Grasshopper Chairs

When we were kids we didn't have computers, video games and electronic gadgets that kids have today.

We played outside. All day, in the summer.

We never had cell phones. When Mom wanted us back home, she would go to the front door and holler. We eventually heard her and came home.

It didn't take much to keep us busy or amuse us during the day. We found many things to do and to play.

After rainy days we would dam up the creek. We would make two or three in a row. The largest one would be in front and one by one we would tear down the dams and see if the first one could hold all the water. It was fun getting in the creek and getting our feet and hands muddy.

We swung from grapevines hanging in the trees in the woods by our house.

We played horseshoes, bad minton and croquet. We played games such as - red light green light, freeze tag, ring around the rosie, red rover- red rover, hide and seek, mother may I?, and chased lightning bugs at night.

And, we sat and pulled the petals off of daisies while we recited "she loves me, she loves me not."

We made whistles from blades of grass, searched for 4 leaf clovers and made grasshopper chairs.

You want to know how to make grasshopper chairs?

First, you go out and find yourself some plantain. (I didn't know they were called that, I called them grasshopper plants). My cousin Vera says the younger ones work best, they bend easier.



You make the back of the chair first.


Turn your hand upside down and lay the stems flat across your hand and then fold the 'legs' of the chair over them and down in between your fingers. This holds your seat together.


Keep laying the stems flat across your hand and folding the stem beside of it over and down in between your finger to hold it in place.


After you have your seat as big as you want it, grab hold of the stems under your hand and slide your fingers out. The back of your chair will flip up and you will have yourself a grasshopper chair.


Now take a stem and tie it around the legs of your chair to hold it together.


I'm sorry the instructions are pretty confusing. But if you have a bunch of plantain in your yard, get some and give it a try. Teach your kids how to do this vanishing craft.

I thank Vera of Intouchwith for refreshing my memory on how to make them. I couldn't remember how the chair bottom was held together. We sat around the picnic table after our family reunion and she showed me how to do it.

We made them all the time when we were kids. I remember Mom showing me how to do it. I'd say she made them when she was young, too.

I think they are kinda pretty.

What do you remember doing when you were a child? Did you ever make grasshopper chairs?