Jason, and his family, took inspiration from Tom Hanks’ character’s “friend”, called “Wilson” in the film Castaway. Fancy making your own? Here’s how you do it…

You will need:

  • An old football or volleyball (preferably white)
  • Some twigs (fine and compact) – conifer is ideal – in our case, we used the head of an old fancy dress witch’s broom
  • A pair of scissors
  • A red felt tip pen or red paint


This is a simple, easy to make project.

It seemed an ideal activity for the lockdown for the kids given Wilson’s role in keeping Tom Hank’s character in the film sane during his long isolation on a deserted island.

Instructions:

  1. Find your old football.
  2. Gather a pair of scissors and a red felt pen or paint.
  3. Gather your twigs.
  4. Cut a rough hole in the top of the football, big enough for the bunch of twigs to fit in.
  5. Get your kids to draw around your hand on the facing side of the football ensuring there is enough room for the face.  In the film, Wilson’s face is conceived after Hanks cuts his hand whilst trying to make fire, gets frustrated and picks up the ball with his blooded hand and throws Wilson away in anger! This approach is not advised!  However it means the face is not meant to be a perfect handshape so the fingers of the hand should be truncated for the face as if its a real ‘blood smudge’ Your Wilson should not have a thumb.  This was a design error.
  6. Get your child to colour in the face ensuring that there is space left for the eyes and mouth.
  7. Feed the twigs into the hole at the top of the cut football.  Hey presto, you have Wilson! 

Place on a pedestal in the garden, invite him to your evening around the firepit.  Ask his advice!  All this is helped if you also watch the film and see the important part Wilson plays in helping Hanks’ character survive in complete isolation.

Tell us all a bit about yourself…

My name is Jason, I have two boys, James 11 and Elliot 6.  I am currently furloughed from my bid writing job. While Mum, the real creative one, has been for the most part, at work (NHS nurse) we have had our ups and downs with homeschooling and fending off the boredom. 

It has been a great help that the weather has been good enabling us to play football in the garden, make assault courses, use the paddling pool, and to appreciate the butterflies and bugs that have been in abundance (using a wildlife book to identify them).

We have enjoyed making VE day medals out of cardboard, silver foil and an old red, white and blue T-shirt (this was a school set project) and we also made swords and shields early on in the lockdown.  I have, at times relied on modern gadgets, but too much screen time can make the boys grumpy and unmotivated. 

Also, great fun was our funfair stalls day where the boys came up with ideas to have stalls in the garden including a nerf gun ‘Plants vs zombies’ shooting range, a toy car race down a slide and a ‘throw the plastic balls into a hoop’ in the paddling pool stall.  We used plastic money to pay for a go on each stall.

It is great to get tips and ideas from others in the social media community.  Its so important that the ideas keep coming even when we are eventually out of lockdown.  Not every idea will capture everyone’s imagination, but sharing them can help stave off those days when you’re completely at a loss as to what to do with the day and to keep the kids entertained (and there have been a few of those!).