Hello! — video

Three days ago Norman and Henry from next door learned that I have a Bilderhoos and that it lives on my back porch. They've built with it at every opportunity, and according to their Mom, they talk of little else.  Today Henry chose to build a pickup truck, which became a semi-truck, and ended up being some kind of lighthouse tower, with an imaginary glow to guide the sea monsters of Lake Michigan past our rocky shores. Anyway, this video is of the guys on Day 1, when their pal David came over. It contains a surprise.

Short, speedy, and meant to get kids started. Once kids can see how simple the concept it, they usually take it from there and come up with lots of ideas of their own.

Download this printable sheet for some build ideas. 

The stop-motion was shot in the shop in Olympia by Kieran and Sean, and narrated by me in iMovie on my computer in Chicago.

Kieran and Sean spent a couple of hours at Priest Point Park yesterday. They shot some preliminary time-lapse video of the new Bilderhoos play set design. Here's a preview ...

It's so simple: rounded boards with notches, and they connect together without any tools or nails or anything. They look a lot like huge notched popsicle sticks, painted in primary colors, now faded and chipped from fifteen years of use.  When you connect them (just slide the boards together at the notches) they start to resemble things, cool things like a fortress or a playhouse, a lemonade stand or a tower.  The same boards, put together, taken apart, put together again into something completely different. 

Our product designer, David Archer, and his two...