Playsilk Parachute

This is why I love my husband.  Okay, I love him for a million reasons, but his creativity and engineering nature is fantastic for homeschooling.

I can't remember what I was doing, or where I was, but he was left with the big girls for a while.  When I came home, he had created this really cool parachute from a playsilk (we dyed our own from Dharma Trading), yarn, clothes pins, and an empty peanut butter container.

Overall picture

He had drilled 8 holes in the lid (2 for each string), but after a few rounds, realized one central hole (or, two holes, I suppose) is better.  4 locations seems to tangle too much

He just drilled a hole in one side of the clothes pin for the yarn.  

This works best if you have a nice high deck to throw off of.  Luckily, we do.  ;)

They tried several different methods, from scrunching it all up and letting it go, to lengthening.  I think holding it out like Jujubee is doing worked best.  

And let it fly!  

You may notice there is a stuffed orange inside the jar.  It seemed to help when we added a little weight.  Too much weight made it sink too fast, too little didn't give it enough oompf to spread out and fly.  

There you go!  A parachute from a playsilk.  Have fun!