Summer Bucket List #1 - COMPLETED! Knee Hockey Slip & Slide

There is nothing more fun than kids playing in water in the heat of the summer. What a fun and easy way to cool off. We changed things up a bit this summer by making a Knee Hockey Slip and Slide. This was the first item on our Summer Bucket List. You can read about all our Bucket List items here.

We have done Redneck Slip and Slides at our old neighbors house. You basically take a large piece of plastic, anchor it to a hill, and put a hose at the top. Then all you do is stand back and have tons of fun. My kids have missed doing this in the old neighborhood since we moved last summer. Our new yard is completely flat, so there was no way of recreating this fun.

An idea I had seen awhile ago, not sure if Pinterest or not, was a Knee Hockey Slip and Slide. My boys already have knee hockey goals as they constantly play knee hockey in their bedrooms. The goals came with a few hockey sticks, and somehow we have managed to claim a few more throughout they years. So one hot Thursday evening we set out to Menard's to find some thick plastic to try out our plan.

We ended up with a small roll of 3ml plastic drop cloths. It was the thickest we could find that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Our was under $9.00. We also picked up a new sprinkler as ours was buried in the shed someplace, and wasn't quite the right kind for this project, it was under $9.00 too. So the whole project was under $20.


The boys (and a friend) did the whole project themselves which made it even better for me as all I had to do was take pictures. They started out by putting duct tape on each corner of the plastic after it was spread out. I suggested to duct tape both the top and bottom just to give it more strength. Then they used old plastic tent stakes right into the duct tape to anchor the corners into the ground. While the older boy was doing that, the little guy and a friend were hooking up the new sprinkler to the hose. They set the sprinkler to only osculate half way to keep most of the water on the plastic.




Now to try to make it more interesting, but not at all necessary is to add plain old dish soap. Use the cheapest kind of dish soap you have, think dollar store soap. You don't want to use the good stuff, but the stuff you bought by accident and didn't do a good job actually cleaning your dishes. Have one of the kids run along the plastic, squeezing the bottle along the way. Be sure he doesn't slip as this will start to make it slippery. Now the fun begins, turn on the hose and let the sprinkler hit the plastic. Adjust the sprinkler to get most of the water to stay on the sprinkler.

Once the plastic is covered in water the kids are ready to start playing. Mine started out by using it as a regular slip and slide to get the soap foamy. After that, and they were used to the cold water from the hose, they started playing knee hockey.

Rules of knee hockey: you must play on your knees, you can't hit people with your stick, try to make a goal with the ball (or puck), and have tons of fun. They used a small rubber ball as the puck was to heavy for the plastic. After a few goals, they also discovered it was fun to run, slide on your belly and be the ball itself, sliding into the goal.

The boys had tons of fun with this. They can set it up themselves, clean it up themselves and they will be able to use it all summer long, even if there are no parents home at the time. Because there is no standing water, it is safe. I have also told them to make sure they remove the plastic right when they are done so the sun doesn't cook the grass underneath. I have also asked them to move it around each time they play so there aren't ruts in the grass in the same place each time.

I give this summer bucket list item an A+ and they will be using it all summer long!

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