Sticks

Perhaps especially for a boy, sticks are one of the best and most versatile toys.


Wherever there are sticks, there is adventure:

protecting and defending,

or using as a tool, (he's poking a drainage hole in a wall,)

for playing around water,

for climbing,

and in this picture, after a tough climb, for passing the stick on to another.

Sticks are good for making things like bows and arrows,

slingshots,

a camp stool,

toy boats,

and forts.

No matter how many times parents say, "Don't run with sticks," running happens sometimes.


Stick collecting starts young. This is the stick corral in front of the house of two preschool boys. Most boys start to pick up sticks when they are toddlers.


There are negotiations as sticks are collected and divided.

And then the sticks are taken home.

For many years, boys look for good sticks, and bring them home to their back yard collections.

Acorn Pies has posts on how to use sticks to make a camp stool, a toy slingshot, a toy bow and arrow, a driftwood house, and a toy boat. Just scroll the right hand column of the blog for postings. In the coming weeks, I will post about how to make forts and marionettes out of sticks.