Get Wet with Less Mess
- What: Sponge Bombs
- When: 18 months and up
- Why: Affordable, reusable, fun
- Where: At home
Looking for an alternative to water balloons? Tired of buying 100 balloons and filling them up only to have your kids blast through them in less than five minutes? If you want to get the same water bomb effect without all the tiny pieces of balloons to clean up afterwards, try making your own sponge bombs.
These homemade water-soaked balls will keep your kids soaking wet throughout the summer. All you need to make a batch are sponges (old sponges work great, too!) and some sturdy rubber bands.
Each sponge bomb requires two sponges. Line them up, one on top of the other, and place a rubber band around the middle as tightly as you can get it. Squeeze the sponges to get the rubber band super secure. Then simply cut the half of each sponge into strips. Each half can be cut into four strips, resulting in eight strips on either side of the rubber band. Voila! You have a round sponge ball that will soak up water over and over again, and can be thrown and caught with abandon as well as lots of soaking.
You can get packs of sponges cheap at most stores, or order in bulk online. The least expensive sponges, without any special scrubbing sides, work best, but almost any kind will do if the two sponges are equal sized.
Your kids (and you!) can use these day after day and week after week. You can even store them and use them again next summer if you don’t want to make more. They work great for staying cool without the labor intensive filling or clean up process involved in most water balloon fights. And they guarantee kids will get wet on every hit, without any concern about popping prematurely or not popping on contact. (No more tears about kids whose balloons won’t pop or who get wet unexpectedly.) Once they start running out of water, simply drop them in a bucket or wading pool to refill and start all over again.
Practically Apparent 
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