The other day I found myself trying to keep 3 kids entertained while I laid on the sofa with a heating pad on my back (that's what happens after a day of rearranging furniture & heavy cleaning, followed by a late night of flower brooch making). After a certain someone's meltdown over the wii, I pulled out Make These Toys by Heather Swain. It arrived in my mailbox a month or so ago, but I never did get a chance to look at it.
Quickly flipping through the pages, I landed on a page on how to make paper houses. Bingo! I knew this would be a winner. I made one on my own first, then called Alex over to show him what I was doing. His wii-funk immediately lifted. Before I knew it, we had pulled out the construction paper and had a whole paper village going on.
Our buildings are the perfect size for dinosaurs, farm animals, and minnie mouse. Ava preferred to use her pink house as head gear…that girl! The houses were constructed on Monday, and now here we are on Wednesday evening, and they’re still going strong.
While Alex and I were busy with the houses, Lily took off with the book and decided to make some things on her own. She started with drums using things around my kitchen. These drums called for drumsticks made from pencils & rubber bands, but we didn’t have any rubber bands. Lily then got the brilliant idea to use her silly bands. Finally – something useful to do with those stupid things! By bedtime, all three had a set of silly band drumsticks. Of course I didn't get a picture of those and they have since been disassembled back to their full silly band glory.
I still haven't fully explored the book, but from what I've seen so far, it's a keeper. If you're looking for some fun things for you & your kids to make, definitely check this book out. I wish I had sooner!
