Made to Play! (Plus a Giveaway)

Long time readers of this blog will know that I am constantly on the lookout for non-electronic and easy ways to assist me in keeping my very active boys entertained. The made by joel blog has been one of my go-to resources for a while, so I was delighted to  hear Joel Henriques was coming out with a book, Made to Play!

Made to Play! (which you may even have seen featured in this month's Martha Stewart Living magazine) does not disappoint. It includes splendid ideas for making simple but entertaining toys out of all sorts of materials. I rather wish my boys liked to play with dollhouses so I could make the dollhouse furniture, but as soon as Kiddo saw the book he asked, "are there any ideas for transportation in there?"

Mais oui!

Small Wooden Trucks -- which we made out of cardboard, not having a jigsaw at our disposal. The book contains templates for many of the projects.

Kiddo enjoyed tracing the templates, but as you can see, he also made his own MTA bus. And... as you know, the true test of a play idea is whether or not it inspires creative exploration beyond the basic instructions.

We also made the Simple Paper Animation, which was way more fun that TV.

I have two more posts to share with ideas from the book. Look for those in the next two weeks, but in the meantime, why not enter the giveaway to win one of 2 copies of this book (graciously provided by Roost Books). All you have to do to enter is:


1. Please leave a comment on this post before October 9, 11:59 pm EST.
2. U.S. Addresses only, please.
3. For contact/identification purposes, if you don't have a profile linked to an email or blog, please leave an email address in your comment. (If you feel uncomfortable leaving your email, after you leave a comment you can send your email to momandkiddo [at] gmail [dot] com) Anonymous entries will not be considered.
4. I reserve the right to pick a new winner(s), should the winner(s) not respond within 72 hours.


The winners, picked randomly, will be announced on or after Oct. 10, 2011.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review purposes, but all opinions are my own. I received no other compensation. I am extremely picky about the review opportunities that come my way and only review products (usually books) and offer giveaways which I believe have value for parents and kids.