Automobiles from Busytown!

Some months ago, the Australian company Makedo sent me a free kit to play with. They wrote and mentioned the words "cardboard" and "play" in the same sentence, so of course I said yes!!! This week we found the perfect project for it - the girls asked to make cardboard cars.

Actually, this is how it started - the girls, particularly Jenna and Kate, adore Richard Scarry's Busytown. Jenna got the Busytown board game for Christmas, and she fell in love with the tokens.

"Mum" she whispered (Jenna always whispers when she wants to suggest an idea - it must be because it is a solemn moment), "Can we make cardboard cars?"

There I am, with my mental list of errands to run, finally finished unloading the dishwasher and about to grab my car keys, and I pause.

Cardboard.

"What kind of cars, Jenna? Like that big one that we threw away because we had no room for it?"

"No - like Huckle Cat's."

Nobody, least of all her mother, can look into Jenna's face and say no.

Cardboard.

I sat down beside her and mentally took stock of our cardboard box collection, while she waited. Would I waste a day doing errands, or would I play with cardboard?

Duh.

Gleefully she ran to get her Busytown tokens and I hauled boxes in from the garage.

"Emily! Katie! We're going to make cardboard cars!"

"I want Hilda's car!"

"I want Sally's scooter!"

So we spent the day sitting among cardboard boxes, with our X-acto knives, masking and duck tape and glue gun. Plus Makedo's very, very cool construction aids, like their cardboard saw and these black click-in-place hinges and blue fastener-connectors:

Jenna and Kate wanted cars

and Emily wanted a scooter

with a storage box in back for dollies and other treasures:

That evening, there was a lot of discussion among the three girls. I heard things like "seat belts" and "keys" and "traffic lights" and "roads". And after dinner, Emily made everyone Driver's Licenses.

And just before bed, there came another little whisper from Jenna.

"Mum, can you make a gas pump so we can put gas in our cars?"

Gladly.

Today, we made a car wash

with LOC, soap and polish (in no particular order):

You pay before manually pulling your own car through the wash on a long blanket.

We also made ignition keys,

a stoplight

and traffic signs.

It was exhilarating to hear the girls bounce ideas off each other.

And drive our cardboard cars into the new year.