Making Toys (2)

My daughter Kaitlin has a narrative she likes to run through that suggests there were no toys to play with whenever she visited me as a child.

It is entirely false, or course, but nowadays that doesn't matter. What was the John Prine quote?

"If it's true or not doesn't seem to matter much..."

This is her daughter, Zara, playing with a wooden spoon. In her comedy routine, Kaitlin likes to cite the fact that there was a lone wooden spoon that I let her play with when she came to visit for the summer.

This blog is littered with toys I have made for my grandchildren. Everything from analog fuel meters to building blocks to a time machine to a 13 Moon Calendar.

I once made a "busy board" that was permantely remanded to the attic. The argument was, "It encourages children to stick their fingers in sockets."

So I hired Joe Ezzel over at New Earth Fabrication to make a busy board where no little fingers could get hurt.

My goal has always been to entertain them in analog.

The other day Aidan pinched an open-ended wrench from my Workshop@thePlant.

It was little. Fit a 1/4" nut and bolt.

Since he was already tagging along at a trip to the hardware store, I bought a nut and a bolt that fit his new wrench.

It entertained him for hours. A week later I found it embedded in the gravel in front of Granny's house. Poor kid must be devasted....