Each month, Life Time Kids puts on creative and engaging themed events for kids during Parents Night Out. This series details how you can re-create those activities in your own home.
Put on your creative hats and get ready to build. With these five different challenges, your kids can compete against each other, against the clock, or against you! Set a timer and go through them all or pick-and-choose based on the supplies you have.
What you’ll need:
- Building blocks or bricks
- Bowls or tubs
- Blindfolds
- Baseplates
- A timer
Challenge No. 1: Build a Car
Time allotted: 30 minutes
The object of this challenge is to construct a car in groups of two — but there’s a catch! Each person can only use one hand, so you’ll need to figure out how to work together. Prepare a bowl or tub beforehand with all car-making pieces you have available.
Challenge No. 2: Build a Tower
Time allotted: 15 minutes
There’s only one rule in this challenge: Every piece you add must be larger than the last one; this can be easily measured by counting the “studs” on each building block piece (a stud is the cylindrical bump used to securely connect the pieces together). The player who uses the greatest number of bricks to build the tower wins. Before you start, make sure your tubs of building blocks contain a variety of sizes. Plates (flat bricks) are fine, too.
Challenge No. 3: Race to Cover the Baseplate
Time allotted: 15 minutes
This challenge is played exactly how it sounds. If you have studded baseplates in your building bricks set, use those as your foundation to cover. (If not, you can improvise with another surface.) You’ll need one baseplate per player, along with a bunch of bricks. Players will race against each other to be the first to strategically cover the entire baseplate with bricks. You’ll repeat this until you get to the 15-minute mark. The player who wins the most games in 15 minutes is the overall winner.
Challenge No. 4: Blindfold Building
Time allotted: 30 minutes
For this challenge, each player will attempt to build a tower while blindfolded — it’s a lot harder than it seems! There is no designated winner for this challenge; it’s simply a fun way for kids to use their imagination and think outside the box.
Challenge No. 5: The 5-Minute Challenge
Time allotted: 5 minutes
Give each player a pile of bricks, then right before you’re ready to start, announce what you’re going to build — an animal, vehicle, or whatever else you desire. Everyone has five minutes to build the item, then each person can show off what they made. Some ideas for things to build include a dinosaur, bridge, tree, house, boat, or dragon.
Feel free to be creative yourself. If you or your kids come up with a building challenge, go for it! These challenges can be modified to fit every family and are intended to engage inventive minds, to encourage healthy competitiveness — and most importantly — to be fun.
Learn more about Life Time Kids and all of its programming here.
