With the arrival of Luigi, we’ve been working hard to find fun activities to keep the Trikester occupied. Pinterest is a great source of inspiration, but I’ve got to give credit to Mr. Tricycle for this project. We’re doing some kitchen renovations, and when he was out at Lowes getting plumbing supplies, he came up with the idea of a PVC pipe ball chute.

chute-1

It’s the easiest DIY ever, but the Trikester has gotten hours of entertainment out of it. My kid doesn’t do toys, so if something holds his attention for more than five minutes, it’s HUGE.

Chute-parts
Use your choice of 2″ diameter PVC pipe to make the chute. 

The supplies needed are 2″ diameter PVC pipes. Two inches is a good size because it fits ping pong balls, golf balls, and matchbox cars – anything smaller might not work, and anything larger is more expensive. Mr. Tricycle picked these three parts — the straight piece is 2 feet long. The elbow is fun because it makes the balls and cars “jump” at the end of the chute. These three pieces of PVC cost about $15.00.

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down-the-chute
Down the chute!

The Trikester loves putting all different things through the chute. We talk about how fast different kinds of balls travel, we change the angle of the chute to see how that impacts movement, we turn it upside down, change the parts around and generally just spend a lot of time putting things in the pipe.

whats-in-the-chute
Occasionally things get stuck in the chute, and he has to stick his hand in to fish them out. 

The Trikester is notorious for putting things in pipes and holes — this fall we had to have a plumber over because he put a golf ball in the exterior furnace vent, which traveled down into the basement and into the furnace, which we then had to take apart to get the ball out. Luckily the plumber is a friend, so he accepted beer as payment. Hopefully the ball chute continues to channel the Trikester’s curiosity in positive way!