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Tabletop Games

With little more than a few household items, you can create a major league play area for your kids right on the kitchen table.

by Kathleen M. Reilly

Great as rainy-day activities or quick predinner boredom busters, these sports-inspired contests are sure to score big with your kids.

SHARPSHOOTER

This test of marksmanship richly rewards the player who can hit all five holes in a single turn.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• A medium-sized box (ours was 13-by-17-by-6 inches)
• a craft knife or scissors
• markers
• tape
• 5 marbles (approximately the same size)
• a Popsicle stick
• a towel

SETUP:

Cut five different-size holes in the box and mark their corresponding point values, as shown. Place the box at one end of the table and mark the starting point on the opposite end with tape. To help keep the marbles from rolling off the table, you can place a rolled-up towel behind the box as a backstop.

HOW TO PLAY:

From the starting point, use a Popsicle stick on its side to flick the marbles at the targets. If you successfully hit all five in one turn, you earn 500 points. Hit three different targets in a turn and earn 300 points. Otherwise, all scores are based on the targets' listed values.

REF SAYS:

During a turn, don't remove the marbles that miss from in front of the box - it's fair play to knock them in with a combination shot using another marble.

FLIP GOLF

In this golf game, which features hazards such as sand traps, a pond, and trees, creating the hole can be as much fun as playing it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• a small box (ours is a tea box)
• a small plastic tub (we used an empty cream cheese tub with a drinking straw flag taped inside)
• assorted hazards (a plastic plate full of salt for a sandtrap, a pie tin with water for a pond, small potted plants for trees)
• quarters

SETUP:

Place the tea box - the tee - at one end of the table, the plastic tub - the cup - at the other end and strategically locate the hazards between them. We outlined our hole with a rope boundary.

HOW TO PLAY:

Tee off by squeezing a quarter between your thumbs, setting your hands on the tee box,and flipping the quarter toward the cup, as shown. As with real golf, you want to get your "ball" in the cube in the fewest "strokes." But because your ball can roll beyond the rope (out of bounds) or off the table, playing conservatively is the best strategy. Players continue flipping from where the coins land, with the person farthest from the hole going first.

REF SAYS:

If your ball lands in a hazard, you get one penalty stroke (place your ball beside it for your next shot). If it lands out of bounds, you get two penalty strokes (move it just inside the rope). If it lands off the table, you get three penalty strokes and must tee off again.

PING-PONG BASKETBALL

For this basketball-shooting challenge, you can bounce the ball in close for easy 1-pointers, or dribble just once and shoot for a 3-pointer.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 2 clean, quart-size plastic containers
• paper towels
• a Ping-Pong ball

SETUP:

Line the bottom of each container with a folded paper towel (to keep the ball from bouncing out). Place the "baskets" at opposite ends of the table, at least 4 feet apart.

HOW TO PLAY:

On your turn, dribble the ball (as you would in basketball) one to three times down the court. After the last dribble, you must catch the ball (if you mess up, your opponent takes over) and try to score by bouncing it back into the opposing player's basket. A basket after three dribbles is worth 1 point; two dribble, 2 points; one dribble, 3 points. The ball goes to your opponent after a score or missed shot.

REF SAYS:

Don't catch the ball and try dribbling again. That's double dribbling, and your opponent gets possession of the ball.

PAPER BALL SOCCER

Let your fingers do the kicking -- and passing and trapping -- in this tabletop version of the world's favorite game.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 2 goals (see directions below)
• masking tape
• a sheet of paper

SETUP:

Place the goals at opposite ends of the table. Use the tape to mark the goal mouths, as shown. Crumple the paper into a ball.

HOW TO PLAY:

Starting at midfield, use your index finger and/or middle finger to kick the ball down the field. You can pass it from one hand to the other up to three times, and you can shoot at the goal at any point. Your opponent must stay within the goal mouth and can stop the ball using only his index and middle fingers. After a shot on goal, the defender gets the ball.

REF SAYS:

If the ball goes off the table during the match, the player who touched it last loses possession, and the other player starts from his own end.

TABLETOP GOAL

Thanks to some simple notches, this nifty box goal (our box was 12 by 9 by 5 inches) fastens to your table without tape. The angled backstop ensures that balls end up in the goal's collector rather than bouncing back onto the playing field.

SHUFFLE CAPS

Decidedly more edgy than its country club cousin, our version of shuffleboard is played with juice bottle caps that can slide off - or be knocked off - the table, resulting in dire consequences.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Masking tape (we used easy-to- remove painters' tape)
• 8 large plastic bottle caps (4 per player) individually marked to represent two teams

SETUP:

Create the scoring triangle with tape: the tip is worth 50 points, the middle 25 points, and the base 10 points. Use another piece of tape to mark the push-off point at the opposite end of the table.

HOW TO PLAY:

Take turns sliding your caps (they slide best upside down) from behind the push-off point. You can knock your opponent out of the triangle or right off the table. More than half the cap must be inside the space to count as in. The first player to score 200 points wins.