Netflix & SPC: Canada Day T-shirt Craft

To say that I’m not an outdoors-y type is an under­state­ment. It’s not that I don’t love the out­doors, because I do. I just need it in doses, you know? I love a cot­tage week­end. I like to pad­dle around in a canoe. I’m crazy for a bon­fire on the beach. But I’m not ever going to be a camper (maybe just a glam­per). I don’t even really love eat­ing on a patio. There, I’ve said it. But I live with some big nature lovers and I def­i­nitely want to raise kids who want to get out and have adven­tures, big and small.

This along with Julian’s recent inter­est in sci­ence gave me the idea for this project. It’s not really a craft but it’s a really easy and fun way to talk about sci­ence and adven­ture with your kids. It’s a com­pass you make with noth­ing more than a leaf, a sewing nee­dle, a fridge mag­net and a bowl of water. In these high tech days it’s pretty fun to show your kids how to nav­i­gate with­out the gps in my smart­phone! Even though I under­stood the prin­ci­ples of this com­pass I was a bit ner­vous doing it. Would it work? Would the kids be impressed? And it totally did. The lit­tle nee­dle did exactly what it was meant to do and twirled around to point north! Which led to a dis­cus­sion about what you deduce from know­ing which way is north (like, all the other direc­tions), how you could also use shad­ows to under­stand direc­tion and time of day. Turns out nature and sci­ence are pretty cool.

pho­tos by Maya Vis­nyei

Plus, sneaky old me got to do it all at our kitchen table! Don’t worry, we’re head­ing out for all kinds of adven­ture this sum­mer, both urban and rural. Plus, we’ll get some inspi­ra­tion for it all with some Net­flix movie nights this month. I’m par­tic­u­larly look­ing for­ward to finally see­ing The Adven­tures of Tin Tin! But there are so many good adventure-themed movies and shows on Net­flix this month I’m sure we’ll indulge in a few more than that.

Here’s What You Need

Small Bowl
Tap Water
Large Sewing Nee­dle
A Leaf (as big or big­ger than your nee­dle)
Strong Magnet

Method

Fill your bowl with tap water and set aside.

Hold your mag­net in one hand and your nee­dle in the other. Stroke the mag­net along the length of the nee­dle 50 times.

Care­fully lay the leaf on top of the water. Gen­tly place the nee­dle on the leaf so that none of it hangs over. Now watch! The nee­dle will spin, and make the leaf spin, until it is point­ing north. So cool!