parachuting

I made these parachutes out of a square cut from a plastic grocery bag.  I poked a hole in each corner and tied on a string (I used dental floss, but thread or fishing line should work too).  Then, I gathered the four threads and knotted them together at the end.  I attached another short string to the knot and tied it onto the toy daredevil.
I created these parachutes to use with my son’s teddies.  But we found that the parachutes did not slow the teddies fall very much.  We then tried a few different smaller toys and found that the Fisher Price Little People were the perfect size.
It is interesting that when I introduced the parachutes, B asked ‘what is a parachute?’ and ‘why do you need a parachute?’. 
According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2006, a parachute is a canopy which fills with air and allows a person or heavy object to descend slowly when dropped from a high position, especially in an aircraft.
After I explained and we tested the parachutes on his teddy, B firmly told me that he did not think that the parachute slowed down teddy’s fall and that teddy would be hurt.