DIY Dad & Mom: Raise Your Kid to Be a Tinkerer with Cool Home Projects
The renaissance of self-reliance has brought about such things as a flood of creative ideas on Pinterest, Arduino projects, popular YouTube DIY Channels, and the Raspberry Pi movement. But why should grown-ups have all the fun?
Kids are born into technology, so why not include them in the experience? Teach them to fix and create things and you teach them to take control of their world.
Why Should I Introduce DIY to My Kids?
Because you want them to be people who can solve problems, be creative, think analytically, and have healthy self-esteem. You want them to be able to adapt to or overcome life’s obstacles. Most importantly, you want them to never feel helpless and alone. Does that sound like a lot to expect from doing DIY with your young ones? Maybe, but at least one expert thinks it can.
Clayton Christensen, an intellectual, as well as physical, giant, and the originator of the term “disruptive innovation”, thinks so. He believes that,
“…really creative people have almost always had two experiences as young children: one is, their fathers or mothers had a disposition always to fix things for themselves. So if something went wrong in the house, they would never call the repairman—they’d always take it apart and fix it.”
Christensen explains, “When they worked with their fathers or mothers to fix things it did two things: one, is it gave them a curiosity to know how things work…and the other thing that experience does for them is it gives them the confidence that if something is wrong they can fix it.”
Whether that’s a learned behavior or a genetic trait is still up for discussion, but we’ll find that the answer is somewhere in between. But why bet on genetics to do the job, when you can do it yourself?
When Should I Introduce DIY to My Kids?
Now. No, not now, as in stop reading this article, but now in general. Even when they are toddlers they can create with building blocks, Duplo or Lego, and other toys. Just having your children around when you do things leaves an impression. Then they might grow up realizing they can build, and do, just about anything into which they put their effort. They’ll learn that science and technology is for everyone.
Kids are born into technology, so why not include them in the experience? Teach them to fix and create things and you teach them to take control of their world.
Why Should I Introduce DIY to My Kids?
Because you want them to be people who can solve problems, be creative, think analytically, and have healthy self-esteem. You want them to be able to adapt to or overcome life’s obstacles. Most importantly, you want them to never feel helpless and alone. Does that sound like a lot to expect from doing DIY with your young ones? Maybe, but at least one expert thinks it can.
Clayton Christensen, an intellectual, as well as physical, giant, and the originator of the term “disruptive innovation”, thinks so. He believes that,
“…really creative people have almost always had two experiences as young children: one is, their fathers or mothers had a disposition always to fix things for themselves. So if something went wrong in the house, they would never call the repairman—they’d always take it apart and fix it.”
Christensen explains, “When they worked with their fathers or mothers to fix things it did two things: one, is it gave them a curiosity to know how things work…and the other thing that experience does for them is it gives them the confidence that if something is wrong they can fix it.”
Whether that’s a learned behavior or a genetic trait is still up for discussion, but we’ll find that the answer is somewhere in between. But why bet on genetics to do the job, when you can do it yourself?
When Should I Introduce DIY to My Kids?
Now. No, not now, as in stop reading this article, but now in general. Even when they are toddlers they can create with building blocks, Duplo or Lego, and other toys. Just having your children around when you do things leaves an impression. Then they might grow up realizing they can build, and do, just about anything into which they put their effort. They’ll learn that science and technology is for everyone.
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