Saturday, February 26, 2011

Refurbishing Old (Recycled) Toys


One thing we've learned, as we've been studying Frank Lloyd Wright, is the amount of upkeep his houses (and all older homes) require. Owners have to deal with crumbling cantilevers, leaking roofs, and pealing paint. Restoration is a continual process.

In keeping with the spirit of restoration, the girls decided to paint our cardboard building shapes.


Remember our geo-building shapes?


The ones we cut from the dismantled remains of our cardboard submarine?


Well, they're still around. Painting them was really more of a refurbishing, than a restoration project, because they were never painted in the first place. But, adding color restored the children's interest them. They ran out of table space, and time, and so only painted the fronts of most of the pieces.


Even so, the Disney Princesses didn't seem to mind.


I'm not super crazy about the rough texture of the Crayola Washable Paint, but the bright colors really attracted the children (and apparently a host of monstrous toys).






It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to breath new life into a house...er...toy.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

7 comments:

Joyful Learner said...

I love everything about this project...the use of recycled materials, the colors, the house, the fence around it, etc. It looks fabulous and leaves so much room for imagination. We have a large cardboard box but need the extra hands to cut them up. Can I borrow your kids for a day?

Christy Killoran said...

I am impressed that you still had all of those pieces!

I love the project.

Cindy said...

Okay, so I want to know how you have all these children and all these projects and have a carpet that looks immaculate?!?!!!!!!

Nice project, too, btw!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Love2teach2day - I think maybe pictures can be deceiving :) But, now you know why we do most of our work in the kitchen!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Oh, the comment from Love2Teach cracked me up. The project looks so awesome, and I am impressed that your self-made toys have such a long life!

sbswtp said...

So fun! I love the pictures :-)

Debbie said...

I love the idea of recycling your old homemade toys. Too many times things just get thrown out and new things bought. A little paint can always go along way in making something old seem like something new.