Friday, June 26, 2015

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old (& Related Usborne & Brown Watson Books)

I’ve been wanting to make a castle since my Game of Thrones obsession began (read the books + watched the show). I had envisaged crenellations on all the walls, walkways connected to the towers, a moat around it, a functioning drawbridge, a king & queen and a couple of fire spewing dragons.... It was not just the elaborate process that kept those plans on hold, but also that my little fella was *least interested* in the knights-swords-dragon-horse set that I got for him (*way* before I stopped buying toys). He loved his cars and diggers and barely looked at what I considered “the cool stuff”!

Anyways, by happenstance I stumbled into a castle made by Be A Fun Mum and figured ok! Why not make simple one! All we required were 3 boxes, 4 long TP Rolls, 4 small TP rolls, yarn & origami paper. Paint em, stick em, and cut out a drawbridge- perfect for a 3 year old! 


So I have put my plans to make an elaborate castle on hold and here's how we went about making this easy castle!! (And it has a drawbridge too!)


The Practical Mom: DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old (& Related Usborne & Brown Watson Books)



I had *a ton* of cardboard boxes. seriously. a ton. We managed to get a small, a medium and a large - kinna proportionate to each other. My kid began to paint the large one. I used black since I wanted to finish all the paint at home and the color black, the poor ignored chap was in abundance. 

There are smudges on the sides because of tape that couldn’t be paint on- and couldn’t be removed since it held the box together! I left the box the way he painted it, as I prefer not to 'finish' his work. He should be able to point to his work and say "I did this!". Painting all sides of a giant box is a lot for a 3 year old, so that was all that was done on day 1. 

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old
Love this brush!

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old


Day 2, I cut out a drawbridge - i.e. cut three lines with a paper cutter / pen knife and a ruler. I punched two holes on this drawbridge and two on the other side of the box, and strung a long piece of yarn through them. Yay! We had a functioning drawbridge that could be pulled to close and left loose to open!

I made cones with origami paper to stick over the tall towers (long TP rolls) and cut rectangular gaps for crenels on the smaller towers (short TP rolls), while my kid painted the remaining two boxes. Yeah, we got a black-blue-red castle, why not! 


Then he helped me glue the boxes together and the towers on the boxes. That’s about it!! Paint em, stick em, and cut out a drawbridge!

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old



Then *finally* I brought out my his toys from exile! These are Fisher-Price Imaginext toys that were on sale a long time ago. The armour and sword is detachable - there were some more weapons - but these are all we found. 


DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old


DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old (& Related Usborne & Brown Watson Books)



Usborne’s "In the Castle" is for 2-4 year olds. Like all Anna Milbourne books, beautiful illustrations are accompanied by a simplistic description of life in a castle. Who lived in it, how one became a knight, what knights did, how the castle was protected by high walls, drawbridge & moat and how the knights bravely fought enemies off. It also gives you a peek into parties in the castle & jousting. It’s the perfect book!



DIY Cardboard Castle: With your 3 year old: Related Books


Brown Watson’s "Medieval Castles" is a lot more detailed and for > 4 year olds. It has elaborate pictures and explains why a fortress needed to be built in the first place and how it protects those living inside. Its describes the construction work & parts of the castle. How drawbridges were lifted up using a counter weight or crankshafts. Narrow openings or slits were made in the walls for soldiers to shoot arrows. There were chapels, dungeons and towers. And towers had spiral staircases within and were always stocked with weapons in order to be well prepared for enemies. 

It describes chamberlains, blacksmiths, carpenters, royal guard, knights & squires. It describes tournaments, festivals, banquets, fairs. It also shows how pulleys were  used, how enemies attacked with weapons including spoon shaped catapult to throw stones at the walls, and how castles eventually got dilapidated.

Its a fantastic encyclopedia that I would recommend to kids over 4. Mine's 3.5 so I've taken him through a couple pages only. 


So here's how it turned out! 


DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old
Closing the drawbridge!

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old

DIY Cardboard Castle: With Your 3 Yr Old





Until later! Stay in touch!



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22 comments:

  1. This looks like such a fun project to do with the kids! My boy will love this.

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  2. I really like your cardboard castle. Looks like your son likes it too!

    I found you on the Mondays Parenting Pin Party. I've added some of your pins to this page on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/melredd/blog-link-parties-and-blog-link-ups/

    Hope you have a great Monday~
    Blessings,
    Melanie

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  3. Oh I love this. Will have to give it a go when Eli is a little bit older :-)

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  4. Wow, that is one cool castle! So much pretend play in store with that one!

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  5. totally awesome! I could play with this castle forever! My son actually loved playing in cardboard boxes when young and slept/played in the fridge box for a month before I finally snuck it out of the house to the trash. He was so sad. :( I hope you will come back and link to our creative challenge upcycle link party tomorrow (Fridays)!

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    Replies
    1. I know ! My kid would play in empty boxes too! In fact empty, unpainted boxes were played with more than this castle!

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  6. This looks awesome!!! Well Done!

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  7. You have a blog, thanks for sharing this on Dream Create and inspire. Love the Cardboard castle, for kids bring back memories
    Thanks
    Maria

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  8. This is great - looks like so much fun to create. Thanks for linking up to the Parenting Pin it Party as well.

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  9. OH! This is the CUTEST! I love that they can make it AND play with it! Thanks so much for taking the time to link up with us over at the #HomeMattersParty - we hope to see you again on Friday!

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    1. That was my point exactly! Make & play! Thanks Kristen :)

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  10. Hello Friend, you are so creative! What a great idea!!Thank you for sharing at the Friday Favorites Link Party! Please join us again to share what you have been

    working on this week. Christine @ Must Love Home

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  11. Hi, Swapna! Just wanted to let you know that we loved this post you linked up with us at last week's #HomeMattersParty SO MUCH...we featured it at THIS week's party! We'd love for you to come check it out! Happy Friday! http://theroadtodomestication.com/2015/07/10/home-matters-linky-party-45/

    ReplyDelete