Handy Mio

Mio has a fascination with mechanical things, even my mechanical pencil.  I’m guessing this is a guy thing.  I’m not complaining.  It will probably save us a few bucks when he grows up if he can put this fascination to good use and be our very own repairman. 

I think this started because of the cartoon “Handy Manny” on Disney Junior.  I remember telling him it was one of my favourite cartoons to watch with him. He got a toolset last Christmas I think, and it came with fake wood (Styrofoam) and you can build things with it.  He got so excited and started building his toolbox right away.  He was cutting and hammering away with such a big smile on his face. 

I was thinking about getting him one of those hobby sets, the airplanes/tanks that you build from scratch.  But projects like that usually need adult supervision, and I’m really not an expert in piecing things together, much less things that need a lot of precision like that.  So it got me thinking, how do I encourage his love for assembling things?  Do I buy him pipes, wrenches, and ball bearings and see what he comes up with? I gave him building blocks before, like Lego, but he quickly got bored with them.  I’m open to any suggestions here if you have any 

For now, the most I can hope for is that he doesn’t take apart our TV.  That might be his last attempt at “fixing” things.