One of the first activities Wyatt selected from our summer fun list was making paper toys. I downloaded and printed a bunch of PDF’s from the Toy-a-Day site and Wyatt immediately started snipping away with the scissors.
There are a couple of reasons I chose the Toy-a-Day toys. First off, they are generally pretty simple shapes with lots of straight lines. Wyatt does a fine job with the scissors, but some of the other paper toy sites I found feature images that require very detailed and fussy cutting. Also, since all the toys are constructed in the same way, I only had to give Wyatt a few basic instructions before he could work independently and cut out lots of toys on his own.
I also like these because they have many characters that are appealing to kids. So far, some of Wyatt’s favorites have been: Batman, Robin, Superman/Clark Kent, the Angry Birds and Sponge Bob.
He made a Spock toy for his dad (I helped him cut by his request):
Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine for Augie:
And Strawberry Shortcake and Wonder Woman for me!
In fact, Wyatt is so into making these paper toys that he woke me up at 5:50 a.m. on his first day off school to ask me to help him put them together.
5:50 a.m.
The first day of summer vacation.
(I said no.)
