Old timey kid stuff

[CarolAnn]

So many kids today have their own tv and DVD, games, the old computer, and the attendent electronics that basic skills are being forgotten!

I think it would be fun to list the really old stuff that used to keep kids busy.

I'll list a few to get it started -
String Buzzer:
A 2" square piece of thin board or cardboard with two holes punched about 1/4" apart near the center, strung with a little over 2' of string tied together. *Pull the loops out to center the cardboard in the middle so you can hook a finger or thumb in the string at each end. Rotate your hands to get the buzzer started twisting the string up one way. When you pull out on the twisted line, the buzzer starts to spin hard to unwind, and then winds the opposite direction, pulling your hands closer together as the thread twists up again. Repeat the pulling motion and the buzzer continues spinning - and making a parent-annoying sound all the while. Huge coat buttons work for this too - and be careful not to catch your hair in the strings and they twist - it'll pull it right out! If you're a boy (or a naughty little sister) you can chase big sisters with this.

String & can telephone: Two cans, one string (wire works better) fasten the string between the cans. String must be stretched tight to carry the sound waves.

Button jewelry: Thread buttons on a string with a fat (and fairly safe) dull darning needle. All old clothes have their buttons cut off and saved in a cookie can for this purpose. (Well, it was a way to recycle buttons, but kids made a lot of necklaces this way while they learned to use a needle and thread - and it kept them quiet while they practiced eye-hand coordination!)

Grass whistle: choose a heavy, long blade of grass. Suspend it tightly between the base of the thumbs and the thumb tips pressed together. Blow on the blade to make it sound like shreaking livestock. Hide when big brother comes out to see what's getting the chickens. Repeat.

Any other ideas?

[CarolAnn]

Save clean boxes of all sizes, bits of light fabric, trims, etc., - anything that would be convertable to doll house furniture. Use a large, sturdy box for the doll house, or glue several together (flaps removed, open sides facing the back.)

Prepasted wall paper works well, but it's best to choose very small prints. The interior of the doll house can be painted with any left-over room paints. Once started, lots of things will present themselves as small enough to furnish the house. Catalogs are a great source of pictures that can be cut out -framed pictures for the walls, small wall clocks, etc. Bits of fabric drape windows cut into the sides. Glue stones together to make a fire place in one end. Glue fabric to boxes to make uhpolstered furniture - cut down as needed.

A shoe box makes a four-poster bed - the posts are made from gluing two peg-type clothes pins head-to-head for each post & the lid makes the top. It looks pretty good with a full fabric cover!

A salt box cut down makes a pretty good barrel chair.

[DV8]

We loved to play with buttons !! My Great Grandmother used to use ALL the old clothing for other projects. shirts she would cut the fabric into quilt pieces, pants usually became patches for other pants, or more quilt pieces.. etc.

The buttons she saved, & had probably a million when she passed away.

What kid in his right mind wouldn't see an abundance of treasure in millions of brightly colored & patterned buttons ? :D

~DV8

[12vman]

How 'bout the piece of cardboard and a clothes pin thing..

Remember hookin' a piece of cardboard to a fender support on your bicycle allowing the cardboard to rub the spokes to make it sound like a motorcycle..?

[Penny_Plinker]

We used to find a wet gooey mudhole, some jar lids and make mud pies. At a certain consistency the mud could be used like clay to make things. Sometimes we actually had the money to buy a pack of play clay from the dime store. It'd come in 4 colors and was smooth and clean and smelled good. Then after a couple of days it'd be full of dirt and lumpy and cruddy from grimy hands, but fun while it lasted. Ditto crayons which soon became broken and the paper tore off. Usually the 8 packs...24 packs was a treasure (64 packs was for rich kids).

Grapevine swings. We used to find thick ones in the woods, the best would be against a steep bank. You cut the bottom and swung way out over the bank and it'd be a thrill because you'd be fairly high up. The vine would last so long then it'd break, and it'd always be my oldest brother who broke it, guess he was heaviest. Miraculously, he never got hurt.

We also used to build dams in a small creek to create swimming holes, or if any farmers had ponds for watering their stock, we'd use them for a swimming hole.

Penny

[Penny_Plinker]

We were also always trying to ride calves. My sister and i wanted a horse but only had a calf at the time and we were sure a calf could be trained to ride. She claimed to be too heavy for the calf so i had to be the one to break it. It would buck wildly even with her leading it so it never really worked out. We also tried to ride big dogs, but all they did was sit down. Would also try to train them to be sled dogs, in the winter, but that never worked either.

penny
Penny

[12vman]

Ah, yes.. The grapevine swing.. Tarzan didn't have anything on usin's.. ;)

There was a thicket of pine trees in my area that we used to play in. We got tired playin' cowbows/indians all of the time and came up with a great thrill seeker adventure..

We found a long piece of rope at one of my friends house and a set of goggles (eye protection) for welding at another house..

One of us would climb as high as we could up into a pine tree and tied off the rope, leavin' the other end at ground level. Several of us would pull on the rope, bending the pine tree over as far as we could and hold it. another would climb up into the tree with the goggles on and face the opposite way the tree was bent over. We'd let go of the rope and sent the guy that was up in the tree sailin' out into the surrounding trees. The object was to grab a limb before hittin' the ground in whatever tree ya landed in.. LOL ;D

And guess what.. No one got hurt..

[MadTripper]

I used to spend most of my summer in the woods building forts out of branches and bailer twine. Last time I checked, there was at least one still there.

We would also pick some small maples, about 4 to 6 inches in diameter at the base, climb to the point where it would tip and float to the ground.

We also would build rafts to float down the crick, swim, and play war out in the woods and pasture.

Its amazing what technology has changed including the time spent by children. Don't get me wrong, we had an atari 2600 and eventually a nintendo as kids but I certainly didn't spend a lot of time on them.

[Gibbonboy]

We used to dig for old bottles behind the burned-down house across the road, where they used to throw their trash over the bank in the woods. Glad we were current on our tetanus boosters!

I actually used to do embroidery in the wintertime, something to do besides watch TV. Beads and buttons are fun, but a couple matchbox cars would allow me to create my own world just about anywhere I was.

The main idea behind most of our fun was that it was OUTSIDE, away from the electronic garbage. During the summer, we left the house after breakfast, and were expected to amuse ourselves until lunch. Repeat after until dinnertime. Mostly we were in the creek, fishing, swimming, building dams, etc. Wintertime was igloo building and sled riding- the taller and steeper the hill, the better! We experimented with all kinds of schemes to make our sleds go faster.

Fort-building was an obsession until our teen years, starting with a couple sticks and some plastic and progressing to a 3-room cabin with a porch, watchtower, and woodstove. We even had some old car batteries to run our radio and an old motorcycle headlight.

I don't think it's the presence or absence of things to do nowadays, I think it's that kids are actively discouraged from using their imagination. They get shoved off into public institutions that have no interest in the individual, and are placated with flashy electronic gizmos from birth. Nearly every kid should be required to sit and daydream for 30 minutes a day, just to exercise their imagination.

[rae-dean]

i deal with my grandsons everyday.i tend them.the parents let them play those video games every second...
i don't know if it is good or bad.But they want me to play and i hate it.this may be bad but i tell them i will read to them or play a game with them but not the video.the younger one who is 5 tells me"here nammy-just hold the control?".i guess selling is half way sold if i hold the controls.lol.
when we are at my house.yes!they do play games on my puter and the tv is on alot.but ...i had them break a bunch of crayons and take the paper off the colors and put them into muffin tins and we melted this to make round multi colored crayons.they loved this.then we made windchimes.then i had gotten 1$ tee shirts from the dollar store and they decorated the shirts to their hearts content...with markers.so i am always trying to find things to do.then we took them fishing on memorial day weekend.pa-paw taught them to cast and bait the hooks and also gave them a fishing box of there own.they are such cuties.
wanted to go home...till a boy about 11 showed up fishing.then they acted all manly and quit whinning and started manning up.hee hee.so here is some ideas.
and i appreciate the ideas posted here also.thanks alot.rae-dean

[rae-dean]

oh-i forgot.i had a bunch of big empty coffee cans and some thick cord and made both boys stilts.they still have them and walk with them...this was over memorial day weekend.so there is another one that is cheap and fun and some exercise for the kids.

[Funkhouser]

My sister, my cousin and I used to play war in our back and side yards, throwing pecans and gumtree seeds at each other. We also built kites from hickory switches, plastic trashcan liners and string. *Good times... :)

[walls0stone]

Old friend of mine and I would get together after church each sunday...(if we could get out of working for our fathers).. and before and after sunday dinner, we'd play with cap guns and build forts all over the farm. Someone even sent us a tape of Civil War Fife and drum..we put a tape player in a Haversack and would play those tunes as we moved in "formation" up and down the road W/cap guns and make shift uniforms...

That was 21 years ago, tomarrow he and I will wake up at the 145th Gettysburg reenactment, in an encampment surounded by Thousands of other guys who did the same thing as kids. ;D

[rockymtngirl]

Macaroni necklaces and art, gathering fall leaves and putting them on a piece of wax paper, then using a vegetable peeler to peel crayons onto them, wax paper on top, then cover with a paper bag and iron it - instant fall artwork! Indian headbands - my grandma was a good seamstress, so she would sew up a head band then we could decorate with whatever was around including the obligatory feather. King of the hill - there was always a hill somewhere! and good old red rover!

[Drawbar]

I used to spend most of my summer in the woods building forts out of branches and bailer twine. Last time I checked, there was at least one still there.

I used to do this as a kid too. Typically it was in the winter when the farm chores were not so bad (no haying to do,corn to tend to, etc, etc) My Mom was never worried about me, I remember one time spending the night in one of my camps and she never protested. It was 7 below that night,but I was fine.

I don't consider myself a survivalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I could survive if I had to I guess.