Summer is here. What can you do when grandchildren come for a visit? Something a little bit more physically active than wielding the TV remote? Monkey ball — that’s what!!
Monkey ball is a great activity to play with grandchildren from ages seven or eight until they are seventy eight!! (My! How old would grandma be if her grandchild was seventy years old??) All you need is a basketball for each player, a long strip of cloth or bandanna for each player, and a cement or asphalt surface.
Each grandchild tucks one cloth in his back pocket or from his back waist if he doesn’t have a pocket. Determine the boundaries of the playing area. If you are playing on the driveway in front of your garage, the cement area would be the area where your grandchildren had to stay inside. They couldn’t go out of the boundaries. Not on the grass. Not on the sidewalk. Not in the road. If you are at a park, determine your boundaries so that everybody knows where they are. If anybody goes out of that area, they are out of that round of the game.
To play, everybody just starts dribbling the ball. While dribbling the ball, everybody tries to catch the ‘monkey’s tail’ from another player so it comes out of that player’s pocket. If you are successful at pulling out their monkey tale, that player is out of that round of play. Continue play until there is only one person left. (If it gets too hard for the last two people to get the other player’s ‘tail,’ then call it a draw and start the next round.) When you get to this point, start another round of play.
Continue playing until your grandchildren get tired or interest wanes. Grandmas are allowed to sit out when they get winded. Then grandma can be the cheerleader. 🙂
Have a jug of lemonade nearby to hydrate thirsty players. And, ice cream sandwiches would be a great afterwards to help cool down hot players.
Happy Monkey-ball-playing!
