Slingshot!

During the freak Texas snowstorm of 2010, my parents had two trees that were badly damaged. My boys were sad that their trees looked so bad, but thrilled when Grandma brought over these branches to make slingshots with!

To make one, you need a branch with a good "Y" shape, something to make the pouch with, and some rubber bands. We used a square of leather from an old jacket. (Remember those bomber jackets that everyone wore in the early 90's?? Yep, got one for Christmas my 8th grade year. My mom also used that jacket to make a cowboy vest and chaps for the boys.)

Use a hole punch to put a hole in each side.

Thread a rubber band through each hole like you are putting on a luggage tag.

Like this.

Yeah!! A slingshot!

What will make or break this activity is what you have to shoot with. Bouncy balls? No. Rocks? Absolutely not. The first thing we tried was little paper balls, but we have a baby who is obsessed with eating paper. After some trial and error, we chose to cut up an unused sponge into small squares. These work really well. I imagine craft puff balls would work well too.

Ready to shoot!

A few things to mention:

• This activity seems to be good for ages 4+. When we first did this back in the winter, my 3 1/2 year old son was not coordinated enough to shoot it. We did it again today (he'll be 4 in two months) and he did pretty well.
• We had some trouble with the rubber bands working their way off the top. A second rubber band wrapped around the top solved that problem.
• It's best if there is not a lot of extra slack in the rubber bands.
• We have two sticks, and the one with the widest "Y" works best.