Crafts with Dad

Michael here.  I’m not very good about posting here – I rarely find the time – so I thought I would write a quick post about three crafts I do with the children.

1. Hannah’s Electronics Lesson.  Every Saturday morning, Hannah and I do electronics lessons.  We use a fabulous kit called Snap Circuits that is a bit like Legos, but with electronic components on it.  This is one of the highlights of both Hannah’s and my day: she sneaks it at 6:00 am to whisper, “Dad, it’s time for Electronics lesson!”  We’ll make a radio, or an alarm, or whatever the project for the day is.  Usually we start by ourselves, and then Naomi and Sim wake up to join us.

This circuit is am amplifier – the kids are talking into a microphone:

I’m not sure who enjoys this more!  I had kits like this as a kid, and it’s fun to have a reason to do them again.

2. Woodworking.  OK, I can’t say we do this all of the time, but we did get a children’s woodworking set a while back, and decided to make boats last weekend.  They were not complex: just a hull, a mast, and some paper sails.  If we get to a craft store sometime soon, we’ll get canvas for the sails:

Once we had made them, of course, we had to sail them.  It was a rainy day, so we had a bathtub regatta:

3. Painting the fence.  At some point, I read a Mark Twain story where the kids get sent out by the father to paint the fence.  Our fence gate is rotting, and I’ve built a new one, so I thought I should involve them in the painting.

I didn’t send mine out alone – I went with them – but I think Mr. Twain is safely in the realm of fiction for the time being.  As soon as I had opened the can, there was paint everywhere: dripping off of brushes, on to clothes, into hair, and even a little making it on to the fence.  It was a mess!  It took much longer to clean than it did to do.  Still, the gate was ultimately painted, the paint removed from driveway and hair, and the kids had a good sense of achievement.

Good times, those crafts with Dad.