Demolition

Demolition by Sally Sutton is not my favorite truck book. To me, the rhymes are banal and the noise words make for a raucous read along. Mikey loves it! The rhymes are simple and the noise words make
for a raucous read along! Along with the usual suspects (bulldozer, dump truck, front loader), there are novel machines for helping with demolition of a building. The crane truck has a wrecking ball instead of a hook. There are a crusher and a chipper for breaking down materials. The excavator has claw attachments. For all the reading fun and machine education,  I guess the book is OK overall.

Are You Kidding Me? A Toy Crusher!
Over and over again Mikey has read Demolition with me or with his dad. Over and over again he has requested a toy crusher and we have denied their existence assuming that they are too dangerous for preschoolers...even as a toy. Then one day as we were walking past the Play Doh section at a toy store Mikey exclaimed, "There's a crusher! I want it!" I couldn't believe my eyes. Sure enough, Play Doh has made toy demolition machines for their "Diggin' Rigs" line.

The Brick Mill and the Grinding Gravel Yard both have cranks and moving parts that will likely appeal to a preschool engineer like Mikey. We have the Brick Mill and it works wonderfully with play-doh. If your child is anything like mine then you will have to either stock up on lots and lots of Play-doh or have a great recipe to make your own. Since pouring, mixing and getting dirty in the kitchen is a favorite activity in our house, we make our own using the no-cook recipe from the Imagination Tree:

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1.5 cups boiling water (adding more in increments if needed)
• food colouring (optional)
• few drops glycerine (optional- adds more shine!)

Method

• Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
• Add the boiling water
• Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
• Add the food colouring and glycerine (both optional)
• Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
• (If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right)

Together with "Demolition" these toys make for wonderful research into the machines of our world.