Building life skills and memories with the little ones :)

We all have those early memories that we hold onto very dearly, for me it was spending time with my grandfather in the garage building things. It was as if each weekend there was a new task to undertake. Sometimes a new gate, more concreting or house renovations that made everything fit better or just made more sense.

I loved every moment of it and I attribute all those times with my own abilities in learning how to do things myself now. I am not tradie but I can fix a few things and most of it is through remembering my favorite memories with my grandfather all those years ago.

Because those memories are so strong with me I can often draw back on them and replay them in my mind to recall how to do things and the things he said. Like how to weld or the measure twice cut once annnnd all the funny moments when you put in work and go to install or complete the job and start cussing because you made an error somewhere and now the whole thing needs to be redone.

Although my grandfather had less of those moments than I do and I put it down to age and experience in work and that he did it for a job so his work needed to be A grade each time or he wouldn't get paid.

Now that I have little ones I notice they also love spending time with me in the garage building things and creating things. I know that they are learning as they watch so I often talk through what I am doing and put in the time to show and teach them. I remember how much I retain from my 5 year old years and I hope what I show my kids today will inspire them to undertake their own fixing projects in the future.

On the weekend we headed to Bunnings which is an iconic hardware store in Australia with a cult following even single girls come here to pick up single tradies.... I know right. quite odd.

But we took the kids down to pick up a number of items to seal off a gap between our house and our neighbors house that posed a security threat. Due to the gap is was large enough for a skinny person to walk through. We tested it with a few friends and many didn't fit or got stuck half way and we needed rope to pull them out but my young kids and a few of our wives could fit.

It didn't need to be too good of a job it just needed to be secure to prevent people attempting to walk down the side and Little miss was excited to help build it with me. We started off building a wooden frame and bolting it to the brick work to ensure it was secure.

The two garages provided a great anchoring position that will ensure the frame doesn't move and can not be removed. It was a difficult location to build in as I couldn't fit and had to quite often lean in and only have half my body in position.

I initially was going to install fence palings and than stain them with the kids as if you recall Little Miss helped me paint our old raised garden bed but the wife saw these pre made panels that were constructed from a harder material and longer lasting.

So wifey made an executive decision to grab a heap of those and use them so we cut them up to size and bolted them in place so they can't be removed or pulled apart.

Although it isn't as great as a tradie could do it isn't to bad for a home job that will provide security and safety for the whole family.

Do you have fond memories of your past childhood that you now recreate with your kids? what are some of those moments that you replay in your mind and now share with your children?