We were lucky that our week visiting the grandparents at the seaside coincided with an unbroken run of hot sunny weather. Where we weren’t so lucky, however, was that it also coincided with Bird Girl having her arm in plaster, after having taken her epithet perhaps a little too seriously, and fallen from the climbing frame two weeks beforehand.
Under strict instructions from the hospital not to let the cast get wet, and suspecting that sand in a plaster cast would not make for a happy two-year-old, we were struggling to find a way for her to enjoy the beach, but did not want her (or Chief Stick Collector) to miss out completely.
And then we hit on Pebble Lookalikes. A game that all members of the family can play, and that doesn’t involve getting wet or sandy. All you need is a bucket, a keen eye and a lively imagination. The rules? Simple – find as many pebbles as you can that resemble something else. Like spotting shapes in the clouds, but with pebbles. Prizes for the best ones, or best in each category (best animal, best food item etc…)
Here are some of our favourite finds:
A Whale
Whale
An Alien
Alien
A Pear
Pear
Yes, I know this is the same stone as Whale, but some pebbles doubled up to fill two roles. – For which you can read that we all disagreed as to which it resembled more!
A Prehistoric Cave Painting
Cave Painting
A Duck / Pelican
Duck
(OK, cheating somewhat here, as it’s actually a shell. Oh, alright, it’s actually two shells placed side by side, but our rules were somewhat fluid, since we were making the game up as we went along!)
A Dog
Dog
Chief Stick Collector turned out to be the champion of this game, but Grandma actually gave him a pretty good run for his money!
A Donut
Donut and Chief Stick Collector
For older children, you can add a further photographic element to the challenge by seeing who can get the best picture of their lookalike stones. It’s harder than you’d think; as I discovered when trying to take pictures of ours, and finding that even the best lookalike suddenly resembles nothing more than a boring pebble as soon as you turn the camera on it!
LetsTryThisAtHome 