It is only really in recent years that the idea of ball pools has taken popularity, and until very recently, these were really just to be found in adventure playgrounds and activity centres rather than in the home. However, very recently it has become possible and affordable to buy equipment for home based ball pools, and of course, these are proving to be very popular with children. It has to be said that children of toddler age enjoy ball pools, and even those many years older have just as much fun!

A ball pool essentially consists of two parts - the pool itself, and the balls. As far as the pool is concerned, there is a wide range of pools available, mostly the inflatable kind. These can be as large and fancy as bouncy castle style inflatables, or as simple as a paddling pool. Indeed, if cost is a concern and you are looking to create a ball pool for your child on a budget, it can sometimes be easier to simply buy a cheap paddling pool.

The inflatable pools however have an advantage, in as much as they can be enjoyed and played with without the balls themselves, and still enjoyed indoors. They can also become quite large and interesting shapes and dens, from small castles to motor cars and tractors - even desert islands with palm trees and a beach! It is important to have a look at the size when inflated, because often these can be a lot larger than you might otherwise imagine from looking at the picture on the packaging. I bought an inflatable Mini Cooper for my little boy, and it wasn't a great deal smaller than the real thing - and took up most of the living room! Because of its popularity, it had to remain there for some time, and often watching television in the evening was more easily achieved sitting in the pool ourselves than on the sofa looking through the windscreen.

The other aspect to consider is the collection of balls you'll need. You can buy ball pools in large sacks, often of fifty or a hundred balls to a pack, and these are fairly cheap. The quality of ball is usually a little softer and lighter than the ones you'll find in professional ball pools available at theme parks and activity centres, but will do just as well. I actually found a bouncy castle firm that supplied ball pools, and they were in the process of re-branding, which meant that they were buying in colour coordinated balls, and getting rid of the multi coloured ones. I bought a thousand of these multi coloured balls, and filled most of my car!

As a general guide, taking the average sized paddling pool or inflatable ball pool, for a child under one years old, one to two hundred balls is more than enough, with two to five hundred being enough for older children. It's hard to find a ball pool available that will hold more than five hundred, and I have frequently had two or three ball pools filled for when his friends come round to play. It's certainly a good way of keeping the children entertained, and helping to ensure a good night's sleep!