Bunchland

The best tools, tricks and ideas for playing with cardboard

If you haven’t heard of Caine’s Arcade yet, watch this video. You’re in for a treat for the eyes and the mind.

The story behind it is uber-inspiring. Nine-year-old Caine devoted his summer to making his own arcade out of cardboard boxes from the back of his dad’s used auto parts store, and the results garnered international attention. He started with a mini basketball net, then he made a soccer game with army men goalies, then a string-and-hook claw game, and eventually his arcade grew to occupy a big chunk of his dad’s garage.

The short film was made by Nirvan Mullick (who also happened to be Caine’s first customer). The film was made to raise money for Caine’s education. Soon, Caine’s Arcade Foundation was born, devoted to fostering creativity and entrepreneurship in kids. Just goes to show having fun and being successful go hand in hand.  Read more...

Beth Blenz-Clucas blogs about music for kids that grownups will love too

Children make music out of just about anything they can find – pots and pans, buckets, wooden spoons, your best china – you name it, they’ll want to bang on it. When it’s not destructive, this kind of early music play is extremely important for kids. At least one family music artist, Billy Jonas, never left his childhood instruments behind, as he creates a wall of sound from garbage bins, oatmeal boxes and carpet tubes… and a set of glass bottles.

There’s something about moisture, air and glass that can create sounds ranging from goofy to ethereal. One example of the latter is this YouTube video showing an artist performing a Mozart piece on a glass armonica. While it is certainly very refined, clearly what we have here is music-making from a glorified pop bottle:  Read more...

Catherine Romano blogs about crafty projects for kids and parents

With all of the musical inspiration at Bunch this month, I thought it would be great to make a musical instrument. I decided to make a simple balloon shaker, but most of the creativity lies in what I did with the balloon shaker. Essentially, my son and I took some time to explore a few elements of music with our shaker (and my boy loved it so much that he asked to play ‘music class’ again). Check it out.

1. Make a balloon shaker. 
a) Put a few tablespoons of rice inside a deflated balloon.
b) Blow up the balloon to the desired size.
c) Tie a knot at the end and attach a ribbon (it is much easier to hold the ribbon, opposed to the actual balloon)  Read more...