When I was a child my grandfather taught me how to make a kite as he did as a child. This summer it was my son's grandfather who taught him.
The activity has been precious for both of us, for the timeshare when choosing the materials, the wisdom transmitted on the handmade toys of yesteryear and also, for the educational experience that it implies manipulate materials and experiment with them, With the wind and the physical laws that will make this kite fly.
We will need reeds, glue, thin rope in a coil, wrapping paper, tissue paper and pieces of cloth for the tail.
The reeds, which are very straight, we will cut them longitudinally, in a thin sheet, a quarter of the thickness of the cane, all of the same length.
We will cut the paper by folding it until making a regular octagon, approximately one meter in diameter.
We will make a hole in the center that we can reinforce with glued cloth, and we will pass a rope through the hole, firmly tying the reeds through the center so that they move.
We will fix the reeds to each diameter, making them join, tied, in the center of the octagon and sticking them well, cutting the piece of cane about three centimeters protruding from the paper.
A rope will be tied to all the vertices, following the perimeter of the kite, very tight. We can be placed, along each side, folded, the tissue paper, gluing it and then cutting to leave some fringes like those that appear in the image.
Rods, thread and paper must be perfectly glued and tight. Once dry we will tie the rest of the rope, to the central knot and leave enough length of rope wrapped in a coil.
The tail will make the counterweight and we will have to do it by making knots with pieces of colored fabrics to a rope that will be tied to two lower vertices leaving one free. The tail will make it a couple of meters but then, surely, we will have to cut it when it is windy and let's fly the kite, adapting its length to what the kite itself asks us; if it is very heavy the kite It will not rise, but if it weighs little it will get out of control and will not fly steadily.
Our kite is ready to fly. We need no more than windy so we can make our fun craft lift the flight.
