If you have access to a creek, then DIY Racing Boats are the perfect thing to keep your kids entertained all day long! 

DIY Racing Boats are a quick and easy craft for your kids that they can use over and over again all spring and summer! 

We are on week two of social distancing. I am so thankful that we have a creek right in our back yard. Spending lots of time outside has been good for our family, while we try to get used to this new schedule of never leaving our house. 

We have spent many days watching TV. But spending this much time at home has given us the opportunity to get creative. My husband came up with this idea to make DIY Racing Boats and it was genius! 

First, he found some scrap wood. He had one board that was a 1 × 4, and he cut a chunk off for each child. 

I gave him some manicure sticks I had, and he drilled a small hole in the center of each boat. This is for the mast… it really doesn’t help with anything besides looking more like a boat. 

We gave each child a “boat” and some sandpaper. 

Each child got to decorate their boat how they wanted. Surprisingly, they all went for colored Sharpies. The Sharpies made it fast and easy to decorate. I assumed they would have wanted paint. 

We made flags for their boats our of an old flannel T-shirt. Since the manicure stick already had a pointed end, we just shoved the fabric down until a hole ripped in it. Nothing fancy, but it stayed in place the whole time! 

My husband sprayed them with a Water-proof spray. This is totally optional, but he thought if the kids wanted to play with these all summer they would last longer with this spray. 

We gave each child a yardstick for steering and headed down to our creek. 

As you can see our creek is not deep or wide, just perfect for stomping through with rain boots. 

Our kids, both boys and girls, younger and older, all enjoyed their DIY Racing Boats for many hours! It was a great day spent outside! 

One child spent a lot of time strategically trying to push his boat over a waterfall without it getting stuck on rocks. 

 

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