Treehouse Part 5

And finally the completed tree house.

The Treehouse

As you can see we had a last minute addition.

The sunshade

Once all the constructing and gluing was done, Junior thought something wasn't quite right.  What about all the sun up in a tree?  What we really needed was a roof; or better yet, a canopy.  So we went digging through the fabric scraps and found a length of muslin.   But the trouble was how to fasten it.  In a burst of inspiration, Junior grabbed a handful of pipe cleaners/chenille stems and made a complicated support structure for the roof.  Then using a combination of more pipe cleaners, glue and rubber bands, we secured the canopy on.

Success.  One treehouse and one happy doll.

Close up of lower platform 

and climbing rope.

Now for lesson planning, here's what we counted.

• Art:  architecture, design, color, 
• Math: measuring,  addition, subtraction, ratios, scales
• Writing:  journaling, project planning notes, final project write up, success of plan, modifications made
• Science: structural engineering,  

 Still trying to squeeze the whole tree in one photo

Treehouse Part 4

So back to the treehouse.  So we had glued in the top platform and decided it was way too far off the ground for a ladder to reach.  The length it was already caused it twist under our model child.  So we added a lower platform and fasten the bottom of the ladder to it.  Junior also decided that safety rails were a must so we added those as well.   We tied a strip of cloth beside the bottom platform as a climbing rope from the ground.

Lower platform, rope ladder and climbing rope.

Junior had discovered the sewing machine just before the treehouse project.   I showed him how to make simple, tiny pillows and he measured fabric against our treehouse doll and sewed several for the treehouse on his own.

Piles of pillows

pillows on the upper platform

We had just done a scout craft with melty beads and we still had them at the house, so Junior decided the treehouse needed a melty bead TV set.

Doll with her pillows and the "TV."

Next time:   The completed treehouse.

Treehouse Part 3

So we had our tree, next it was on to the platforms.

We constructed two of the standard "raft" sort of platforms out of craft sticks/Popsicle sticks fitting them into the spaces between our branches.  We picked up some bass wood* pieces to help brace the platforms against the branches wherever we could.

Building the Platforms

Upper Platform test fitting

Now here's where our math came in.   We used the easy 1:1 dollhouse scale (1 inch = 1 foot) for calculating our sizing and even had our scale model child.

"We wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land!"

Then we had a brilliant idea; make a tiny rope ladder.  We looked at real ladders and determined that rungs are about one foot apart. So it seemed easy enough: tape toothpicks to a ruler, knot some string onto each, a drop of glue to make everything stay put.  

Well...

Those tiny knots were awful and traumatic.  Keeping the string taut as you tied the knot was even worse. And the rungs kept ending up glued to the paper.  But, in the end, we had a ladder.

It's all fun and games until you glue yourself to a toothpick.

Ladder drying on tree and lower platform in progress

Clearly, the Lullaby League found it all very tedious.

We decided they had the right idea and went to 

do a little *ahem* research.

Next time, everything glued will be in place and the fun part; decorating!




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Treehouse Part 2

So the first step is making the "tree," by attaching the sticks to the stump.  The instructions show a half a stump, but Junior liked the look of the intact stump and we were all for less cutting.

So first we made sure the sticks were level enough to stand up, knowing they did not need to be perfect.  Then the DH began to drill two holes in the stump.  A paddle bit would have been easier but he made do with large boring bit.

Because of the guesswork involved with the drilling, we had some large gaps to deal with.

We decided to pour in a small amount of wood glue, fill the gaps with the readily available sawdust, then pour glue on top and press the mixture in. 

It was messy, but it worked surprisingly well.  By the time we were  finished all the drill holes were nicely concealed and we  were able to sand things fairly smooth again.  It did also serve to make sticks very securely fastened to the stump.

Next time:  the treehouse.

The Treehouse

I've been meaning to blog here about the Great Treehouse Project but somehow never managed to get the photos organized or set it all down in steps.

So anyway - the backstory:

I had long been enthralled with with this site but I hadn't quite got up the energy to start the project with my Cubscouts.  Then as we were moving out our school and into homeschool one of the moms proposed this project for the class.  I was immediately all over that and it became our first homeschool project.


It all started with

A Stump

and two sticks....

To be continued......