Making Things that Go!

Model Rockets – This is a relatively inexpensive hobby and you can usually get a complete start up set for around thirty five dollars. The hobby is composed of spending a few hours making rockets out of cardboard and plastic tubes then taking them outside and launching them.  Kits are readily available that have everything needed and the dual aspects of  making something then firing it off will appeal to every type of dad and every type of child.

Kites – If something less involved (and less expensive) is desired kite making and flying is a great alternative. There are plenty of websites that will show you how to make a kit from scratch. Or you can spend a few dollars and purchase one.  Once it is assembled it will provide many hours of outdoor fun – until it gets stuck in a tree!

Remote Control Toys – A more complex build and use project would be something in the remote control genre. Just about everything imaginable is now available as a remote control project. You can build boats, airplanes, helicopters, or cars and then race them on the lake, driveway, or airways in the neighborhood.   This pursuit has some flexibility in that you can purchase the items completely assembled and ready to use or you can buy kits and plans that will give you many hours of fun just building them before you actually use them.

If you want to pull out all the stops you might want to consider making a go-kart. It could be either motorized or not.  Now this would be a project that is remembered for life.

Learning and Science Projects

Summer time is a great time to get outdoors but how often do we think about getting outside at night? Astronomy and telescopes are an often overlooked pursuit that is quite rewarding. And you really don’t need a telescope.  A pair of binoculars and a star chart will be more than sufficient.  If you are looking for something spectacular to watch in the night sky you might want to plan your adventure around August twelfth this is the peak night for the Perseid meteor showers which will often come down at a rate of 90 per hour.  

Nature Walks that are something more

We are all familiar with the concept of a nature walk but you can take it to another level by picking a specific theme and making your own guide as you take your walk.   You make a guide by creating a book out of your experience. You can take notes, draw pictures, and collect items for your book. Think of it as something like Darwin did on his adventures. Here are some specific subjects you could focus on during your nature walk:

Rocks and Minerals – Bring a field manual with you and look for various types of mineral and rock formations. Chip off samples for your collection. 

Bird watching – You can draw pictures of bird or even record their sounds

Archaeology – Maybe there are some old sites not far from where you live that you ould dig.

Animal Watching – Even in cities you will be surprised by the wildlife you find. Make notes of what types of animals you see and where you see them. 

Cartography – Make maps of parks and walking paths much like a modern day Lewis and Clark

Treasure Hunting – Panning for gold is a fun adventure even if you don’t find any

Eco Systems – You can get a field manual and visit a particular type of  eco system like a beach, wetland, forest, marsh or desert. 

Eco Awareness projects –  You can use a nature walk as a means of raising environmental issues. Volunteering with a local clean up group is also a great idea.

Building Things

What Dad doesn’t like to build things? Here are some ideas ranging from easy to spectacular.

Some easy indoor/outdoor projects include bird houses, bat houses, and whirligigs.  Something a little more challenging might be a lemonade stand, small greenhouse, or a small windmill. If you are looking for something spectacular you might want to think about building a fort, dollhouse, or tree house! What Dad, or kid, wouldn’t love a tree house!

Summertime is the time to get outdoors and it is also a great time for dads and kids to do things together.  These ideas are ways to turn an average Sunday of sitting around the barbecue into something extraordinary and memorable.

Become a Siege Engineer

Building a catapult or a trebuchet is a fun project that has strong tie-ins to engineering. You can easily build a small siege engine in a single day and then you can take it outside to launch any number of things from tennis balls to watermelons.  There are lots of online resources for finding plans on how to make siege engines around three feet in size.  And this type of project lends itself very well to design improvements. It is very common for young siege engineers to be constantly improving their new catapult. You can build a mid-sized catapult with just a few basic woodworking tools and a few pieces of two by four lumber.

Rocketing into the sky

Model rockets have been a steadfast hobby for many decades. It is very inexpensive to get started and you get a double dose of fun with them because you can spend an hour or two making the rockets then you can take them out and launch them. There is a duality here that is hard to resist. If you don’t know anything about model rockets there are many beginner kits that are readily available. You can get everything you need to start this hobby including the launching pad and rocket engines around thirty or thirty five dollars.

Remote Controlled Fun

Remote controlled vehicles such as helicopters, airplanes, cars, and even boats can be a very rewarding pursuit in summer although the initial expense can be a bit high. There is also the added benefit of being able to make the projects before you take them out to fly or drive them. One of the best examples of this is remote controlled airplanes. Half the fun of the airplane comes in the making of it. And you can tailor the type of airplane to the age and skill level of your son or daughter. There are great beginner kits that can be assembled in a couple of hours and there are more advanced kits that take dozens of hours or more to make.

Make a Go Kart

This is a great project for teens because it is a bit more in-depth in both the making stage and the outdoor fun stage. You can spend several days making the go kart then it can be used all summer long. You also have the option of making a simple go kart that will roll down hills or getting elaborate and adding a motor to it. You can even start with the simple kart and later in the summer upgrade it by adding the motor.  There are many clubs that still engage in soapbox derby racing which adds a competitive dimension to this summer hobby.

Exploring the Sciences Outdoors

The Natural Sciences – All it takes is a field manual (that you can check out of the library) and a little time outdoors and you can do some discovering of how nature works. A few suggestions would be to study rock formations and geology, or to study botany and plant life. In both of these activities you can build a collection of plants, leaves, or rocks and minerals.  Half the fun is in collecting then identifying the specimens you collected. It is an easy task to find one of the sciences that might interest you and other family members. A good example is entomology where you can collect insects and display them in a case.

The sciences offer many opportunities in many different fields but my favorite is astronomy. This is a pursuit that can be started without spending any money. All you have to do is download and print a few star maps and you are ready to begin finding and identifying constellations and other heavenly bodies like planets. If you have a pair of binoculars it will add a whole new level of enjoyment to your star gazing.

 If you are looking for something spectacular in astronomy you can consult with charts of meteor showers. There are several different meteor showers that occur during the summer months and some of them have a frequency of up to as many as sixty falling stars per hour. And if you are bitten by the astronomy bug the sky is virtually the limit in this hobby because you can upgrade and improve your viewing by buying a telescope or even making your own.

When it comes to the summer months there are lots of fun and traditional activities you can do like going to the beach or an amusement park but with a little thought and creativity you can take on some hobbies and projects that add whole new dimensions such as making things and learning about the world around us.

No matter what is getting in your way, there are many ways that you can get past it. A good start for any radio control project is to find plans or blueprints that you can follow for the entire length of the project. You can buy kits that include all of the pieces, or you can find plans on the internet and cut your own wood. It just depends on how much effort you want to put into the project. After you have the plan (which should include diagrams and exact measurements), you can begin to gather supplies. If you stick with everything that the plan says, you will be much less likely to hit a snag. As you work, you will learn skills required to make personal touches to the plan.

The best way to have constant support no matter what goes wrong is to make friends with some sort of expert in the field. Is your uncle’s wife’s cousin a fanatic for remote controlled hobbies? Get his phone number, call him up, and see if you can get some help. Most of the time people will be more than happy to share their knowledge with someone who is interested in similar things. You can also meet radio control gurus at conventions, races, or even supply shops. It is good to know someone locally, since you can meet wit them and show them whatever your problem is, and they can even glue a few pieces together, or do whatever else needs to be done.

For small inquiries that don’t require hands-on assistance, you can use the internet. There are numerous online communities for radio controlled hobbies, which come in the form of message boards, mailing lists, or blogs. These can be found with a quick search engine keyword, and are usually home to numerous extremely intelligent people whose combined knowledge covers pretty much everything about radio controlled hobbies. If you ask a question of these communities, you will almost immediately receive multiple helpful responses. Using advanced technology like digital cameras and microphones, you can get an even more personal response.

Finally, you can get your information from a good, old-fashioned book. Libraries are full of so much knowledge, it is surprising that they go so unappreciated in today’s culture. If you go to the library in search of books about radio controlled hobbies, you will find numerous resources that will help you out greatly. Your query could range from the electronic aspect to the construction. In a similar vein, you can subscribe to magazines that regularly cover this sort of hobby, giving new plans, details, and advice for all subscribers.

If you use all of these different resources, you should have no problem building and enjoying the radio controlled hobby that you’ve always wanted. Embarking on the journey alone is definitely not advisable, since you will have to do many things that no normal human is faced with. From cutting the wood into precise chunks that will make up the different components to installing the electrical parts, each step requires close attention to detail. It is good to have backup in case you don’t quite understand something.