On the front porch I have 5 Fisher-Price Play Toys for Alice and Betty: 2 houses, one barn, one camper, and one school house.
I cleaned them up for the summer but there has been wind and drifting debris and so they are no longer ion pristine shape.
I gave Betty a Bubble Gum Bucket full of warm water and asked her if she wanted to do some cleaning.
She agreed that putting soap into the bucket would be fun and she carried the water to the front porch.
I fell to weeding the front garden beds and I was watching Betty out of the corner of my eye with her project.
When we were interrupted, I closed Betty down, but the barn was making continuous noises and I couldn’t stop the sounds.
I took it inside to ask Miranda if she knew how to quiet the toy down, but she had no idea.
She was packing up her children to go to the beach so I just left the barn in the front room, hoping someone would come through and try to fix it.
No one did until Aunt Bonnie arrived.
The noise irritated her enough that she whipped the unit right out to the garage, to dispose of it, but Alice followed her outside, asking how Bonnie was going to fix it.
“Drat,” Bonnie told us later.
“I was just going to get rid of it. Now I had to fix it.”
Alice was quick to try to reach for a screw driver to start disassembling the sound system.
Up went a ladder to choose just the right equipment for the job.
“Lefty, loosey,” Alice said. “My dad already taught me how to do this.”
Off came the cover plate.
Out came the batteries.
I thought they would just leave it at that, but no, they had to put the batteries back in and then check each of the barn sound systems to see that it was running the correct sound.
Actually, a darling toy, now.
I can hardly wait to play with everything tomorrow morning, now that everything is clean and working again.
Arta
I cleaned them up for the summer but there has been wind and drifting debris and so they are no longer ion pristine shape.
I gave Betty a Bubble Gum Bucket full of warm water and asked her if she wanted to do some cleaning.
She agreed that putting soap into the bucket would be fun and she carried the water to the front porch.
I fell to weeding the front garden beds and I was watching Betty out of the corner of my eye with her project.
 |
| ... Alice selecting the screw driver she wanted to use ... |
When we were interrupted, I closed Betty down, but the barn was making continuous noises and I couldn’t stop the sounds.
I took it inside to ask Miranda if she knew how to quiet the toy down, but she had no idea.
She was packing up her children to go to the beach so I just left the barn in the front room, hoping someone would come through and try to fix it.
No one did until Aunt Bonnie arrived.
The noise irritated her enough that she whipped the unit right out to the garage, to dispose of it, but Alice followed her outside, asking how Bonnie was going to fix it.
“Drat,” Bonnie told us later.
 |
| ... righty tighty, lefty loosey ... |
Alice was quick to try to reach for a screw driver to start disassembling the sound system.
Up went a ladder to choose just the right equipment for the job.
“Lefty, loosey,” Alice said. “My dad already taught me how to do this.”
Off came the cover plate.
Out came the batteries.
 |
| .... now all of the farm noises work again in this toy ... |
Actually, a darling toy, now.
I can hardly wait to play with everything tomorrow morning, now that everything is clean and working again.
Arta
How did things go at the repair shop today? I was thinking of getting a clipboard for Alice and my old receipt book. I see many entrepreneurial strengths in young Alice: enthusiasm, persistence, and enjoyment of problem-solving. I hope the clock was repairable I have another one in my car for her to repair.
ReplyDeleteWe are having a bit of trouble at the repair shop. The wind blew our canopy tent over and right down to the compost bins. No one is awake yet this morning, or at least over here at the house. So we will have to solve how to get it back up the hill and staked again.
ReplyDeleteAs to the pluses?
1. We had our ice cream bars at the Alice's Repair Shop Cafe yesterday. That was fun.
2. The Fisher Price Cash Register got repaired. Alice undid the bottom of it with "lefty-loosie". I have to laugh for she has to ask which hand is left. Miranda helped with the parts in the middle that were a mystery to us.
2. Michael and Betty want to help and have assistant roles. That is a plus.
3. This morning when I saw the tent down by the compost I went out to check on the "articles-to-be-repaired" which I imagined as being soaking wet. But while it is raining hard now, it was only drizzling then. To that is another plus. Our materials weren't destroyed by rain.
4. Thanks for the idea of a clip board. We might have to bring shelving to her shop, she is getting so many things out there.