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There are times when a parent needs to do a little conjuring. Nothing magical, of course; it's simple
necessary to be able to create opportunities for play and diversion out of found materials in the home. It
may be a rainy day, or someone came home after a day at kindergarten that just wasn't what it should have
been. It's time to come up with a little surprise, to produce some fun in the same way a magician pulls a
rabbit from a hat. And it's really not hard to do.
Children don't need to have expensive toys to have fun. With a little imagination you will find that the
ordinary items found in the average kitchen, for instance, can be put to uses quite different from those the
manufacturers intended. For example, take the humble paper plate. Yes, we know that you bought some to
serve food on when you just didn't feel like doing the dishes, but they have a play value as well.
One of the things you can do with paper plates is to make a flying saucer, a quick and inexpensive
substitute for a Frisbee. All that you'll need are two paper plates, tape or a stapler, and crayons or markers.
A single paper plate is usually too lightweight to have the strength and momentum necessary for a good
flight, but two paper plates joined together by their rims will sail beautifully through the air. You'll be joining
them with the tape or staples, with the concave (hollow) sides facing each other, so that you'll end up with a
disk about an inch thick.
Before fastening them together, though, ask your child to decorate it. It's a flying saucer, so maybe it
needs portholes, doors, astronauts or aliens inside, insignia around the edges. It can be left largely white,
or colored in rainbow hues. The important thing is that by decorating it, your child has transformed it into
something special-his or her own toy-rather than just a piece of cardboard to throw.
Tape or staple the two decorated plates together around the edges. It's going to take a bit of
punishment, so don't worry about overdoing it with the tape! Incidentally, if you use staples, check to make
sure that they have bent smoothly into place, to avoid scratching or cutting little fingers. You can always
cover them with a layer or two of tape to be sure they're safe.
The completed flying saucer can be thrown just like a Frisbee: grasped by one edge and held
horizontally, it is launched with a flick of the wrist that makes it rotate as it leaves the hand. It will travel quite
a distance outside, particularly on days of little or no wind. Tossed with less force, it can be used for a
game of catch.
Better yet, it can safely be played with indoors, something that can't be said of the store-bought plastic
flying discs. There's not enough inertia in two paper plates to inflict real damage on household furnishings,
as long as the saucer pilots aren't allowed to launch their flights near shelves of delicate glass figurines or
other such obvious danger spots.
With the flying saucer successfully attempted, try to think of other play possibilities you can come up with
for paper plates. They make great masks, for example, and one can make a kite from a paper plate by
attaching a crepe paper or ribbon tail to one edge, taping one or two straws flat across the back to stiffen it,
and taping or tying a flying string to the front. Once you start applying your imagination to ordinary
household objects in this way, your child's days need never be dull again!
necessary to be able to create opportunities for play and diversion out of found materials in the home. It
may be a rainy day, or someone came home after a day at kindergarten that just wasn't what it should have
been. It's time to come up with a little surprise, to produce some fun in the same way a magician pulls a
rabbit from a hat. And it's really not hard to do.
Children don't need to have expensive toys to have fun. With a little imagination you will find that the
ordinary items found in the average kitchen, for instance, can be put to uses quite different from those the
manufacturers intended. For example, take the humble paper plate. Yes, we know that you bought some to
serve food on when you just didn't feel like doing the dishes, but they have a play value as well.
One of the things you can do with paper plates is to make a flying saucer, a quick and inexpensive
substitute for a Frisbee. All that you'll need are two paper plates, tape or a stapler, and crayons or markers.
A single paper plate is usually too lightweight to have the strength and momentum necessary for a good
flight, but two paper plates joined together by their rims will sail beautifully through the air. You'll be joining
them with the tape or staples, with the concave (hollow) sides facing each other, so that you'll end up with a
disk about an inch thick.
Before fastening them together, though, ask your child to decorate it. It's a flying saucer, so maybe it
needs portholes, doors, astronauts or aliens inside, insignia around the edges. It can be left largely white,
or colored in rainbow hues. The important thing is that by decorating it, your child has transformed it into
something special-his or her own toy-rather than just a piece of cardboard to throw.
Tape or staple the two decorated plates together around the edges. It's going to take a bit of
punishment, so don't worry about overdoing it with the tape! Incidentally, if you use staples, check to make
sure that they have bent smoothly into place, to avoid scratching or cutting little fingers. You can always
cover them with a layer or two of tape to be sure they're safe.
The completed flying saucer can be thrown just like a Frisbee: grasped by one edge and held
horizontally, it is launched with a flick of the wrist that makes it rotate as it leaves the hand. It will travel quite
a distance outside, particularly on days of little or no wind. Tossed with less force, it can be used for a
game of catch.
Better yet, it can safely be played with indoors, something that can't be said of the store-bought plastic
flying discs. There's not enough inertia in two paper plates to inflict real damage on household furnishings,
as long as the saucer pilots aren't allowed to launch their flights near shelves of delicate glass figurines or
other such obvious danger spots.
With the flying saucer successfully attempted, try to think of other play possibilities you can come up with
for paper plates. They make great masks, for example, and one can make a kite from a paper plate by
attaching a crepe paper or ribbon tail to one edge, taping one or two straws flat across the back to stiffen it,
and taping or tying a flying string to the front. Once you start applying your imagination to ordinary
household objects in this way, your child's days need never be dull again!
| Written by Michael O'Hearn. All Rights Reserved. Published September 2007 by The Homesteader - York County & Lancaster County, South Carolina, Edition. |
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