Last week, while I was at Britmums live, Project Dad from Parragon Books came just in time for Mr C to try out with both children. This book will give dad some ideas of what to do together with their children.
The book contains 20 exciting projects for outdoor and indoor activities. The outdoor activities are: build your own bug hotel, build your own natural shelter, how to build a campfire, classic glider, make your own explorer kit, have a garden camp out, scavenger hunt, create a nature scrapbook, kite and a day at the beach.
As for the indoor activities, they are: drawbridge castle, pom-pom puppy, catapult game, crusher-bot puppet, imaginative questions, get creative in the kitchen, shadow puppet theatre, monster truck, cora the sock caterpillar and I am great. At the back of the book, it comes with a few templates for the listed projects above.
Each project comes with clear instructions, beautiful images that guide you through each step and an indication of the approximate time required. It also comes with dad tips to help them along the way. So Mr C picked to make a kite with the children as we have the materials to hand. Kite Making!
Materials:
- A3 paper
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Stapler
- Hole punch
- 80cm thin ribbon
- 60cm wide ribbon
- Scissors
- Ball of thin string
Method:
- Decorate both sides of the A3 paper and fold the paper in half widthways, making sure the shortest edges meet at the top.
- With the creased edge at the bottom, facing towards you, measure 6.5 inches from the right hand edge and mark with a pencil. Measure another 6.5cm from the first pencil mark and mark again with a pencil.
- With the creased edge at the bottom, curl over the top layer of paper so that the top right hand corner meets the first pencil mark. Hold it in place with your finger.
- Pick up the paper, still holding the first corner in place and curl over the other side to meet the same pencil mark. Pinch together between finger and thumb and staple the two sides together, making sure not to catch your fingers in the stapler.
- Use a hold punch to punch a hole at the second pencil mark.
- With a ruler and pencil, take one end of the thin ribbon and make six marks at 10cm intervals along the length of the ribbon. There should be still be an unmarked length of 20cm at the end.
- Cut the wide ribbon into six shorter lengths, each measuring 10cm. Tie these short ribbons around the thin ribbon in a small knot at each of the marked intervals.
- Use the stapler to staple one end of the thin ribbon to the opposite end of the creased fold.
- Thread the string through the hole you created with the hole punch. Tie the string in a loose loop.
Voilà! This is the kite! It is such a simple idea but there is engineering at work here! They tried to fly the kite but unfortunately we probably had one of the calmest days of year on Sunday! It is just so typical!
Project Dad is published by Parragon Book and it is available to buy on WHSmith and Amazon.
Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for free. However, they have not paid me for this review, and they do not exercise any editorial control over my review or anything else on this site. We have included an Amazon affiliate link to the product. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission.