How to make a toy boat

Some of my earliest childhood memories are related to playing with paper boats in the muddy pools - I remember how happy and careless I was at the time  ....

I'm sure most of you are familiar with this popular origami technique, and if by chance you are not, see here how it works.

However, the one thing I was really annoyed with these boats, even as a child, is the fact they get wet fast and therefore become unusable.

That's why me and the girls tried to make boats out of more durable materials.

1. Cork boats

This is actually one of the easiest things we've ever done. Couple of corks, rubber bands, toothpick and a little sponge and we got a mini fleet in a moment or two:

Just a short notice: definitely 3+ toy!

Egg boxes boats

Here we used polystyrene egg boxes, chopsticks and a spongy cloth. 

Daddy-engineer added a cork on the end of a sticks (actually to the end of a sail), so the water does not end up in a boat:

While I was delighted with the idea at the first glance, sponge (especially when it becomes wet) is heavier than polystyrene, so we quickly got a shipwrecked boat.

Cheerful team then had to sail without sails: 

After this experience, using the leaf as a sail sounds as much better idea, and we certainly intend to try it.

We also tried to make boats out of ice cubes as shown in this picture, but it was also not very successful - toothpicks and straws bent during freezing so it is impossible to maintain such a boat on the surface, and besides - the summer heat causes ice cubes to melt too fast ....

Enjoy the summer and let the play begin!