No, not dirty, yucky garbage but ...

I was in the process of decluttering a broken alarm clock and an old telephone that was put out of commission long ago. Right before tossing them in the garbage I decided to hand them to my 5-yr old and told her, "Here, take this apart." I showed her which screwdrivers she needed and left her to it. She got the alarm clock apart so quickly I challenged her to see if she could put it back together. And she did!

Right now she's sitting here beside me taking them apart and putting them together again. I tried to toss them but won't let me.

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"Poor people work for their money. Rich people make their money work for them."

My 1yo plays with empty, washed out, food containers (like yogurt cups) more than he plays with toys. We are staying at my moms right now and she gave him an old cordless phone that would have gone in the trash if we weren't here.

Great idea!

How great that you let her do this! This is great practice with fine motor skills and problem solving!

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If you need to get in touch with me, my email is teach1107910@yahoo.com.

That's a good idea- that is actually how DH got interested in computers. He was about 10 years old and they had gotten someone's old computer that quit working. He took it apart, played with the circuits and stuff and basically rebuilt the computer and still loves "playing" with them.

My husband is an electronics engineer. When he was a young boy he spent more time behind the TV set than he did in front of it. He says he used to sit back there and watch all the lights on the old tube set. It was like a small city back there! I remember that I grew up with a tube TV, too, and found the inside fascinating. Todays electronics are far less interesting. When the little one opened up the alarm clock all that was inside is one of those little clock modules that you can get at any craft store. Still, it was interesting how easily it was made and how easy it would be to take that module and make our own clock (it was the outside of the clock that was broken, not the clock module). But that is for another project.

__________________
"Poor people work for their money. Rich people make their money work for them."

I love that story! My father is an Electronic's Engineer too. He tells similar stories. He said he used to take apart things like his parents Radio just to see how they work!

I can see my son is now amazed with lights, buttons and how things work. I wonder if it is his age (19 months) or if this will be something he is interested in too!

I totally plan on letting him take things apart later in life. I would love it if he could fix things around the house for me one day!!!