Go Fly a Home Made Kite!

In the spirit of ‘Winnie The Pooh’, yesterday was definitely Winds-day at our house. So,  I thought that it was the perfect day to embark on some aeronautic engineering with the kids.

My kids and I have been kite flying many times using commercially purchased kites and it’s a lot of fun. When I was a kid, we couldn’t just go to the shop and just purchase a kite…it was a different, more frugal time and we lived a long way from a department store! But I always loved flying kites as a child and I have fond memories of trying to construct my own with all the other barefooted kids in the street …even using a plastic bag with string tied around the handles…(times HAVE changed…you can’t just get plastic shopping bags in Canberra anymore!)

With the help of my assistant, Dr Google, I researched the internet for the best home made kite. I came across this wonderful kite that promised to be the best home made kite EVER…and it was simple, all it required was…

1. a piece of A4 printer paper
2. sticky tape
3. a kebab stick
4. a piece of ribbon, or similar for a tail
5. string
6. a toilet paper roll (Well, OK, this is my contribution to the science of aeronautics…I thought the toilet paper roll would make a good kite spool…and it did!)
7. if you try the kite at home, reinforce the string hole with sticky tape before you hole punch. I also suggest reinforcing  the nose of the kite with tape too, as this is the first part to get ripped.

You can find the video tutorial and more information about this amazing kite here…

It really took no time at all to make 3 kites and they were out the door like a shot…bolting up and down the road to get that kite flying. It took us a little time but were soon able to get the kites flying well without even running up and down the hill….When I was flying my kite, I just couldn’t keep the smile off my face…gosh it felt good to see that kite sailing above me in the breeze. I can’t really explain why.... It just felt really good!

After our successful kite flying mission we decided in that universally human way to make our kites ‘bigger’ and ‘better’. First I tried a piece of small newspaper. It worked a dream…the weak spots had to be reinforced with sticky tape but the lighter larger kite caught the wind better and flew for longer. I have to say we were quite chuffed with this stroke of engineering brilliance!

Buoyed by or success the kids excitedly begged

 “…lets make a bigger one mum!!...”

So we used a large piece of newspaper. But sadly, I think we reached our limit. The wind keep causing the kite to fold in on it’s self and come crashing to the ground….well, even the best scientists have failed experiments right??

OK, so we might have taken things a little too far!

These kites were a fantastic school holiday activity and the whole deign and appraisal stage of the project was just as much fun as the actual kite flying….

…so what are you waiting for???....Go fly a kite!

Today I'm sharing our Aeronautic engineering for the last time and with Glow and I'm also sharing for flash blog friday over at Twinkle in the Eye. Come and see some great blogs!!!