This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Nail Board Craft
Jan
6
2009
One of the other craft things we did over the Christmas break was rubber-band nail boards. These are the boards with lots of nails/pegs so that someone can stretch rubber bands in various shapes. This was our do-it-yourself/build-your-own craft for the week. The kids like playing with these at the children’s museums (musea?), so my wife thought they would like to have their own.
Cost:
- 1×12 board (4′ long): about $5
- a box of 1″ panel nails (250 count): about $3
- a box of rubber bands: about $1
Total: $9
Time:
- cut and rout boards: 15 minutes
- mark points on the board: 5 minutes
- pound nails into the board: 30 minutes
Total: 50 minutes
The kids spent about 30 minutes playing with the boards after they were done, so it’s a little pricey at $9 per child-hour of play. But I expect the rate to come down as they play more.
Details:
I started with a 1×12 board and cut it into a couple of 12×12 squares so that each child could have his own board. Then I routed the edges so that they were not so sharp – better child-friendliness.
Then I marked a grid of 100 dots to show where the nails were to go. I spaced them 1 inch apart, as that worked out rather nicely for the 12×12 square. Then the 3-year-old helped me pound in the nails. I started by drilling starter holes with a small drill bit, but it wasn’t worth it. I thought I could just push the nails into the holes and then the child could nail them the rest of the way. But it didn’t work that way. It was easier for me to just start nailing – hit the nail a couple of times and then let the kid finish the nail. I did have to watch it though and tell him when to stop pounding. Otherwise he would put the nail all the way down into the board. Since the nail is slightly longer than the board is thick, that would be a problem.
The nails did not end up to be very straight, but that’s not all the 3-year-old’s fault. I did the second board by myself and the nails were similarly crooked.
The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of {these} collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.
Ecclesiastes 12:11
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:14 pm and has been carefully placed in the Projects category.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Isn’t the cost ber child-hour of play $9 since both children played for 30 minutes (total cost $9 / 1 hour total play time)?
January 8th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
You’re right. The erroneous entry has been corrected.