Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Lessons in Recycled Milk Jug Igloo Construction

We've been saving milk empty milk jugs for a few weeks, with plans to build an igloo. Today, we decided to give it a test run to see what we could come up with. In the process we learned a couple lessons, I thought I'd pass along.

Lesson 1: It takes a lot of milk jugs to make an igloo.

We had around 44 milk jugs, and I thought surely, that would be enough to build a small igloo. But, it became apparent after we set out the first row of containers, that we were going to be short. Still, I thought maybe it would be alright to start out with a kind of fort wall, and then expand on it little by little, as we drank more milk.


We ended up with a pretty fun kind of wall, and the girls began to make plans for it's use. They decided a blanket could be draped over it, for a temporary roof, and it would make a nice fort, or maybe a pretend dog house. Of course, they all agreed, if we were to get anymore snow, it could be hauled outside, and used as a barrier to hide behind in a snowball fight with the boys.

Lesson 2: A milk jug igloo should be built where it is going to stand, because it cannot be easily moved.

I started our igloo in the kitchen, because I wanted to hot glue the milk jugs together, and so did not want to be on the carpet. Our kitchen is quite small though, and we wanted to move it out of the way before lunch. The girls helped me lift it carefully, four of us working together. But, the milk jugs flexed, and the hot glue did not. So, we were back to square one.

The empty jugs were stored away again, under the stairs, until we manage to gather a few more. Hopefully, the lessons of today, will mean success for tomorrow.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

3 comments:

  1. I can't imagine storing that many milk cartons.

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  2. We have a spot under the stairs, where they are out of the way, or by now my husband would have gotten rid of them.

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  3. Holy cow, that's a lot of milk jugs! What a fun project though!

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