After way too much fun with our medieval Koala Crate, we needed to continue our exploration of the Middle Ages. This project was too cute for words. Putting it together was mostly a grown-up task, but you’ll love watching your kids imagination go wild as they play with the final product!

To prepare the bow, notch a craft stick on both ends, on each side, for 4 notches total. I was entirely unsure how to go about making the notches, and just slivered into the stick with scissors. This may not have been the safest or best method, but it worked!

Soak the stick in water for at least one hour to soften the wood.

Once soft, carefully bend the stick into an arc. Wrap a piece of dental floss a few times through the notches on one end. Stretch the floss taut while curving the bow, and secure through the notches on the other end.

For completely safe mini arrows, simply snip one tip off of a q-tip.

Now we needed something to aim at! We cut two circles from poster board (paper plates would work, too), and decorated with a bull’s eye marking. Little poster board strips taped to the back helped them stand upright.

The mechanics of nocking and launching the q-tips turned out to be quite tough for Travis.

He loved watching though while we had some family time trying to hit the target. The arrows go quite far!

As the finishing touch, we needed a quiver for the arrows. I cut a toilet paper tube until it was only a little taller than the q-tips, then wrapped in brown construction paper to cover the bottom and sides. We added a few Sherwood Forest-y decorations, as well as a ribbon handle.

It turned out the quiver was Travis’s favorite element of the whole game. He loved loading it up with his “arrows” and running around with it…

… but in full disclosure, he also decided it would be fun to run around naked while doing so. So you’ll have to take my word for it that there was lots of enjoyment going on, but I couldn’t capture photos for the blog!