of energy needs to be channeled into something slightly more structured than just free play.

    This was how our annual soap boat races were born. It is a fun activity for all ages of kids. Older kids can carve bars of soap into shapes they think will make the best boats. Smaller kiddos can just use the bars of soap as is. You can frilly them up if you want, making a flag from a tooth pick with a triangle shaped piece of paper hot-glued on. Add your kids initials so they know whose boat belongs to who. Not that my kids would fight over something like a bar of soap. Never!

    Now on to the races. I have seen them done a few ways.

    You can use your own Slip and Slide. Place the slide on a slightly sloped ground, set up as usual and start the races. If all you have available is flat ground, no worries, just place the hose at one end and spray the water down to create a current as opposed to attaching the hose to the Slip and Slide like you normally would.

    Another place to have a race could be in a kiddie pool. We like to get the currents going by making a whirlpool of sorts. You can do this by getting your kids to walk in a circle inside the pool. Once it’s going good race the boats to see whose makes it around the fastest.

    Finally, the old fashioned way to race soap boats; in small creeks. Or the city version, in a full rushing gutter. Mind you, this might be how I raced them as a kid, but I wouldn’t let my kids play in the gutter these days. And when we go to the creeks I ensure their safety above all else. Happy boat racing!