Good ideas for stuff to make with children :)

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

Nice ideas. My daughter Ivy (4) loves the outdoors and I'll keep looking here for ideas. We do basic plant ID and nature trivia. She also likes collecting stuff!
I bought the 'Going Wild' book but it's aimed at young teens so not *just* yet.

Do Not Demand What You Cannot Take By Force

 

[sandbender]

"...Basically if it uses natural materials in it's construction then it's a good idea..."

I can offer my racing cars, quite popular with my children.

Taken from something similar I saw in a Rudolf Steiner book.

There are also some quite nice wooden toys to be found in this earlier thread.

 

[sandbender]

This might also be of interest, making wooden animals with wood turning.

 

[Paddytray]

latex masks are an easy one get a polystyrene head from ebay and layer it with torn up baby wipes soaked in liquid latex. build up 2-3 layers you can roll it up and pin it in places for added dimensions . add food colouring for skin tone then paint with acrylics we added horns to one .

 

[Hypnagog]

These story telling discs are a brilliant idea from Hypnogog

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116605

When that thread quietens down I'll ask him to post the stuff here under his own name.

M

Thank you.

This has reminded me that I have to go back and rub the pencil guides out on the discs...

Here is the full post:

A while ago I played a game with my children using "Story Cubes" (basically some dice with pictures or symbols on them which you roll and have to incorporate into an improvised story).

It was good fun, so we set about making our own version of them with a bushcrafty-feel. I reckon this would be a good game to play around a campfire.

I took a branch of Eucalyptus from a pile in my garden, and cut it into discs of roughly equal thickness, then gave them a quick sanding.

Then I roughly drew some pencil designs onto them and heated the tip of a bradawl until it glowed red and burned the designs into each face of the wood "coin".

I found that I could get a about three lines burned in before it needed reheating.

The full set...

To play you draw 6 symbols randomly from the bag, lay them out in whichever order you choose and then tell a story. Some of the designs are obvious, and some are ambiguous, so are down to interpretation (is it a symbol for a Hospital or a Helipad etc etc?) making things a little more interesting.

I've found that when playing it, the best way is not to treat it as a challenge to get through them as quickly as possible, but to have a bit of fun and you can get some fairly elaborate stories told with them.

 

[Harvestman]

That last one is superb! I've got an interview for a teaching job as an outdoor educator for my local Wildlife Trust next week, and that is exactly what I need to show ideas and innovation. Brilliant.

 

[Paddytray]

I agree with Harvestman that's a great idea for getting together and having a giigle

 

[Frazer]

As Harvestman says, these would be great for those in Outdoor Education. The 'Story Cubes' or 'Story Dice' are a tool I've seen used very well, and I've been looking for elements to turn bushcrafty - i.e. I'm stealing this!

 

[Countryman]

Not so much a making thing though I could describe it as making a Bushcraft kit or BOB.
I just spent 2-3 fantastic hours with my 3 kids sorting out our bushcraft packs.
I have acquired a few items over the last few months and really hadn't inventoried our stuff since we returned from Bushmoot. (Everywhere we gooo. People want to knooow.!!!)
I used the opportunity to test the kids on the priorities for survival. We then broke down our kit into those categories and made sure that we each had items to make that possible. Shelter, water, food.
My youngest son earned the Swiss Army knife I swapped recently, middle daughter the mess kit I bought from the classifieds. Everybody got a ration pack and delighted in negotiating for things they liked for things they didnt.
My kids know that those bags are the prelude to a very short notice bushcraft night. They are really excited.
I find kids love packing bits and bobs into small tins, then tins into packs.
From my perspective I know what got broken, lost and what we might need to improve on.
Can't tell you what a rewarding experience this was.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sandbender]

Decorating 'Easter' eggs.

In much of Europe the 'chocolate easter egg' thing is becoming more common, however the practice of decorating chicken eggs for easter is still the norm. Typically the eggs are wrapped in a piece of cloth which also contains onion skins or some alternative ingredient and then hard boiled. Sometimes leaves (Mint or similar) are pressed onto the shell first to make interesting patterns.

Different materials can produce quite different colours.

More on this Facebook page.

Although eggs and easter are commonly considered to be a Christian thing, the use of eggs in traditional activities at this time of year (spring) does predate Christianity. This becomes more obvious the further east one travels. In Hungary the tradition has the eggs being prepared by girls who will then find themselves pursued by boys who will throw a bucket of water over them, they will then present the egg to the boy who soaked them.

Read into that what you will.

 

[shack]

Decorating 'Easter' eggs.

In much of Europe the 'chocolate easter egg' thing is becoming more common, however the practice of decorating chicken eggs for easter is still the norm. Typically the eggs are wrapped in a piece of cloth which also contains onion skins or some alternative ingredient and then hard boiled. Sometimes leaves (Mint or similar) are pressed onto the shell first to make interesting patterns.

Different materials can produce quite different colours.

More on this Facebook page.

Although eggs and easter are commonly considered to be a Christian thing, the use of eggs in traditional activities at this time of year (spring) does predate Christianity. This becomes more obvious the further east one travels. In Hungary the tradition has the eggs being prepared by girls who will then find themselves pursued by boys who will throw a bucket of water over them, they will then present the egg to the boy who soaked them.

Read into that what you will.

oh they look great, love the colours and haven't done it for years. Thanks for the timely reminder.

 

[shack]

Well done there, they look great, I've done a similar story thing when everyone goes and collects an item and they all add the next bit to the on-going story sticking their item into the mix. I like your idea as could be done when a selection of natural items might be in short supply. I keep thinking about investing in a pyrography pen? kit but struggle to justify the price tag (about £50 for the batt powered set up) I tried a butane solder torch but didn't work vey well.

Thank you.

This has reminded me that I have to go back and rub the pencil guides out on the discs...

Here is the full post:

A while ago I played a game with my children using "Story Cubes" (basically some dice with pictures or symbols on them which you roll and have to incorporate into an improvised story).

It was good fun, so we set about making our own version of them with a bushcrafty-feel. I reckon this would be a good game to play around a campfire.

I took a branch of Eucalyptus from a pile in my garden, and cut it into discs of roughly equal thickness, then gave them a quick sanding.

Then I roughly drew some pencil designs onto them and heated the tip of a bradawl until it glowed red and burned the designs into each face of the wood "coin".

I found that I could get a about three lines burned in before it needed reheating.

The full set...

To play you draw 6 symbols randomly from the bag, lay them out in whichever order you choose and then tell a story. Some of the designs are obvious, and some are ambiguous, so are down to interpretation (is it a symbol for a Hospital or a Helipad etc etc?) making things a little more interesting.

I've found that when playing it, the best way is not to treat it as a challenge to get through them as quickly as possible, but to have a bit of fun and you can get some fairly elaborate stories told with them.

 

[shack]

Hello, newbie here!
'Sticky bread' is a great campfire food for kids to make. Just take a lump of bread dough and roll/ stretch it into a long sausage, wind it round a stick and cook it over the fire.
If you choose the right size stick, you can pull cooked bread off the stick and put a sausage in it. Delicious.

I've done bread countless times, but really like the idea of the sausage in the middle, you could easily do it with a hot dog sausage (hate the dogs tails myself but the kids devour them)

 

[shack]

Half my job is doing stuff in schools with kids and a couple of fun things is making a chocolate orange sponge cake using the orange as the oven, so basically use a packet of choc sponge mix and slice big orange in half and squeeze juice into cup to drink with cake -don't use instead of water in the cake mix as makes it way too orangey (ask me how I know) add the mix into the empty orange skin and either cook them on the embers or in a lightly sealed 'roses' tin or similar (I do this method rather straight on embers)
I work in 2 primary and one secondary school and all are happy with my fire stuff, so everyone who has had or got issues with schools not being keen please pm me and I can share my approach with my schools to see if that helps!

 

[catapultkid]

The story telling discs look fantastic, kids need to be interactive.

 

[Mesquite]

I picked this idea up from a 41 genius camping ideas and thought it'd be a great thing to do for kids when on a walk.

Kids can make an adorable and easy keepsake bracelet out of duct tape.

They can stick things on, like tiny pebbles, flowers, or leaves, and create a souvenir from their nature walk. Just make sure the sticky side is on the outside.

 

[MoorsGirl]

I love those story discs! There were some really good ideas on that article about genius camping ideas, I particularly liked the ones with the baileys dipped marshmallows and the oreos
My nephews (9) like wittling with bits of wood, it does mean they need a sharp knife but they don't want to cut themselves as much as we don't want them to.

 

[Robson Valley]

My twin grandsons turned one, Oct.06/14. What to give them for birthday presents?

Substantial inventory of 3/4" x 3/4" x 14" clear birch blanks from a spoon making project.
Quit/bored after 70 spoons and 30 forks.

So, I happily cut up some blanks, a little touch-up sanding, to make several dozen simple wooden blocks.
No designs, just plain, to be anything they can imagine.
Apparently, the boys liked to pile them into plastic containers then dump them out, then do it again.
As their hand-eye coordination grows, they try to pile them up.

 

[Tommyd345]

Loving the ideas so far! , if you have access to elder you can hollow the middle out and make a pea shooter! (Did one the other day and was really surprised how well it works!) depending on season you can use berries to shoot
Also can make a small bow, basically a shaved stick with some string, kids love the idea of being legolas

 

[Toddy]

Ehm, peashooters are illegal….they come a cropper under the anti blowpipe legislation.

"the weapon sometimes known as a "blowpipe" or "blow gun" , being a hollow tube out of which hard pellets or darts are shot by the use of breath;

Criminal Justice Act 1988 "

Stick to making whistles