What Happens When Your Nephew Wants to Play MiniGolf at Home (or "Stuff You Can Do With a Lot of Cardboard and Even More Freetime")

So it started when my mom bought my nephew a little golf bag with toy golf clubs and golf balls. I didn't really notice, but he was actually really into it, and made his own course. And one of the holes, honestly, was the saddest thing I've ever seen a kid make. It was literally, just the corner of a cardboard box, and you just had to hit the ball into the corner...

Alright, so the other ones he made were okay. One was a piece of cardboard taped to another with a hole cutout, so basically, as long as you hit it through the hole, it was a win. The best was a small flat box, with an entrance and exit cutout. In the middle, was a piece of flimsier cardboard, that you had to just ram through.

Anyway, I couldn't take it anymore. So I made a few holes and left them next to his when he wasnt looking. I started out with simple holes, but still harder than he was used to.

And he was entertained! ...For a while. Pretty soon, he was shooting his mouth off, going on about, "What, this again? This is too easy..." So I, of course, dutiful and non-petty uncle that I am, immediately set upon teaching him a lesson about humility. And about making me look stupid. So I determined that these future attractions would need to keep him occupied for a longer while. Much longer...

My intention with this one was to make the insides of this one much more elaborate and tricky, but I realized that there wasn't at all enough room. To make up for the lack of trickiness, I just made it harder. Basically, the ball has to fly off the ramp perfectly, and almost hit the top of the box to catch the ramp to the hole, otherwise it catches the return ramp.

This skee ball variant is actually pretty fun. Good for little kids practicing maths too, if you make them keep their own score. I actually have not hit the 30 pointer yet. But neither has he so HAH.

This guy's just a crowd pleaser, and not really all that hard...yet. Don't worry, I'll think of something...

Ok, so this one is genuinely hard, but I have gotten it once. So you twist the top and let it spin. Catching the island (floating/spinning bridge?) isn't too hard, but since it's just suspended by a single point, if the ball doesn't land near the hole, it'll tip the island and dump the ball.

Anyway, these were actually pretty fun to design and play on. They're also easy to make, and you can easily improvise golf clubs. It's probably good for kids to think up an make their own too.

Finally, if you guys have any particularly devious ideas, please let me know XD Thanks for reading!