One of Koji's favorite activities right now is throwing. We're working hard to help him remember that he is allowed to throw balls, and that's about it. Not food. Not other toys. Not friends (just kidding, he's pretty strong, but not enough to bench-press a friend...yet).
Getting him out of the bathtub is usually a chore because I'm shouting, er, quietly insisting that he put his bath toys away in the bucket while he's merrily tossing them in all directions. Fun times.
A minute ago, he got the idea that it would be fun to throw a piece of paper. One of his better ideas, don't you agree? And more so if it was a paper airplane, right? But what do I know about making paper airplanes? Nothing! Folding paper in general is not something I consider one of my prime skills, in spite of years of living in Japan. The origami tradition didn't rub off on me somehow.
So of course I had to look online for directions. First I tried this one. "Multiple folds of paper concentrate the center of gravity well below and forward of the wings for hang-glider stability" sounds great, but unfortunately turned out to be a little too hard for me to duplicate.
Next I tried Joseph Palmer's PL-1. This is a keeper! Not too difficult for a less than dextrous mom to make, yet flies pretty well. Phew. Now we can fly and land our planes in the safety of our living room and continue to avoid dangerous Midway!
1 comment:
Hey Jamie,
I used to make paper planes all the time when I was a kid. My dad showed me how to make one thats very similar to the PL-1 design and from the minute he did, all I did for months was to make these planes, I filled a whole drawer full of them in different sizes! :-)
I'd advise you not to teach Koji how to make them for a long time, that way you can still control the number of planes invading your house. :-)
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