Homemade Sprinklers – Crafts for Kids

Some people may think that using a project using PVC pipe is not a craft. You might be right, or you might be wrong. It doesn’t matter.  The cool thing is though that I did an crafty creative activity with our oldest daughter this week that she LOVED. My good friend, Beth, is married to a super smart guy named Nathan and has a super super smart son and daughter. Nathan a few years ago gave their son a bag of PVC pipes cut to different lengths, connectors, and sprinkler heads and told him to go to town making his own sprinkler. It was the coolest idea ever. Did I mention that the kid was probably 4 and built this giagantic sprinkler system with it.  I loved that. It was so creative and so fun, yet a challenging activity for a kid. So earlier this week when my promise to take the girls swimming fell through due to a closed pool at the YMCA and a major traffic jam on the road headed to our back up pool, we just swung into Ace Hardware instead and bought a ton of PVC pipe and connectors to make our own sprinklers.  I did simplify it some from what our friend had done for their son since the child is smarter than I am. However, half of the state of Texas and Houston Zoo is smarter than I am and I’m ok with that. Would you like to make a sprinkler with a kid? need directions? look no further. First you need to get the following parts… Start with 3/4 PVC pipe cut into varying lengths,  a big pile of 3/4 width PVC connectors (all different types), 3/4 width PVC caps, and a piece that attaches to your hose. I got the wrong piece. You need a male attachment piece, I got the female one (and yes, that is valid plumber-ish speak). All this was on the same aisle at Ace Hardware and so easy to find, I highly recommend shopping there for this project. (no, I was not paid to say that. Ace Hardware just thinks I’m the crazy lady that drags 3 bathing suit clad kids into the store and begs for mercy.) The guy at Ace cut the pipe into four smaller sections for me (for free) but when I got home I decided I wanted more than four pieces so I cut some more using a hacksaw.  He did kinda look at me like I was crazy when I told him what we were doing. I guess my reputation proceeds me. Now the important part… Playing with power tools.  You need a drill with a small/ medium drill bit and you just drill random holes all over the PVC pipe. I tried to space them out about two inches but I didn’t worry about having them in a line or all on one side. This will be where the water comes out. Now you’re ready. We did a quick lesson on the sidewalk about how to connect the connectors into the PVC pipe. One thing that you must stress is that any pipe that is not connected at both ends MUST have a cap on the open end. This is what is going to keep the water pressure high enough that it comes out the holes. No caps on the ends equal no fun. Once our lesson about connecting was over she took it out to the grass and started building. I did add the hose connector on one end before I let her go with it, and then I duct taped the hose to it since I had the wrong one. Then she went to work.. building.. taking apart.. rebuilding… taking it apart again…. moving pieces… new shapes, new fun. She built it by herself, with no help from me once I got everything prepped and ready for her. She had an absolute blast and the best part is that when we were done, we disconnected all the pieces and neatly stored them in a plastic bag.  It would be a great gift idea to give a child all the prepared pieces to build their own sprinkler in a big plastic bag. Princess Goofy was a little under the weather and wasn’t able to join us.. but someone else discovered that she doesn’t really like the sprinklers. Go create! and send me pictures of what your children come up with! I’m linking up with Tatertots and Jello and Be Different Act Normal!