Make it Monday: If you give a first grader a saw...

Usually I spend my summers traveling with the crew but I'm nearly 37 weeks pregnant so we are staying close to home this year.  It kinda sucks-I want to camp and hike and whatnot.  Next summer, we'll be back at it.

So because I can't do what I want, I do what I can. Today,  that means making stuff.  Getting all these baby gifts mean lots of boxes and what better way to repurpose boxes than to make a car!

I got this MakeDo kit a while back from Target. [Note: this is a first gen kit and Make Do has some awesome upgrades that make it even easier for kids to create.]

 It came with a "saw," some plastic connectors , and lots of stickers. 

I gave Popcorn a couple of boxes and a Sharpie and got out of her way.

Getting out of the way is important.  We adults tend to like things to be just so and that's fine BUT kids need freedom to create and experiment. I helped her a little-when she asked-and encouraged her all the way. Her siblings and MechanicBae offered support and advice intermittently. Pepperoni offered moral support.

After a couple of hours,  this was her final product.

Not too shabby for a 6 year old.  But bigger than that are the lessons:

• Creativity-she designed the car
• Planning-she had to plan where to put the roof and doors, create a steering wheel, etc
• Perseverance-she worked through frustration and kept working until she was done
• Problem solving-she originally wanted to use an old Wii steering wheel but it was too heavy so she constructed a cardboard steering wheel. This took several tries, which is important, too.  Kids need to fail sometimes.  They need to know that failing is part of learning and growing.

All of these are important critical thinking skills and translate to real life problem solving.

I shared these pics with the folks at Make Do and they were super responsive-and they  told us all about their new products.   Stay tuned for a future post with more making and doing!