Comment by pbhjpbhj
15 years ago
This sort of story makes me sad. We don't have a tree house, we don't even have a tree. We don't have money to spend at the DIY store to keep the house in shape never mind making checkers boards for fun. I thought I was getting pretty good at quenching the covetousness that society seemed to have imbued me with but when one realises that stuff is needed for many uplifting experiences.
Realising the great joy certain things brought me as a kid and realising that those things are beyond the reach of my kids ... Gah.
A happy story made me sad; I'm too easily depressed.
Aside: email games seems really retro.
I made a 'Ponyo' boat out of a used soda can (which I took from the office), a used milk/juice carton (which I took for a party I went to). Didn't cost anything (even the glue I used was the end of a pot of epoxy I've had for years).
http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/making-ponyo-or-putt-putt-boat.h...
Fun to do if you have kids.
That looks really good ... going to need a hot-glue gun first. Actually though some multi-purpose tube glue that I use to stick my shoes with should do it. Still not free.
It's funny, so often with these makes there are hidden costs. Silver spray can is quite expensive where I am. Of course you can skip that part.
Nothing is free, but can be a negligible cost. You can make temporary paper glue out of flour and water, you can boil it down to use for paper mache. You can add food colouring to your water & flour mix to make paint.
Food colouring cost money, as does flours, but you can make your own from plants/cereals if you really feel the need.
Either you have enough money to buy some glue, or you can spend time teaching your kids how to make it. If your kids have an impressive enough attention span, you'll be teaching them something by making the glue, even more if you make the flour!
Money just makes things convient/easy. You're trying to teach, lack of money helps that.
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You could use almost any glue for the non-engine parts. The hot glue is good because it's simple. Agree on the silver paint, it is expensive and totally unnecessary. I painted it because there was a can in the house that my SO had used for spraying pine cones to make Christmas decorations and I figure there was no point the last of it going to waste.
I'm a big believer in not throwing stuff away that could be potentially useful.
We don't have a tree house, or a tree, either. The lesson I've learned from having two boys on one grad student's stipend is that they would almost always play with an empty milk jug than some plastic toy from Kids'R'Us. We have a bunch of big old fancy plastic toys people gave us and the boys have spent a total of about 10 minutes looking at them. How long have they spent building towers from old cardboard boxes and knocking them down? I haven't counted, but it's a long time.
There's a hidden advantage to this: if you're wealthy it is harder to raise your children to be resourceful without money. Growing up, money was one resource I did not have much access to; instead, many of my toys were self-built, my projects often involved making money, and my motivation sprung from necessity. I really couldn't have asked for a better education as an engineer/entrepreneur.
While money makes things a lot easier my kids make most of their things from the boxes, paper packaging, old clothes and wrapping paper that we stash away. We bulk buy PVA glue for them to use from DIY stores so it really costs very little for them to experiment/play.
There's got to be a surplus/junk store like http://sciplus.com in your area (that one's got locations in Chicago and Milwaukee). Boatloads of cheap arts and crafts materials: cotton balls, tissue paper, glue sticks, chalk, markers, etc. I spent $30 there and got about four shoeboxes full of random crap for my nieces to craft with.
Dollar stores are great for this stuff. And office supply stores can be especially nice during back-to-school sales. And wander down every aisle in the drugstore - wooden spoons! Cupcake liners! Ping-pong balls!
I've never seen a place like SciPlus in your link.
However, can I drag you back to my initial bleatings - the point being that it is a rich persons gift to their child to allow them free rein in such a hardware project.
Yes we have lots of craft materials that we've acquired over the years, no we don't have $30 to spend on "random crap". But this precious little to do with where we started ...
My mother used to save the plastic milk crates we got and we would use those and a bit of glue to make stuff.
Doesn't take that much.
We're pretty creative when it comes to craft. Yes we reuse what packaging and what-have-you that we can but this isn't at all the same experience as a kid thinking "hmm I'd like to make a checker board" and then being free to go out and buy the materials and make it with their dad.
Lets be honest, you can only make so much out of plastic drinks cartons and cardboard packaging. Even then it's like, oh we need some clamps, a decent trimming tool, etc..
Don't worry I'm just exhausted with "making do" at the moment. At the risk of broadcasting a break down I think I'd better slip away quietly ...
Trees grow in woods. So does wood. It is an elaborate lie fabricated by the home making industry that wood grows in home builder stores.
Really curious about your situation. How can there be nothing you can do?
You can get cheap (essentially free) and perfectly good wood from recycling centers and such places. You don't need a tree to make a fort. I had a tree fort, but I honestly think the most important part is the fort. Even if it's only four feet tall and sitting on the ground, it will still be boat-loads of fun.
You don't need a large amount of resources & cash to follow this style of parenting/teaching. The main point is spending the time, listening & follow your child's lead.
Too often as adults we take over, we are too quick to step in, solve problems, "help" & rescue. Playing dumb can be the smartest thing to do sometimes.