Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bowling Hoops

As I was browsing through Kate Greenaway's Book of Games the other day I was struck by the first line of this entry:

"Every child knows or ought to know the pleasure of bowling a hoop."

I don't think I've ever seen a child "bowling a hoop."  Have you?  I think the hoops originally came from old wagon wheels, but do we have a modern equivalent that I've just not noticed?

6 comments:

Mrs. Mordecai said...

That looks like fun! I guess you could try it with a hula hoop, but as it's rounded and not flat it might be harder. What were the sticks for, do you know?

whitleysgirl said...

We saw those at our local state park.  The Living History Society had them for you to try.  They also had another game that was a smaller ring and to wooden sticks that were pointy on one end that you crossed insid the ring and then shot the ring off by rapidly pulling the sticks apart.  I will see if I can find them online.

Having Fun at Home said...

I would have loved to try pushing the hoops.  Was it easy to do? The other sounds interesting- I've never heard of it.

Having Fun at Home said...

I think the sticks were to keep the hoops moving along.  Whitley'sgirl, is that right?

Lifeontheclothesline said...

I saw kids playing with these all of the time when I was in the Peace Corps.  It's much harder than it looks!  Plus, it requires a lot of running - which is great for kids.  The beauty of this game is, it takes simple things easily found, even in the poorest of areas.

I think it would be a LOT of fun to have a field day and have it full of old fashioned games and activities - kick the can, flying kites, bowling hoops.... the stuff childhood USED to be made of...

Having Fun at Home said...

That's so interesting that children in other parts of the world still play with them, and that it's harder than it looks. 
 I agree an old fashioned field day would be super, super fun!