Made at the
kitchen table.
Our workshop is a cutting mat that comes out after breakfast. The repair box is an old biscuit tin with a lid that no longer quite shuts.
A diamond with character
The first kite started as a sheet of brown parcel paper and two thin wooden spars. We drew its outline together, which explains why one side is slightly fuller than the other. I like the pencil marks we forgot to rub out. They make it easy to see where the children changed their minds about the shape before we cut anything.
Change one thing at a time
When a kite refuses to settle, our instinct is to alter everything: tail, string, knots, and whose turn it is. The notebook helps us slow down. We sketch the kite, write a short note about what happened, and choose one change for the next outing. A piece of tape on the reel marks where we stopped unrolling, which is more dependable than everyone's memory.
A repair is part of the story
There is a blue patch on the red kite where a spar pushed through during a hurried pack-up. We could have matched the paper, but the children voted for a visible repair. Now it is the easiest kite to recognize in the cupboard. I keep a few scraps in the bag, along with a pencil for recording the next small improvement before we get distracted by the shore.
Read about its best afternoon