Parents who choose to homeschool their children understand the importance of having many activities available. Many homeschooling families must live on a tight budget when it comes to educational resources and activities. This is often due to the fact that families who homeschool their children often live on one income. Here, you will discover how to create homemade binoculars for backyard fun that is sure to fit within any budget. This activity can be engaged in by members of the entire family, and make for hours of fun.
If you have a lesson in which you must go out into the yard, it is important to make it as fun and imaginative as possible. By creating homemade binoculars, you are opening up a whole new world of adventure to your homeschooled students. Students can search for bugs, plants, and other items using their homemade binoculars. In addition to using these as a creative supplement to science lessons, creating them make a great arts project for your student!
– Creating the cheap backyard craft of homemade binoculars is quite simple. You only need a few supplies, and most of them are probably lying around your home. The following lists the supplies that you will need to create one pair of homemade binoculars:
– You will need two toilet paper rolls. If you do not have any of these available, you can implement the use of paper towel rolls. However, when using paper towel rolls, you will need to cut them in half. This is especially true if you are making your homemade binoculars for small hands.
– You will need a little bit of clear plastic wrap. This wrap can be as simple as the wrap that you purchase to cover food.
– You will require an assortment of crayons, markers, paints, and colored pencils. This is used to decorate the homemade binoculars. You may even choose to have beads, glitter, buttons, and other decorative items available that can be used to decorate the binoculars.
– You will need to have some rubber bands and tape available in order to properly construct your homemade binoculars. If you like, you may substitute string and/or yarn for these materials, but it has been found that they are not quite as sturdy as using the rubber bands and the tape.
Once you have acquired all of the materials that you are going to use, you should set up a table in the backyard so that the student can have plenty of room to work. You should explain to the student that they are to decorate the rolls that are available. Explain to them it is important to be as creative as possible when creating their homemade binoculars. Allowing a child to use a mixture of paints, markers, crayons, and other art materials allows them to discover different art textures and how to create a project by using varied methods.
While your homeschool student is decorating the rolls, you should take the plastic wrap and cut small pieces of two for both rolls. These pieces should be cut in three to four inch squares. This will ensure that the “lens” of the homemade binoculars are properly covered. It is important that the plastic wrap that you use for the lens of the binoculars is clear so that the student can explore with no visual obstructions.
Once the student has completed decorating the rolls that they are using for the homemade binoculars, you should allow approximately thirty minutes for the rolls to dry. This will allow the paint, markers, glue, and other items the student may have placed on the rolls to dry so that the decorations are not messed up when constructing the final project. During this time, you may wish to make a snack, or read a couple of books together. Once the thirty minutes is up, it is time to put the project together.
You should take the plastic wrap that you have cut and place it over one end of each of the rollers. You can use the rubber bands to hold the lens in place. If the wrap becomes torn or damaged in any way, this method makes it easy to reassemble new lens. You can then tape the two pieces of the rolls together. Some homeschool parents have found it very beneficial to staple the ends of the rolls together to make the homemade binoculars sturdier. This is up to you.
Once this is all done, you may choose to implement the use of a single hole puncher and a piece of yarn so that the student may wear the binoculars around their neck. If you wish to perform this step, simply punch a hole on each of the outer sides of the binoculars. You should then slide a large piece of yarn in the inside of one hole on one side and tie a knot to ensure it does not slip through. Once this is done, slid the yarn through the outside of the opposite hole and tie a knot on the inside. Your homeschool student now has their own set of pretend binoculars!
Students enjoy binoculars very much and this article can surely teach them a thing or two regarding the creation of binoculars, as also a chance visit to the site optic-zoo.com for more information.