THINGS TO DO: Make Paper Shoes

A long, long, long, long time ago, back when Marek was a newborn, my niece and nephew came to meet their new cousin for Easter. This was back when I had time on my hands - all I had to do was make sure my newborn was fed, clean, rested and breathing (breathing being the most important). And so, with a niece who was four, and a nephew that was ten - Wow! - they did more then blink and burp at me. We could actually do real live interactive projects, like make paper shoes. So we did.

I had actually been furnished a paper shoe pattern at some point, which I dug out. Basically the shoes were made by:

1) Trace around the pattern (which could easily be another shoe) for the size of the shoe bottom.

2) Cut several layers of cardboard for each shoe bottom.

3) Cut a band or bands to attach over the top of the shoe, sandal style.

4) Glue the band(s) over the first layer leaving room for the foot to fit, of course, and attaching underneath this layer.

5) Glue the rest of the layers together which helps to hold the band(s) in place.

6) Place shoes on and try to walk in them. Shoe will rip apart.

7) Tape shoes back together decoratively using duck tape, electrical tape, or packing tape.

We wore our shoes on this occasion for our Easter Egg Hunt, and then I kept those shoes around for years - probably until last year when I did an entirely too thorough cleaning of my basement. I am still discovering missing items that I must have got rid of that I don't remember getting rid of that I sure wish were around.

Like those paper shoes.

Because I few days ago Marek started cutting up cardboard boxes to make paper shoes for Oscar, Tildy, and himself. At least the original paper shoes lasted long enough to inspire Marek, because now that I have three kids of my own that do more than blink and burp, I find it much harder to do things like make paper shoes with them.

Marek had a slightly different paper shoe making technique having no instructions to draw upon and no visual other than his memory and imagination. He traced the foot directly onto the cardboard, made the shoe in one layer (which was probably easier to walk in), and directly duck taped the heck out of the shoes. In fact, he ran out of duck tape before he completed his own pair.

Oscar and Tildy enjoyed theirs. If you had run into us at assessments last week you might have noticed Oscar gliding around the school hallway in this unusual bit of footwear. I would not recommend paper shoes for riding your scooter however.