Three thrilling summer activities

Slip and slide

So easy to do and guaranteed many laughs. Go to your local hardware store and get a heavy-duty plastic tarpaulin that folds out lengthwise. Find a small grassy hill and stake the tarpaulin down on both corners at both ends. Pour on some water from a bucket, ready for your child to launch himself down. For extra speed, try adding a tiny amount of biodegradable soap to the tarpaulin.

Water balloon launcher

Drill a hole in each side of a plastic funnel and attach ten inches of surgical tubing to either side. You can then use it as a slingshot to propel water balloons up into the air. Give awards to whoever can “catch” the balloons, even a trophy for whoever can catch it with out breaking it!  Beware of up close launches, they can be deadly…

Monster Bubbles

Mix about ¼ washing up liquid with ¾ water in a shallow pan. Then take a wire coat hanger and bend it into a complete, closing circle, using pliers. Bigger is always better, I say. Dip the circle into the tray and run around the air will fill the bubble up and with a twist of your wrist, close the end and watch these huge bubbles dance across your yard. Try to lift a bubble up and over your friend’s entire body, be sure that the wire circle is big enough to go around him or her. Then when it works, take a picture and call him bubble boy!  

Todd Davis is the author of Handy Dad (Chronicle, £16.99).