Child-sized tools play an important role

With all the focus on child safety today, we may well be cautious about allowing our children to use real tools, but in doing so, we’re robbing them of the chance to develop skills and a sense of competency.

Karen and Daniel moved to a new house when Adam was three. A real fixer-upper, it needed kitchen cupboards and other shelves to be installed and other extensive renovations. As Daniel took out his tool box, he didn’t count on his son becoming his assistant. Adam observed and passed on tools to his father, and although they bought him a set of toy tools, he was only interested in the real thing. “He found that a spoon could be used to turn a screw; that a coin could be used where a star-screwdriver was called for,” says Karen. “Very soon, our chairs and other equipment became loose – and we never saw him wielding his destruction!”

It was Adam’s grandfather who found the solution when he took two pieces of wood and joined them with a number of bolts and latches. He drilled in various screws and then bought Adam a set of small, but real tools. “Under our watchful eyes, he was allowed to use the tools. It took him about a month to take apart his workbench. Interestingly enough, he’s had his fair share of scrapes and scars but none of these have come from using tools,” says Karen. As a matter of caution, tools are not toys, and children shouldn’t be unsupervised when they use them. However, if children are taught to use them correctly and with supervision, a sense of competency will be instilled in them.

By Umm Zakariyya

Science in the kitchen

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