Craft and Games as Infants: PART TWO
Good morning everyone,
One of our craft activities was making pictures from old match sticks. Usually, we would just arrange them into a picture but on occasion we’d stick them on to the back of a cereal box. These cereal boxes were our only regular source of cardboard other than shoe-boxes.
One of the books I treasured was a Ladybird book: Things to Make. It showed you how to make things made from card, and a favourite was a “whizzer,” It was a rectangular piece of card, which we coloured and had string threaded through in a loop. This was then held between our hands and rotated until the string was completely twisted. We would pull our hands apart, like a concertina and this would make the card spin and hum. The colours would have a rainbow effect or merge, but if the holes weren’t centred correctly or the cardboard was too thin, then the card would fall at an angle, instead of being horizontal and wouldn’t spin, which was very frustrating.
My elder brother also had the next book: ‘More things to Make.’ I recall him making a Chinese wallet, which fascinated me no end. It was made from card and ribbons and you could sandwich paper things under the ribbons by opening and shutting it in different ways. My Father even showed us how to do it with a large green pound note!