stART: space, the final frontier

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.  Her five year mission, to explore brave new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!

Bother, can’t find the video I want, curses foiled by laziness, and wanting to keep to a time schedule.

Supplies needed: 2 liter bottle, white acrylic paint, knife, sharpies, foam core board or cardboard

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1.  Paint the outside of your soda bottle (by the way thanks to our MOPS group for drinking large amounts of soda, and letting me take these home, saved me shoving large amounts of soda down my kids’ throats).
PS: in theory this could be really cool looking swirling around paint on the inside.

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2.  Cut a hole in your bottle (McDonald’s toy optional).  If your kid desires you can then tape the door back on to make a hinge.

Then of course, your kid can decide he needs to randomly put some tape on their space shuttle…….

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3.  Decorate it with the sharpies.

Meanwhile at some point while the kids are distracted or because the kids won’t leave you alone until their rockets have wings.  Cut a wing shape out of the foam core board or cardboard.

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4.  Glue the wings on using a hot glue gun because the kids do not have patience for regular glue to dry.

The kids have been very excitedly playing with them ever since we finished them.

Problem I’ve got is Batman desperately wants to shoot his rocket up in the air.  You know like a real spaceship, with fire and all……..

Books inspiring this:
Astronuats, Launch Day,

Okay, so opinion question ya’ll.  I’m having a moral quandry.  I’ve read several different articles talking about Amazon carrying books and images that encourage pedophilia (this one they removed), but I read another article that says there is still some on their site.  But, the second article I’m having a harder time finding evidence for.  So, has anyone seen any further information on this?

I don’t want to use Amazon or provide links to it, until I’m sure this is resolved (and yes I know there is a “free speech” issue here, but there is also a moral issue of not exploiting children that to my mind trumps free speech).

I’ve applied to be a Barnes and Noble affiliate, but I don’t know if they’ve got an interface like amazon has.  Sigh, so much to think about.

Okay, now head on over to A Mommy’s Adventures to see more cool book and art related projects.


Comments

13 responses to “stART: space, the final frontier”

  1. An Almost Unschooling Mom Avatar
    An Almost Unschooling Mom

    I don't know about the ban – I usually try to avoid bans, because they almost always end up being complicated, difficult things to navigate.

    I love the rocket, but I'm with Batman – a firery lift off would be cool.

  2. Very cool rocket!

    I don't support the ban. Yes, pedophilia is disgusting and anyone who condones it is vile. Yes, I think the book is disgusting; I have never looked at it and never even checked out the link when the controversy began, but I am sure the book is disgusting. I think if you search hard enough, every retailer will sell something offensive. I find Amazon to be very convenient and I'm certainly not going to ban it. I am also a strong defender of our constitution and believe that free speech is incredibly important and not something we want people messing around with.

    A real life friend of mine happens to be the founder of an online book store. It is called MadJaxx. You can find the button on my blog. I recently became an affiliate and plan on writing a post about it soon. You should apply to be an affiliate. I have yet to figure out how to link the books from MadJaxx yet though and they don't have all that Amazon has. Check it out though. Oh, you also get 10% if anyone makes purchases through your site. That is a whole lot more than Amazon offers.

  3. I love this rocket! Very cool project!

    About the ban…I am with Leah, I try to avoid bans. They are just too complicated.

  4. Love the rocket. I hadn't heard about the pedophilia issue. I stopped using Amazon years ago because they were selling 'how to' books on dogfighting, which is something I find horrifying. I can't find those books on their site anymore so I've been using them again recently – Amazon is so convenient… I know people have free speech, but that doesn't mean you have to financially support people who say things you are 100% against. And just because you are allowed to say or sell something horrible, doesn't mean you should. I was disgusted by the fact that money meant more than human values to Amazon. There are other places to buy things. Sigh, now I'll have to look into this new issue. Thanks for bringing it up.

  5. Yeah…I'm with Batman too – 3, 2, 1 Blast off…Cute rocket though.

    I try not to get involved in bans either, but I never really did much with amazon anyway, so I don't really have much of an opinion. Sorry couldn't help on that one!

  6. very cool!! My son is into all things space ships and outerspace so this would be a huge hit! I hadn't even heard of what was happening on amazon.. thanks for the info though!

  7. I agree with Leah's comment about bans.

    I love that Batman wants to fire his rocket off for real! These turned out great!

  8. child central station Avatar
    child central station

    Great Rockets! Thank you for being a source of creativity and inspiration! I gave you a blog award today :). https://childcentralstation.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-award.html

  9. This is a very cool craft that I might replicate here once I have an empty soda bottle. I agree with Christy in general – Amazon is big enough to be self-regulating as the latest outcry proves. I like them for too many reasons to mention here including the fact that they did react quickly and pulled offending book out.

  10. That's a cool project–I'm sure my boys would love making rockets.

    I don't really stay away from places that sell things or support causes I don't agree with. If that were the case, I'd never be able to eat Chick-fil-A.

  11. I love your spaceship!

  12. OK, you need Buzz Lightyear toys for the rockets…although i sure Megamind appreciates the cool digs…

  13. Jackie H. Avatar
    Jackie H.

    Cool! My little guy builds rockets every single day out of his megablocks. (Well except for yesterday when he told me he was building a leaf blower. Weird) We'll have to build one of these. He would love it!

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