Toilet Paper Tube Binoculars

With all the bird watching we've been doing, and are hoping to do, it seemed only natural to put together a pair of play binoculars for the the girls. Toilet paper tube binoculars are nothing new in our house, or probably in yours.

Generally, the children make their own by stapling together a couple of empty toilet paper tubes, and then decorating them with crayons. This time, I thought we'd see if we couldn't make a more realistic looking pair, for their pretend play. Meaning, that this is more of a Mommy done craft, though the girls did kick it off, by painting the tubes, inside and out, with black tempera paint for me.

When they were dry, or mostly dry, I glued strips of black fun foam around both ends, securing them first with rubber bands, and when that didn't work, with clothes pins, until they were dry.

On the top ends of the tubes, I punched a holes in the tubes, and the fun foam, opposite from where the fun foam seams would come together, for a cord to go through, later. You can see from the picture, that I got a little carried away with glue, and so things got messier than they needed to.

When the glue on the fun foam was dry, I glued the two tubes, seam side together, at the fun foam, again securing them with clothes pins, until they were dry.

While I was waiting for the glue to dry, I laced both ends of a piece of string long enough to drape easily around the girls' necks, into the two holes. Then, I tied knots in the ends, and secured them with clear tape.

Finally, I colored the top of black soda bottle caps black with a marker, and glued them to the top of each binocular, in case the girls might need to adjust their focus.

They're not exactly the same as Daddy's, but close enough, that hopefully, even though we have a couple of good pairs out, near windows, they won't end up being carted away for play time, when I'm not looking.

It's great to be a homeschooler.