Build Cool Paper Airplanes and Watch Grandkids Smile Even When Sick

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Sick Days and Rainy Days
Sick days and rainy days can sometimes spell “blue days” for grandkids. My east coast grandkids and I enjoyed some “sick time ” together last week. With each child plus grandma taking turns at being sick, our long walks, bike rides, and playground visits were off the to-do list for a while. What to do? Paper airplane planes to the rescue! 

Sick Day and Rainy Day Fun!

Grandson Big-Bro came up with this fun idea that helped keep us busy throughout the week. We had a “paper airplane extravaganza.” Whichever grandkids were well on any particular day had a blast accumulating several, as fast as grandma could fold. Sick little ones got such sweet smiles on their faces, in spite of their nausea, as each new paper airplane design landed on their laps. Grandson Big-Bro got so enthused we had a great time discovering new sites and new variations and even came up with one or two of our own (though I’m not sure we could ever replicate those).

Learn While You Build Cool Paper Airplanes

Learning to follow the paper airplanes instructions as well think up paper airplane games makes this project great for homeschooling too. They can help turn critical thinking skills into a fun educational experience. 🙂

Once we were feeling better, we also had a great time with testing out  paper airplanes in races.

Cool Paper Airplane Templates

10 Paper Airplanes – This is my all time favorite site for paper airplanes. As you might guess, there are 10 designs ranging from easy to hard. I must admit, I am not very good at making the harder airplanes, so we went with easy and a couple of mediums. My grand-twins and I shared the same favorites: Arrow, Dart, and Moth. I love that this site has little animated directions that help you see how to fold them. Even a klutz like me can make some great flying planes!

The DC-3 of Paper Airplanes – This was the hardest one we tried. My grandson fell in love with this one but I never did get past step 14. I just couldn’t figure out how they were turning certain sections. Grandson Big-Bro took the half-folded plane, played with it, and figured out a way to make it fly. It’s not the same plane but he sure loved it! Great lesson for both of us that things don’t always have to be perfect in life to be enjoyed! Needless to say, I was very proud of him! (2018 update-the site that had this plane is now gone. But I found 3 other options. The link at the beginning of this paragraph, plus here and here. 

U.S.S. Enterprise + – Finally, in honor of the new Star Trek movie that just came out, that I’m DYING to see, I just discovered the directions for some fun paper airplanes that look like they may be fairly difficult to make, along with designs for the U.S.S. Enterprise. I am including them for all the older grandkids and Trekkers everywhere, not to mention all of us “of course we’re not aging” Baby Boomers Generation :). The sites for some are Japanese but it looks like they are using wordless directions. I’ll be showing these to my grandkids and bookmarking them for when they are much older. If any of you get brave enough to try them, do let us know how you like them.

Paper Airplane Books Kids Like

If you are looking for some extra help or just prefer a book on how to make paper airplanes, Amazon has a terrific selection of books on  how to make paper airplanes for kids, including the Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes which has several cool paper airplanes preprinted in it. 

Have a Flying Good Time!

If you are looking for fun activities for grandparents and grandchildren, these should give you a flying good time! Enjoy. 🙂

Kaye

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