Make A Wind Chime

Your child might enjoy making and putting up a wind chime. First, let him fool around with various jingly-jangly items (such as spoons, aluminium pie plates, even pencils or ballpoint pens) that will create different sounds when the wind makes them bump against each other. He'll learn he can control the sounds by making simple changes in the items and their positions. To make the actual chime, knot a variety of simple metallic objects, such as different sized spoons, to pieces of cord. Hang the pieces of cord by tying them to two pieces of wood nailed together in an 'X' shape, with a hook at the top for hanging in the wind.

Wind chimes can be made in limitless varieties using longer or shorter cord, strings made of different materials, lighter or heavier objects, and more or fewer objects. Hang your home-made wind chime inside near a window or outside in the wind for different results. Hang it where your child can reach it and make it jingle with a puff of breath.

The above is excerpted with permission from Playing Smart: The Family Guide to Enriching, Offbeat Learning Activities for Ages 4-14 by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. a Los Angeles-based social psychologist.