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Comments
There are a total of 2 posts (both from KarenS) across ALL Subaru discussions since 1:55 am this morning. I guess no one can get in. I tried to get in all morning and finally was successful about 15 minutes ago.
DaveM
The site is technically down at the moment and not letting anyone in...cept you. :-)
-Dave
what was the outage, Karen?
~c
I see our Chat Room is Open
-Dave
Patti
Bob
Bob
Glad to hear the East coast hasn't simply just slid off into the ocean (like the West coast might do one day. ;-)
-Ian
Well, as I couldn't post during lunch, and as it was such a beautiful day here in the Hudson Valley (tropical storm remains finally out of the Eastern Seaboard), I went out for a ride. Stopped at a yard sale and (for the second time in two weeks) hit the mother load of Lego's. I am talking a carton load, for $10!!! It included booklets and the parts for the space shuttle, Technic neumatics, you name it. Last weeks haul was about the same, but only $5..... Emily and I are going to have quite a time this winter!
Steve
I have fond childhood memories of Lego's.
Sounds like fun. Be sure to take some pics of your creations.
-Ian
Jim 8~)
Craig
Emily will have fun watching Steve build something. ;-)
I was a Play Mobil freak. Had every one. Gave 'em all to charity and now I'm sure my kids will get hooked and I'll spend approximately $6.7 million dollars to re-build my collection.
Maybe I should hit a yard sale, too...
-juice
In addition to thousands of pieces in two large boxes, there were a number of semi-completed projects that we spent some time playing with. Em particularly liked making the pheumatics open and close a grappling assembly on some funky looking truck. I think the Space Shuttle is there as well.
Now spending time looking at Lego booklet scans on the web trying to figure out what some of this stuff is!! Funny, because I had no interest in them at all when I was young. Now we have tons of Lego's and Duplo's. Yard sales are the best!!!
On another hobby subject, I am going to a "Talking Machine" show/market tomorrow in search of some bits to complete an old Edison Cylinder machine still in pieces.
Today we did an SPCA dog walk. Lots of fun, although Madison (big shephard) is a little agressive with other dogs in close quarters. But he is so good with other peoples kids, it is worth the experience.
Steve
I'd heartily endorse giving girls lots of exposure to construction toys. Tamsin, who is now 11, is undoubtedly feminine with probably the world's largest extant Beanie Bear collection and a nail polish colection to match the bears in number. However, we consciously decided to encourage her with building toys from early infancy. Her large bear, Max was a constant help with this. We would spot a construction toy she had not played with for some time, make a model and leave Max with a paw in the toy bucket. Tamsin would then play happilly and constructively with the toy (and Max), making interesting things.
As she has got older,
We took the conscious decision with Tamsin to encourage her to build as many things as possible from an early age. She is certainly feminine with a world class collection of Beanie Bears and a world beating collection of nail polish. Why applying this to fingers and toes requires that several girls lock themselves in the bathroom, preventing parental access, is beyond me and infuriates her mother. I suspect it is revenge on Judy for her childhood.
She also enjoys cooking, particularly with me. Judy is less tolerant of kids in the kitchen, but making pasta is something that dad does around our house. Angus tends to cook biscuits with his mum, so both kids are learning the basics.
Giving girls construction toys adds something to their upbringing. We were ably assisted by Tamsin's bear, Max who would periodically be found, with a newly constructed toy and his paw in the Lego or K-nex bucket. For a bit more on Max, see the link http://www.thelaboroflove.com/forum/bearpit/2.html
The excitement in making things has stayed with Tamsin who is now eleven. She has free range in the workshop and I have, from time to time, given her some basic tools of her own. each Christmas she gets another tool or two and by the time she leaves home, should have the basic tools to maintain her own property.
She made and painted her own tool box at a local hardware store that offers craft classes for kids each weekend.
From time to time, all kids need a bit of banging nails into things and cutting bits of timber. She disappears into the workshop occassionally and gets on with it. When she was tiny, she would have a set purpose about her and would respond if asked "Tamsin, what are you doing?" with "I'm doing!". It's now one of those family phrases for a small girl with a definite idea of what she wants to make. It applies to knitting, jewellery making, woodwork or electronics.
It pays off. When her class had to make a model or some working object to do with space, she passed on the models and chose a telescope. We discussed how optics work and she figured out how to measure the focal length of a lense using the sun as an infinite focal point with the side benefit of burning a picture into a gum nut. It involved a fair bit of cutting, glueing and painting and she even insisted in producing some artwork to label it as the TAM 77 (shade of Hewlett and Packard whose first model Oscillater was labelled the model 200A)
She then got on with making a telescope out of plastic plumbing fittings, a discarded camera lense and a magnifying glass. A minimal amount of Dad-Assistance was needed to produce an extremely good working telescope with variable focus and tripod mounting bracket.
Likewise she teamed up with two little boys she plays with to produce a tracked robot, albeit with a lot more parental assistance. With some judicious questioning the kids figured out how to solder, worked out how to use a DPDT switch to reverse battery polarity and successfully constructed a gear box and track system from Tamoya kits (the last requiring no direct parental input). This robot is fiddled around with intermittently, with intentions of enhancing its usability. They fancy putting a mini cam on it to spy on other kids. The whole is controlled through a handheld control and a length of CAT5 cable.
Whenever I work on the Subaru, I make sure the kids are around, if only to hold tools and talk. they question and examine how various elements work. Tamsin will undoubtedly grow up to have good feminine attributes but she should also know how to change a tyre.
I'd heartily encourage any kid, girl or boy, to play with as wide a range of toys as possible. Construction toys are particularly good, allowing creative play to establish fine motor sills and giving the building blocks for so much later.
Cheers
Graham
:-)
Luckily I saved all mine. a dozen Space Explorer sets, maybe 6 Expert Builder sets, and pretty much every LegoLand town set available before 1985, including an electric train we bought on a vacation to France in 1983. It's all here waiting for the new baby. Kirsten even contructed a good portion of Lego Town when we first retreived it all from Mom and Dad. I bet I have around $2k worth of Lego in 1985 dollars; I started collecting it when I was 3.
Graham- I'm passing all that on to Kirsten, although she hardly needs convincing. Look to her to get an idea of where Tamsin will be in 20 years. She designed and built our soundproof basement recording studio, has repaired innumerable peices of furniture, and has even gotten me out of an install jam or 2 on various Subarus. She took up knitting 4 weeks ago with a group of girlfriends. The girlfriends, last time I checked, are very proud of their basic stitch...er,...squares, I guess? Yea, squares that could theoretically become scarves or something. Kirsten just got back from the yarn store yesterday and has begun work on a 3 color wool poncho using the woven stitch.
the difference? Her dad is a computer science professor who always included Kirsten in his tinkering. Her family also runs a wheat farm in Montana, so she spent many a summer helping out, driving the grain truck (she was 12 years old and the truck had no synchros), and assisting Dad and Grandpa with all manner of equipment repair.
DaveM
We also have a picture somewhere of me at 2 playing with a telegraph key and at the age of 6 typing on a teletype machine that my dad bought somewhere. He had a friend who had one as well, and we thought it was like magic to type in a message and get a reply.... no wonder I took to internet chat so well huh?
Of course I was also that girl in junior high and high school who was the one who thought it was ok to learn to play the trumpet when all the other girls were playing clarinet and flute ... although it's not necessarily a BAD thing to be the only girl out of 40 in a group - it was one of my first lessons in the way of the male not liking being 'bested' by a girl .. lol
Lego. I have buckets of them somewhere at my parents' place.
Other great building toys from my childhood: Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs.
Ken
Ken, are you really as old as I am???
Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys were a staple of my childhood. I missed out on Legos, as they weren't around when I was a kid, but my kids didn't.
Bob
It's Lego brick(s)....link.
Pardon me while I go chase the meese out of the garden again.
Steve, Host
Maybe I was before my time as a child.
juice:
Hey, it's "teh grammer" not "de grammer".
Ken
Of course, what you have al forgotten, but will instantly discover once your kids start playing with Lego, is how far the stuff goes. There is something especially painful about standing on Lego when you get up to the kids in the middle of the night. They might not look it, but I swear they have sharpened edges.
Cheers
Graham
-Dave
Of course you guys were all little rich kids! I had the generic brand of Legos!
-mike
The Discovery Health Channel, on "The Critical Hour" program, is doing a series of I believe 12 shows featuring the U of MD's Shock Trauma Unit. It's interesting for us in that that's where my daughter did her nursing clinical last semester. The doctors featured are people she worked with.
I think the show is on Sunday at 8:00 pm, at least here in the Baltimore area. So it should be running for the next 12 weeks or so. One of the cases featured on this week's show was the Randelstown High School student who was shot on school grounds last spring. Those in the Baltimore area should remember this incident as it was a big story locally just a few months ago.
OK, now back to regularly scheduled program...
Bob
I still have the Erector Set, and recently acquired one of the (before my '60's childhood) metal boxes to house them. Emily has played with the Tinker Toys when visiting my folks, although the Lincoln Logs are long gone.
And of course, Graham is spot on about stepping on the damn things in the dark!!!
Steve
Today is the first day my 2 year old is left alone at pre-school, wish him luck!
-juice
For Kindergarden our daughter walked right in and didn't look back, mom needed a lot of comforting!
-juice
The toughest thing I remember was when out daughter first went away to camp for a week. She (our daughter) was sobbing hysterically. Now THAT was tough. She ended up having a great time in the end.
Bob
-juice
Our son is a senior in high school now. I've already started preparing myself for the sob fest when he leaves for college next year.
The wife got to stand behind a one-way mirror and watch the whole time (just 1 hour for now), which I think is a great idea.
-juice
Have not been working since Feb. '03 and don't have the desire to return to Banking or chase the corporate ladder.
My cheese was moved, no point hanging around waiting for its return. Time to look for new cheeses
While I was there, more than half their lot is occupied with '05 Outbacks and some Legovers, no GT. Doesn't look like they're flying off the shelf.
-Dave
-juice
Now at 6 they still make swords and battle axes, but have learnt to swing them around less.
The boys love their Lego blocks too, but Lego's bionicles are their real passion. I'm not as crazy about them, because they don't promote building from your imagination.
Sandra cried when we took them to grade one last week. The boys were very cool with it, and even liked the idea of going into 3 separate classes.
Nicholas
I was just thinking of PM'ing you to ask about your work situation.
-Dennis
Good luck!
Ken