Got Offbeat Architect Kids?
I write for a living so me and my six year old son Cedar can hang out but does that impress Cedar. In a word, no.
He could care less what I do but he loves Offbeat, he likes the houses and the furniture; he really wants an extravagant treehouse I can’t possible afford.
Him and I have been working on a rather insane sugar cube home because he wants a house that he made posted on this blog. We are having major sugar issues that involve us adding paint to the sugar rather unsuccessfully. I know, cubes disintegrate in liquid! Or I should have remembered that. Why the heck do you think I write instead of build offbeat sugar houses.
Long story short; he really likes all the past Lego posts and is always building his own Lego structures that he thinks should be posted here and I turn them down. I am so a nice mama, I’m just waiting for the right house. Well he got me.
Today he built a typical Lego house. The house itself is not super unique and it’s tiny compared to other houses he’s built.
But (and here’s how he got me) it’s sustainable!
Cedar’s offbeat (green) house:
Here’s the front:
He told me he made it small because of needing smaller footprints (Go Cedar) and that the grass is painted not really grass to save water. Did he use eco-paint? I don’t know.
And another view:
His best green living plan; the wind power. We recently watched a show on wind energy and we talk about it a lot. Although I’ve never technically seen a red turbine and it’s sort of in weird proximity to the house; you gotta give the boy props.
What’s not green about this house? Well, the massive television antenna — we don’t have a big TV and we don’t have a big TV antenna sticking up off our house but a TV that does have that big an antenna must be attached to a suck all the energy up TV.
This guy lives here. I don’t know if wicked knights are sustainable or not. But here’s what Cedar says, “He’s sitting on a pile of leaves, watching the sun set.”
Well, a wicked knight with gentle feelings — too cute.
Is there a deal behind this post. Two in fact:
- If you asked Cedar to define the word “sustainable living” he would look at you rather blank faced I suspect. But that doesn’t mean kids can’t understand concepts — the words come in time but get your kids on board early with green living and they will own it for life.
- I’ve been wanting to do an Offbeat kid structure post for a while now. If you have a kid who is under 18 years of age who has built something offbeat send me the photo and I’ll work it into a post. (Or two if all of you have remarkably talented children). Have they built a structure with blocks, mashed potatoes, paper? Send it in. You can see my email in the sidebar and I know that some of you have cool offbeat kids so send those pictures in with a little project info and hopefully we can get a nice Offbeat kids post up at some point in the near future.
Don’t forget to check out Home & Dining’s 300 tips for fabulous home living!
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POSTED IN: Fun & Games, Green Building, Offbeat Kids
7 opinions for Got Offbeat Architect Kids?
marye
Aug 29, 2007 at 11:18 pm
1. Use the gel color food colors for the sugar cubes.
2.All of my kids are brilliant. Better save room.
Jennifer
Aug 29, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Well, if it isn’t the star of the day :)
Gel food color huh. I was thinking paste. But you may be correct. We actually ditched the paint and started using markers — not too good either. And of course your kids are brilliant; if they’re anything like you I already knew that.
marye
Aug 29, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I htink gel works better than paste for this..but you would get more intense color with paste.somewhere I had a picture of the coolest sugar cube house ever and it had a candle inside..it was so..pretty.
Julie
Aug 30, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I love it! Offbeat kids, too cute. I’ll send you the uno card house and I’m sure I’ll have more down the road. You know, you should turn this into a contest. Although Marye’s kids would win, being brilliant and all and well, being related to Marye. :)
Jennifer Chait
Aug 30, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I was thinking of an offbeat kids contest but; One, no contests until I move and two I can’t have a contest about stuff kids build. It’s not nice because all kids rock in their own special way. My son for one would be crushed if he didn’t win that one. So, contest later (soon later).
OH, and three yes, Marye’s kids would all win.
Karen L. Alaniz
Aug 31, 2007 at 1:29 pm
OK…this is for Cedar-
Hey Cedar- Your silly Mama, apparently needs a sugar cube structure lesson. To get them to stick together, all you need is some frosting. You can use the kind you buy in the store, or you can just make your own with powdered sugar and water. Mix it up so it’s pretty thick.
Another fun thing to try is to build an igloo that way. Believe it or not, an igloo is very warm inside. Have your Mama look it up on the computer! My son loves Legos too. Next time he builds something, I’ll post it on my blog so you can see.
Your mom is great by the way…you should give her a gigantic hug!
Karen (but you can call me Bob)
Jennifer Chait
Sep 1, 2007 at 10:17 am
Bob, nice to see you. Won’t frosting get all moldy? It seems like it would after a while. I made an igloo in school out of sugar cubes and tried to get Cedar going on that (he said “A HOUSE”) But actually it’s more of a castle.
Yes post it on your blog and I will steal it for here!
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