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Cautionary Tales For Children
Wonderful witty poems great for reading to your children. The stories and rhymes will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
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Research has shown how important YOU are to your children and how as a dad the things you do, and keep on doing, really count, whether you live with them, or you are a single dad and are only able see them once a month, once a week or more, what you do really matters. This site is dedicated to all dads but will be of special relevance to the single dad. Remember, you are half the reason your children exist and they need you whether you live with them or not. As their dad, you have what it takes to make their lives successful and fulfilling no matter how often you see them. This site is about all the positive things that we as parents have to offer our children.
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Paint
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Use spray paint or emulsion (latext, US) paint to get a quick finish that cover mostly anything well
 You don’t have to use paint to finish your models, but paint can make a big difference to the look of a model. Not all models really need paint, but stuff made from things with writing over it or labels on will look about a million times better if the writing is covered up. In the case of the Space Rocket we used white paper wrapped round a Pringles Crisp tube and a toilet roll to give us the nice white finish, which we could then marker on, without getting our fingers wet. But then for the Floating Submarine model, spraying it with black and grey spray paint transformed it in about two minutes from a couple of old plastic bottles into something really exciting, that remained a favourite bath time toy for months.
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You can use any type of spray paint, but be careful to follow the instructions on the can. The paint is flammable when being sprayed, is bad for you if you breathe in the fumes and leaves a strong smell in your house for days. On the other hand, spray paint is ideal for quickly and permanently covering plastic, and spray paint for craft applications comes in a range of exciting finished these days.
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For quick coverage on most surfaces you can do a lot worse than standard, house decorating emulsion (Latex Paint in the US). If you don’t have any left over from your DIY projects, then you can buy tiny cans of paint very cheaply (match pots). It’s better for covering cardboard quickly, and the beauty of it is, that you can wash the brushes in water. Be careful of clothes though, emulsion dries really quickly on clothes (in about 2 minutes) and thereafter is impossible to remove.
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Acrylic paint is also very good at covering up and sticking to most surfaces, and although it is water based, it also has the benefit of being permanent (i.e. not water soluble) when dry. Acrylic paints dry very quickly and give bright satisfying colours. Tubes like the one shown here are reasonably expensive, although they are lovely to use and can all be mixed together to give a very professional finish. However acrylic paint also comes in big bottles from most good toy shops or on-line. Acrylic paint can be mixed with emulsion to tint it.
The Floating Submarine can be made in about 1 hour and easy to follow instructions are just waiting for you to download. Click on picture to go to Floating Submarine project.
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Make toys from junk
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You can make the most incredible toys using just about any old junk. Kids love things to be quick, so get busy with a glue gun with its instant, incredible sticking power and the ability to glue almost anything to anything. Suddenly an old detergent bottle has so many exciting possibilities.  Combine that with a can of quick drying spray paint and a permanent marker, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be, well, a rocket scientist, or an engineer, or a magician. The toys you can make from junk are amazing and the most fun to play with and you’ll find you can add engineer and magician to your growing list of titles. Simple, easy to follow downloadable instructions and graphic printer sheets will help you and
your kids make the most fantastic looking models. This canoe was made out of two shampoo bottles and really floats; great
All our downloads
are gorgeous, and the instructions
couldn't be easier to follow, with projects from the simplest to the most advanced, all explained in beautiful pictorial detail. The instructions are all original and like nothing else you'll find on the web. What’s more, we've made them all and had a lot of fun making them, so even before you start, you'll know it can be done. On dadcando you’ll find projects for every skill level, and my kids have play tested every model, so we know they work in the playability department as well.
In fact, it must be said, often they have more play value than expensive shop bought toys.. Don't worry if you don't have exactly the same junk as us, making things from junk is not an exact science; let your creativity and problem solving skills show through. When making from junk there are no rules. Start collecting empty packaging right now and within a week or two you'll have enough to build your first model from Junk.
Making stuff from junk is a great way to recycle your rubbish, and very soon, just like your children, when you see an empty ice cream carton, a wire coat hanger, or a used Tetrapak you won't see rubbish, you'll see a rocket port, a ship, or a dog kennel.
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