the windless kite

My kids want to fly their kites on the quietest of days. Not the faintest hint of wind, hardly even a breeze. It doesn't matter how many times I explain that the kite needs the thrust of the wind to overcome gravity and lift off, they insist on dragging them out and tangling up the string into knots that I'll spend the rest of the summer untangling. So when all the neighborhood kids were at my house asking to play with the kites the other day, I pulled out a brilliant idea.


I gathered several plastic grocery bags from my recycling stash and grabbed some string. Tying the handles together with one end of the string, I made a loop on the other end for their little hands to hold on to. "Run!" I urged them. Run they did, and behind them flew their puffy white sacks like miniature Walmart blimps in the spring sky. You can't ask for better cheap thrills than that.



With the slightest forward motion, the force of the air through the billowing bags creates enough thrust to lift them instantly, even without a steady wind. We tied them behind bikes and scooters and let them fly themselves. Try it. It's quick and easy (and free) fun. Plus you're saving a few sea turtles by keeping your plastic bags out of the oceans. You'll be the greenest (and least tangled-in-a-mess-of-kite-string) mom on the block.