When I saw this boat project, I knew it would be perfect for our study of the Phoenicians in history. It seemed a little challenging but the allure of the boat cuteness made me go for it. We had almost all the supplies on hand, except for the bamboo skewers which I picked up at Walmart. When doing this with many children I would recommend spreading it out over several days. But since I like to tackle a project from start to finish, we did it in just one day (all day).

I cut the pattern out for the two youngest but they did the paper mache themselves.

My eight year old son even sewed the sail himself.

Waiting on the paper mache to dry was the hardest part (for them). Assembling the sail and poking the skewer through the boat for the button and skewer were kind of hard for me. And, I actually did the whole thing wrong. None of the sail stuff is correct. I left off the dowel (accidentally) which is probably why our boats drooped and needed hot glue.

But the most important thing was that they looked cute.

Maybe I’ll go back and fix the sail, but maybe I won’t. Most of the things in my home are done just half right. So this project will fit right in.