It’s fun to think up simple toys to make at home that my children can enjoy. Especially when the weather gets to be too hot, it’s nice to have something quiet to play with indoors. This marble maze was made with my seven year old son, Owen, in mind. Owen (like most boys and girls his age) loves marbles and figuring out how things work.

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To make a marble maze of your own you’ll need to gather a few supplies:

wooden tray (found at Michael’s craft store)
a pack of wooden dowels
craft paint
foam brush
pen
hot glue gun and hot glue
handheld PVC pipe cutter (This is the tool I used to cut my dowels to size. To be honest, it was the first thing my eyes saw when searching through my husband’s tool box and it ended up working great! Any saw will do, of course if you don’t have one of these on hand.)
marbles

To begin, gather your wooden dowels, saw, pen and tray.

Place the dowels inside the tray and mark with the pen where you will be making your cuts.

Once the dowels are marked, remove them from the tray and use your saw to carefully cut the dowels to size.

Use your craft paint and foam brush and paint each dowel. When the dowels are all painted and have dried, secure each one in place on the tray using your hot glue gun.

Just as I suspected, Owen loves his new marble maze. We have marble races where we see how many marbles we can get to go through the maze at a time, and we have timed races using one marble and love challenging each other to see who can get the best time. This marble maze has been really fun! Remember, this isn’t a project for little children who like to place small objects in their mouths but is absolutely perfect for their older siblings. Enjoy!