Paper airplanes

Fall harvest on the farm means long days and all hands on deck. I take the kids outside as much as I can, but with tractors constantly driving through the yard, it is sometimes safer to stay in the house.

One recent weekend, the kids’ cousin spent a lot of time at our house, as his dad was helping with fall harvest. Our kids were overjoyed at this situation, as it meant another kid to play with. Even our 2-year-old jumped up and down with excitement.

The cousin brought some of his board games to introduce to our kids. This worked great for the first couple of days, but as the excitement began to fade, the arguments over whose turn it was arose. We eventually found other games to play; we went outside, baked cookies and played with toy tractors.

One day, the cousin wanted to make paper airplanes. He quickly folded one together and started flying it around. Naturally, my kids thought that was amazing, and they wanted one, too.

As soon as we got some paper out, I quickly realized I had to think about how to make a paper airplane. I know there are many ways and types. I know some classes in school talked about using math or science to make an effective paper airplane. I never had one of those classes. After a minute, I remembered the most basic fivefold paper airplane. To my kids’ dismay, this version did not fly very far. But, hey, at least it flew a little way, so at first, it was good enough.

My kids, who are several years younger than their cousin, were as excited to decorate and color their paper airplane as they were to fly it around the house. The box of markers now covered the table. The older cousin joined in the decorating, and they all named their planes. I did not want to point out that coloring the entire paper airplane with markers might affect its ability to fly.

We experimented with different types of planes to get them to fly farther. We tried folding the paper this and that way until the paper was too crumpled up to fly at all. Thankfully, we had plenty of paper from an old notebook to use. I also did not look up online how to make a proper paper airplane on purpose. First, I wanted the kids to learn on their own and experiment. Second, I knew it would take longer this way.

The spontaneous project kept everyone content and occupied for at least the next hour. Before we knew it, the guys came in announcing they were done for the day and joined in the paper airplane project. One flew all the way across the house. The kids were amazed, and all immediately asked to have one made just like that. One of the dads showed me how to make one for my kids and said he would show his kid how to make one.

The excitement of paper airplanes was simple but effective. I have noticed with little kids, especially, that price has nothing to do with joy in toys.