If you’re constantly trying to find ways to keep your children entertained, during our seemingly forced time indoors, look no further, as we are about to review a second ’The Amazing Recycling Project Book’ which is published by Welbeck Publishing! So if you liked our review of The Brilliant Recycling Project Book by Sara Stanford a few weeks back, we can now show you a whole load of other potential craft projects to create. Don’t worry this doesn’t mean you need to go and buy more craft supplies to carry out these creations, you can use all the empty packaging you have at home from all the food we seem to have been consuming whilst we #stayathome. This particular book wants you to use things like cereal, and egg boxes and other bits you may have left lying around.
Craft is a weekly activity in our house, whether it is drawing or card making for families birthdays or other celebrations, our dining room table is regularly full of mess, but quite often we get stuck for ideas and end up making the same things over and over, so when we were asked to review this book, my three children just couldn’t wait to decide what they would make first.
The book is cleverly filled with craft ideas you can create using leftover packaging like cereal and egg boxes. We have been saving empty packaging as I kind of knew we wouldn’t be able to get hold of too many craft supplies at the moment, so getting this book has meant we can really have some great ideas to use up some of the bits we had collected.
My three children chose to do a slightly different craft each, once they had chosen the page contains a list of items you will need. We didn’t always have everything but that’s ok you can just get alternatives if you have anything missing (which is what we did). Then it has a step by step guide on how to carry out the craft. My children are 10, 8 and 6 so the fact that the guide is done with pictures meant that the older two could basically be left to it while my 6-year-old had a bit of additional guidance from me.
The book is really straightforward, which means that over 7s can probably manage to complete the tasks on their own. Younger children will still have great fun as although an adult might need to help out, the crafts are lovely and simple, which means that you don’t have to be Monet or Van Gogh in order to create them. And like us, if you don’t have the right colour paint, just make your own versions/variations. This book is brilliant because even if you can’t find any lolly sticks or straws, the images are so well presented in the book you can look at how it is done and improvise with other items and still create something that looks pretty similar to your chosen craft idea.
Our Craft Projects
We choose to do a crab (page 71) a marble maize/run (page 41) and a jellyfish (page 85). The children loved getting messy painting their boxes before we glued on the details. I laid the newspaper on the table which meant I didn’t have as much to clean up at the end. The crafts occupied them for a good hour and then they had to wait for it all to dry and we put it together the day after which took another 30 minutes. They were happy with their crafts and already were trying to move onto the next possible thing to create.
These books are great to have in the house at any time. So when you have a rainy day where you are stuck for ideas you can dig out the book, and choose from 20 potential craft ideas. Each of the pages containing the instructions also has a small section of ways you can expand on your craft, so really there are 40 possible ideas to choose from. I think sometimes these kinds of books don’t seem worth it as they don’t have enough in them, but this can’t be said for ’The Amazing Recycling Project Book’. And a real plus is that it uses up packing you will already have at home which means you won’t need to buy anything new.
How much is the book and where can I buy it?
The book retails on Amazon for £8.99 (current on offer for £7.37) and you can buy it here.
About the Author
Sara Stanford is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for the natural world. She has worked on licensed and own-brand books, magazines and partworks for Egmont, Scholastic, Hachette and Eaglemoss.
About the Book:
The Amazing Recycling Project Book
Publisher: Welbeck Publishing Group
Pages: 96
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1783125197
Dimensions: 262 x 228 mm
Review by: Lex Ward
You may also want to read this:
Children’s Book Review: Sparky the Dragon Bus by Sue Wickstead
Book Review: The Sound of Music Scrap Book
Help! I’ve Lost My Llama Children’s Book Review
* We were sent a copy of the book for free in return for a review. All opinions are our own.
18 comments
I am loving these types of books at the moment! Some really great ideas … especially when it comes to crafting with recycling too! That marble run looks ace! Sim x
Thank you, the book has lots of interesting and fun activities to do
It looks like you have had so much fun creating items from the amazing recycling product book – it is incredible all the things you can make with items from around the home.
Absolutely, especially if you have three kids to keep busy
Definitely recommend this book to my SIL, we were talking today about how they have run out of ideas to keep the kiddies entertained so hopefully this will help.
She would love this Anosa
This book looks like a lot of fun. It would certainly help with the recycling! We seem to be producing an awful lot of it currently!
It does remind me of my now 12 year old coming back from nursery with an egg carton with some stuff stuck to it, I asked him what it was and he looked at me with disdain and said its an egg box with stuff stuck to it!!
What a wonderful share Claire! The book is excellent and it is wonderful how they get to create stuff from daily items lying around
Looks like the perfect way to keep kids busy and entertained for as long as possible! LOVE IT! 😀
This kept my kids busy for a good 2-3 hours
Jack loves crafting stuff from recycling so this sounds like a book we would get plenty of use out of! He recently made a junk robot from our recycling.
Lovely to hear that, kids are so creative and it is wonderful to see that in them
My kids love junk modelling and their favourite days are always when we get deliveries in large boxes
How wonderful! Ours are the same too, love to play with empty boxes
This looks like so much fun, I love that it is making use of waste too – such a good idea xx
Great way of not spending money but reusing waste
This looks like a fun book to spark the children’s imaginations – plus a great way to make the most of the recycling.
So agree with you Sarah, my kids enjoyed doing the activities