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What to do with a 6yo boy who wants to "fix" everything?
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My dear son who is 6 wants to “fix” everything. Last week I walked into his room to give him some clothes to put away and he had the light kit taken off of his ceiling fan in pieces. He said that his light wasn’t working so he was going to fix it, but for me not to worry because he knew what he was doing since he’d seen his daddy do it before. My husband is a licensed electrician and I think it must run in his blood. Anyway, since hubby was out of town, it took me 30 minutes to put it back together and 30 seconds to flip the breaker which was all that was needed in the first place. I keep telling him to come to me if something is broken, but he doesn’t. This morning I came back in the house from taking the dog out for 2 minutes and when I came back in he had taken our schoolroom lamp apart to “fix” it when all it needed was a changed lightbulb. Help!! I don’t know what to do with this child. He is one who is always into everything! I read the thread about soap carving/ woodworking, but I think he would take his fingers off. I need something to occupy him that might teach him a skill as well. He is happiest when his hands are busy. Any ideas before he starts an electrical fire?
Thanks!
Hee, hee, he sounds like my dh! When he was little (about that age, even), he’d take everything apart just to see how it worked. Yeah, make sure he can’t electrocute himself, but I’m so glad my dh’s parents let him explore like that! He is very smart, and very intuitive when it comes to figuring out how things work. He sounds very hands-on. What about those kits you can get for making your own electrical circuits and such? Would that be something he could do? I can ask my dh when he gets home, too. Maybe he’d have some “boy” ideas. 🙂
We have the snap circuits kit which my kids love. It is very durable and interesting – but to read the instructions for the projects himself he would need to be a pretty good reader. It is more interesting by far to my 10yo than my 7yo but he is not the mechanical type, so yours might love it.
How about getting him some old appliances from the goodwill to work on? And some tools of his own to take care of? Just make sure he unplugs first LOL.
He might enjoy putting together models…
You may want to go buy him stuff at the thrift store–toasters, lamps, radios, old computers–let him take THOSE apart instead of your household stuff. Yes, absolutely, buy him some Snap Circuits. My kids all rigged their rooms with all sorts of gizmos out of that. Also, consider some of the following books:
Gonzo Gizmos (search–there are several)
The Art of the Catapult
Backyard Ballistics
the “Evil Genius: electronics books
Your dh will likely need to help a 6yo occasionally with some of these, but it’s worth it to keep them from taking apart YOUR computer, trust me, BTDT.
Well, I have one of those 6year olds as well! He started when he was about 3 though! He has even cut computer mouse wires because he, “needed to see what was in there”! It was starting to get to the point that I didn’t want to leave him alone in a room with anything that he could fix, experiment on or “see” more closely. But, at the same time, there is something in him that kinda needs to do these types of things. My hubby and I put together a very small toolkit for him of things that he can use to take things apart, experiment, and try to fix. Then we started giving him truly broken or old things (the first one was an old T.V. remote) that were his to take apart, see how they work and possibly try to put back together. He has stripped old wires, seen the inside of old computer parts (my husband does a lot of computer repairs) and sometimes tried to fix broken things. Mostly he has just “seen” things on a closer level and tried to figure out what all of the parts were for and how they all could work together. He is now trying to take apart an old C.D. player that no longer works at all. This is the biggest thing for him so far. He has a “work area” set up in our craft/project room downstairs. We had a few talks with him telling him what was appropriate to take apart and fix and what simply needed to be left alone and why. This has been somewhat of a solution for this problem in our house. HTH!
Wow, I had no idea about the snap circuits kit. I didn’t know those types of things existed. Thank you, I think I’d want to wait on something like that until a birthday or Christmas present due to its cost, but the Thrift Store small appliance idea…we could do that one tomorrow! He has his own tools already, although I’ll need to collect them up, but he could take apart and put the small electronics back together. Thank you for such wonderful ideas!
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