Wind Tunnel

When we visited my parents in Washington there was a great Kids Museum we visited that had a wind tunnel. Mikey and Kaia probably spent about an hour there playing with it. I didn't mind I was there playing with it to. Ever since then I have wanted a wind tunnel of our very own. I found one made by Kodokids that is where the picture above is from. I am completely obsessed that tunnel is on my wish list. Unfortunately I cannot convince my husband that we a wind tunnel is a necessity. So I think the beautiful Kodokids Wind Tunnel will remain a dream. Well when I obsess over something I really obsess. So I think about it often, I try to figure out how I can make something similar with what I have and so I came up with what you see below. I looked through my house unfortunately I do not have any fans even remotely the same size as the one pictured. I did however find an old hair dryer in my garage so I had a jumping off point. I knew I had to direct the air. If you read my blog you know I have a thing for upcyling plastic bottles. I found a plastic bottle and used a box cutter to cut off the bottom of the bottle. I placed the bottle over the hair dryer I then used duct tape to attach the bottle to the hair dryer. I did not want the hot air to melt the bottle or to burn the kids hands so I taped down the cold air button. I now needed something to hold the dryer in place. I wanted it covered so the kids would not play with the on off switch to much. I had a Styrofoam cooler I thought would be perfect so I cut a hole in the top. I used a dowel to hold the hair dryer in place. I placed it all on top of a wire rack that came with my fridge. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of ventilation. The result was better than I had hoped for. It works great. Mikey figured out we can have two balls going at once. He is able to move the balls without touching them. We will practice with more objects later. I am just so excited that this actually worked. While I am still dreaming of the Kodokids Wind Tunnel . I at least have my make shift wind tunnel to let the kids learn and discover with.