Boston Mama

Surviving Summer: Fishing at home

I discovered a blog this week that I am absolutely smitten with, that has made all the difference this week in terms surviving summer and having some fun while we’re at it. It’s by a dad, Joel, who is also a designer, artist, crafter, and kid-toy-making genius.

Using Joel’s design as inspiration I sent my husband and Bean out to the garage one morning (while Sprout napped and I snatched an hour or two of writing time) to make a pole using one of the many sticks he has managed to collect.

Side note: have you noticed this about boys? How they seem to have a perpetual thing for sticks. How it’s almost innate, the desire to pick up sticks and wield them about as swords or javelins or flags or walking sticks? Also rocks. My boys, both of them, have this inherent love of gathering rocks, throwing rocks in water, collecting them, kicking them, stowing them in pockets (alas, so many end up in my washer.)

Anyway, they returned having made a very acceptable fishing pole using an old spool, some S hooks, and some garden twine, and Bean was over the moon. Next up: making some fish.

Being not even 1/8th as crafty or clever as Joel, who seems to effortlessly sew anything in a matter of moments, we attempted one fabric fish, that Bean helped to sew, and then used a Sharpie to decorate it. Perhaps extra credit should be given for the super-awesome attire of my littlest? Hearts and stripes? The best, right? Also tie-dye:

After one fish, both of us realized that neither of us had enough patience to pursue further sewn fish, so we opted for cardboard fishies that we decorated using cut up scraps from old magazines (to make brightly colored scales) and then used safety pins as the “hooks” to attach to the magnet on the of the fishing pole string (resourcefully re-purposed from one of his broken trains.)

Sprout was so in love with the idea that I made him a miniature pole too, with a larger (non-choking hazard) sized magnet on the end, and the two spent the morning fishing off the living room couch.