On the old "milestone" chart, lying is said to generally begin in the later part of 3. This is more of a manipulation sort of thing. Not aimed at mom, but rather at the circumstance required to use the screwdriver.
I would be inclined to find some sort of kit that allows for assembly, disassembly and re-assembly.
we had a full-blown lying situation here, between about 3 and 4 was the worst, but now dd 4.5 is really coming around to telling the truth. We have to be careful to react the right way, since all this new truthfulness is very delicate.
I found a nice little radio that talks to a child and says what they need to 'fix' to get the radio to work, it is pretty simple but kids get a screwdriver and can take off the back, and remove a couple of large plastic pieces. Screws are anchored in the pieces so they won't get lost or swallowed...it is a handy manny build-and-fix radio, if you can find it.
