sticks and stones... 1

Sticks and stones... may pile up in collections, but surely I am determined to find a use for them!

Already I have used two of Zeru's sticks for fishing poles, but somehow he keeps finding more indispensable sticks. So, I decided to come up with more uses for "household sticks" some moms, such as myself, may find lying around their house.

 For our first easy project yesterday we designed and made our own flag. I happened to have some fabric lying around so I let Zeru use his markers on it, then we stapled it to one of the straight sticks. He was pretty proud of it. I had considered printing out some real flag ideas to discuss other countries or cultures, but he was eager to design his own, so maybe for another day! You could just make the flag out of paper and print out a variety of country flags then when the child chooses a flag that could be the country they learn about for that day... maybe we will do that soon!

For our second project all it took was examining the sticks and using my imagination. One was shaped perfectly for a little bow! So, why not? We have a small hand drill lying around so I drilled a hole on either end and found a rubber band. I used wire through the band loop and wrapped the wire around the end of the stick to keep rubber band in place. You could probably staple a rubber band around the loop onto the stick instead.

Another stick was already perfect for an arrow, having a dull point on one end and notch on the thicker back end.

I know it may sound crazy giving my 4 year old a bow and arrow, but he seems interested in archery, so why not? I understand for some boys this may be a terrible idea- so use your own good judgement!

Onto archery lessons!

It took several tries before he could get the hang of it, but by evening we had a target on the wall and he was shooting it! Go figure!

I hope to incorporate some scriptures into a lesson around his new bow and arrow- and his flag too as a matter of fact. I will keep it posted!

Who would have thought sticks could be so much fun?