Little Fixit

Quinn has a gear set. It's magnetic and resides on the fridge. A battery-powered motor drives the whole set and you can mesh the gears in various ways. It's been a great toy, and a great way to convey concepts of how things work. Quinn has played with it on and off for a long time.

Recently the battery in the electric motor has been getting a little tired and Quinn has been asking to have it fixed. Finally the other day it was obviously not working well so we decided to fix it. I gave Quinn a screwdriver and told him which screw to undo, which he did. I told him to take the battery out and remember which way the bump pointed. I gave him a new battery and told him to put it in the way the other one was when it came out. I told him to put the cap back on and fasten the screw again. Then we put the old battery in the special garbage and put the screwdriver away. He did all the physical actions all by himself, and was he ever proud!

Of course now he wants to fix everything, even the stuff that's not broken. But fortunately he doesn't appear to remember the drawer where the screwdriver lives so I think everything else with screws in it is safe (we never had to baby-proof that drawer - no idea why that drawer is different, but it always has been!). It won't be long before he's teaching me stuff.