Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Good things for my 4-year old to take apart?

Funny story with "moral": Late last night I came across my son, inexplicably awake, sitting on the living room floor with a flashlight. I decided to watch for a minute to see what he was doing. He had a [THING] spread out in about 15 pieces on the floor in front of him. As I watched, he reassembled the [THING], took it apart again, reassembled it, then switched it on. It worked and he made a small sound of satisfaction. Then he switched it off and trotted back to bed just radiating happiness.

I thought I'd have a miserable time getting him up this morning. Nope. He popped right out of bed.

Moral-of-the-story: Sometimes the best thing for kids to take apart is something they can do all by themselves, with no grownup "helping."

Caveat - DS is 7, not 4. But the [THING] would have been safe for him to take apart at 4. It just required unscrewing and pulling apart. For all I know he has been doing this for years!

Sue
P.S. It was a battery-operated combination flashlight/led lantern thing.

Others have mentioned items to avoid (those which could present safety hazards), and I'll join in on that theme.

While batteries are quite common, almost omnipresent, they can cause injuries. Cylindrical batteries, button batteries, and rectangular batteries each present potential problems, ranging from accidental fires, to ingestion injuries (related to button batteries), and acid burns.

A little off topic but Lego Duplo has a "Simple Machines" kit (which is sort of a Duplo version of Lego Technic - so not too frustrating for little fingers).