Sailing down the river - lolly stick boats

The challenge for this week's craft hangout with Red Ted Art was lolly sticks (or wooden coffee stirrers if, like me, you have kleptomaniacal tendencies when in local coffee shops).

Some fabulous ideas shared again, check out the video and links below.

I wanted to make something we could take outdoors and play with, to extend the activity further.  I tried a kite but it was a disaster (combination of size of kite; lack of wind and distinct lack of high hills round here).

So then I struck on the idea of making little boats that we could take to the river and race.

They are super-easy to make.  For speed I used a glue gun, but if the kids are involved and you have a little patience, PVA glue will work fine.

You can come up with all manner of designs with the humble lolly stick and for older children it's good to experiment on what designs and size works well, what floats best and what sails fastest.

Kids can personalise their sails with drawings or stickers or you can use decorative paper, tissue paper or even re-use old plastic bags.

Then take them to the river and...on your marks...get set...GO!

This activity brought out rather a lot of competitiveness (particularly from Daddy it has to be said), but rather like a jockey-less horse, my view is a capsized boat isn't the winner - even if it does come first.

We had some rather persistent interference from a local swan too, so next time we'll take bread to throw him off the scent.

We had such a great time sailing our boats and it's definitely something we'll do again.  Just as soon as I've purloined more sticks.

**Think safety first near water***

Click on the links to see instructions for all these craft stick ideas:

Beautiful bi-planes by Kids Chaos
Red Ted Art's Traffic light biscuit pops and superhero puppets
Craftulate's Craft Stick Magnets
Plus 2 Point 4's snowflakes
Easel photo holders by Zing Zing Tree