YOU GUYS. My husband came up with this activity idea back during quarantine, and can I just say, it's pure genius. It's a little bit of an investment, but our kids have played with it over and over. If you're looking for a unique present to give, or are just desperate for a new hands on activity that will keep your kiddos engaged- look no further!

You will need:

PVC pipe
PVC pipe cutters
PVC pipe connectors

Instructions:

Purchase your PVC pipe and connectors. You can buy as much or as little as you want, depending on what you're going for.
Cut your PVC pipe into a bunch of different lengths. (Ours varied from about 2 inches to a foot!)
Pull out the cut PVC pipe and the connectors. Help your child put them together and build a creation!

Activity Notes:

I'm not a hundred percent sure how expensive this project is- we actually built our kids a playhouse out of PVC for Christmas one year and just had some leftovers/used the connectors from that project. For reference, a 3-way corner connector piece at Home Depot is 90 cents and a ten foot piece of PVC is about 10 dollars.
Try making challenges for your kids! Tell them things like, "Build me a robot" of "Make a tower that's as tall as you". It seems when my kids have something they're working towards, they stay engaged for longer.
Have them build a slide or a shoot! Get out some dried beans and see if they can make something that they can go down.