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Cautionary Tales For Children
Wonderful witty poems great for reading to your children. The stories and rhymes will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
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Research has shown how important YOU are to your children and how as a dad the things you do, and keep on doing, really count, whether you live with them, or you are a single dad and are only able see them once a month, once a week or more, what you do really matters. This site is dedicated to all dads but will be of special relevance to the single dad. Remember, you are half the reason your children exist and they need you whether you live with them or not. As their dad, you have what it takes to make their lives successful and fulfilling no matter how often you see them. This site is about all the positive things that we as parents have to offer our children.
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Wet glues
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Choose the right glue for the right job, otherwise you will waste a lot of time waiting for things to dry
There are a range of glues available for use in the home. Poly-vinyl acetate or PVA glue (called Elmer’s Glue in the US)but can also called white glue or wood glue is a tough rubbery polymer. Your kids will be familiar with PVA because it is used extensively in schools. From a model making point of view, for most applications, nothing is a substitute for the power and speed of a glue gun, so in my house, the PVA glue tends to stay in the cupboard. Nevertheless, it’s still is a superb wood glue, where the water based glue vehicle can really wet out the surface and soak into the wood, to give a strong joint that is often stronger than the surrounding wood. The trouble with PVA is that it is not good at sticking polythene or polypropylene, which are the two most common packaging plastics, and used in most Making from Junk
models, and it takes ages to dry, which means that kids lose interest in the project or have to wait overnight to see the results of their handiwork.
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However, PVA is still an excellent glue for papier mache projects, like the robot head which was made over a blown up balloon. To use PVA for papier mache it is best to water it down a bit (no more than half and half water) and pour the glue onto a dinner plate so the paper can be soaked through more easily. (A mixture of newspaper torn into strips and absorbent kitchen roll in strips or crumpled up into balls provide quick bulk is good for papier mache).
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Doing a project like this will be great fun and very messy, so although most PVAs are washable, your kids shouldn’t be in their Sunday best when they are getting PVA all over themselves. Don’t bother buying tiny little bottles of PVA (like the one shown) go to a builders merchants and buy a 2.5 litre bottle of PVA Bonding. It’s basically exactly the same as the expensive wood glue, but even for those volumes it’s a fraction of the price. If you want a handy pack to use round the house or on little paper projects, decant some of it off into an old shower gel bottle, but remember to write on the bottle what it is in permanent marker or some one who doesn’t know what you’ve done could be heading for one gloopy hairdo!
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Glue sticks and two part resins are OK but not as useful as Spray Mount and a glue gun, which respectively replace them. Glue sticks tend to be lumpy, although they are easy and safe for a child to use. Two part resins are very strong, but they take time to cure, can be very messy and do not stick packaging plastics together that well. Once they are mixed up they are very liquid and for many jobs, you might have trouble keeping the glue exactly where you want it. For just about every model making project, where a two part resin could be used, glue gun glue will work better and be easier.
Safety first
 Super glue (cyano-acrylate) is very good at sticking skin together (there are medical grades approved for closing wounds), and great care is needed when using it. Children should never be allowed to use super glue. It sticks vinyl (PVC) together very well, so is useful for mending most types of blow-up beach toys (use an old vinyl tax disc holder or window sticker as the patch), but is not suitable for most model and toy making projects because it is so thin and designed to stick broken surface together that match perfectly.
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Make toys from junk
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You can make the most incredible toys using just about any old junk. Kids love things to be quick, so get busy with a glue gun with its instant, incredible sticking power and the ability to glue almost anything to anything. Suddenly an old detergent bottle has so many exciting possibilities.  Combine that with a can of quick drying spray paint and a permanent marker, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be, well, a rocket scientist, or an engineer, or a magician. The toys you can make from junk are amazing and the most fun to play with and you’ll find you can add engineer and magician to your growing list of titles. Simple, easy to follow downloadable instructions and graphic printer sheets will help you and
your kids make the most fantastic looking models. This canoe was made out of two shampoo bottles and really floats; great
All our downloads
are gorgeous, and the instructions
couldn't be easier to follow, with projects from the simplest to the most advanced, all explained in beautiful pictorial detail. The instructions are all original and like nothing else you'll find on the web. What’s more, we've made them all and had a lot of fun making them, so even before you start, you'll know it can be done. On dadcando you’ll find projects for every skill level, and my kids have play tested every model, so we know they work in the playability department as well.
In fact, it must be said, often they have more play value than expensive shop bought toys.. Don't worry if you don't have exactly the same junk as us, making things from junk is not an exact science; let your creativity and problem solving skills show through. When making from junk there are no rules. Start collecting empty packaging right now and within a week or two you'll have enough to build your first model from Junk.
Making stuff from junk is a great way to recycle your rubbish, and very soon, just like your children, when you see an empty ice cream carton, a wire coat hanger, or a used Tetrapak you won't see rubbish, you'll see a rocket port, a ship, or a dog kennel.
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