First Words Autumn 2017 | Page 20

loo roll menagerie

expand your zoo as you poo!

As a consequence, I have never found it easy to match my children's ever-growing desire to create new and interesting things, with my own lack of creativity coming up with new ideas. This is particularly frustrating on the cold, rainy days when I see their box of craft materials with no real idea how to make the best of it. However, one day inspiration struck – and so began a small menagerie with the capacity to grow every time the family finishes a roll.

You will need:

• Cardboard centre of a standard toilet roll

• Ruler or tape measure

• Sheet of card (any colour will do, it depends what you want the animal to look like; 1 sheet will normally do a whole animal)

• Sellotape

• Felt tips

• Scissors

Depending on the age of the child, they can do more or less of the process themselves. Our daughters are six and four, so whilst I draw the template for

I have never been the Blue Peter badge type. I am not blessed with the ability to carve toys out of wood, nor to bake a cake made of three different tiers that looks like any individual My Little Pony. At school I was once told, one day into a five day project to sew a rabbit, that there “wasn't a lot of point” so I should “do something else”.