fast toys for kids

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Bleach boy and I noticed long ago that children will usually take the most unusual things as toys and rarely have as much fun with the store bought toys. Our first refrigerator box was an amazing toy. They made tanks and houses, and caves and untold fun things from that box. So today we will work on some fast easy toys made from anything but toy materials!

The flying straw

Carry the materials in your purse and you will always have something to amuse.

A drinking straw a paper Clip a 1/2" wide stiff paper that is about 4 to 6 inches long. This should be shoe box cardboard, or card stock, I have cardboard that my kitty food comes in that works.

1. put paperclip in the center of the cardboard piece

2. put both ends of the paperclip into the straw

3 This sounds tricky but look at the photo above. The cardboard propeller needs some "pitch" so it can spin through the air. To do this grasp one side of the paper clip between your thumb and pointer finger and give the strip a clockwise twist until it is almost flat but pointing slightly up to the right. Twist the other side of the cardboard the same way, and the same direction.

Now rub that straw between you palms and let it fly. The faster you can rub the straw the higher and faster the little helicopter flies. You might need to try a different pitch on the cardboard to keep it flying.

OK another flying toy.

Once again plastic drinking straw 2 paper clips notebook size sheet of heavy paper (magazine cover type paper)

1. Cut one strip of the paper 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long

Cut another strip of paper half this size wide but 11 inches long

2. Put one paper clip into an end of the straw so that the big end is inside the straw and the small end is outside the straw. Put the other paper clip into the other end of the straw the same way. align the two smaller loops of the paper clip so that they are facing each other as best as possible.

3. Take the narrow paper strip and fold in half and make a double strip into a loop with the end over lapping. Attach the paper loop at the overlap to one of the paper clips. See photo above

4. The wider paper strip is used to make a loop for the other paper clip on the straw.

Now be sure both circles of paper are both up and aligned. Hold the straw in the center, be sure the smaller circle is in the front. Don't throw this glider, just give it a firm push forward.

When I did this with my cub Scouts (long ago) they flew these for long distances.

Hope you have good weather to go flying! This and many other activities for kids can be found in Steven Caney's KIDS AMERICA a book printed in 1978. Yes a long time ago.