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Jim Dunn
11-25-2007, 9:04 PM
My granddaughter always wants to hammer with grandpa when she comes over for a visit. As the smallest hammer I own is a 16oz it's a little big in her hands. Went to the borg for something smaller and look what I found.

I had already been having her use a pair of safety glasses but as they were rather large I felt that the whole kit and caboodle was a good buy. Now she measures each nail and calls out the dimension:D course at 31/2 it numbers like 42 68 9:eek:

I was already like the idea of her wearing the hardhat in the shop as everything and I mean everything is head high for her.
Her sister likes the hard hat too so I guess it's back to the borg.

It's great being a grandpa;):p:)

Jim Becker
11-25-2007, 9:34 PM
That's really cute!! And so is she...congrats!

Ed Jolin
11-26-2007, 1:56 AM
good to get started w/ safety, Jim.

I found a pair of kids safety glasses at HD for my 4yr old and set the rules - no safety glasses=no helping; now he's reminding me to put mine on.

After I got tired of banged up foreheads, I screwed carpet patches to my bench corners and tablesaw fence rails. And I discovered that tennis balls work great as handle/knob covers. My son's head is magnetic to hard objects, but the tennis balls have really helped.

Randal Stevenson
11-26-2007, 11:00 AM
While too young for the old tool kits (my father still uses the coping saw and handyman bench place from his), my father started buying some small, real tools for his granddaughter who wants to help. I can understand that.

She is just learning to read, and dad got a subscription to a magazine (buy one give two), and sent her one. LOL (I think Popular Woodworking)

She must be about their youngest subscriber.

Jim Dunn
11-26-2007, 4:38 PM
This little girl is a Norm fan. After I told her that Norm has a tool pouch just like hers she wanted to "go watch Norm":) She will actually sit through the full half hour show on PBS and watch/narrate the whole thing.

Ted Shrader
11-26-2007, 5:02 PM
It's great being a grandpa;):p:)Jim -

It sure is!!! I think that is the reward for raising the grandkids parents.

Looks like you have her started right.

Ted

Chris Padilla
11-26-2007, 8:42 PM
Sweet...I have a nice little anecdote to go along with this:

A couple years ago some friends of ours got my daughter (she is nearly 6 now) the tool kit for kids from Home Depot. It had everything: hardhat, plastic lumber with holes for hitting plastic nails into with a plastic hammer, circular saw, HAND PLANE, nuts, bolts, wrench, drill, belt, tape measure, screwdriver, square, level, handsaw and probably 5-6 other things I'm forgetting.

Anyway, so I'm out back doing some work and I whip out my handy-dandy cheap hand plane. The daughter eventually wanders my way and when she sees me working, she always races into the house to get "her" tools. Now I don't use the hand plane all that much but my daughter at 3 maybe 4 years old just FLOORED me when she whipped out her handplane and started mimicking me! I tell you I was in complete shock that she knew which one of her toy tools matched my real tool because in all honesty, they don't look *that* much alike!

Kids are great...always surprising you...and about 100x smarter than I ever thought they would be! :)

Matt Meiser
11-26-2007, 8:53 PM
Chris, We have that same HD tool set. My daughter must be very close to the same age as yours (will be 6 in April.) For her 5th birthday we bought her a basic set of hand tools--wrenches, pliers, hammer, tape measure, hand drill and bits. She loves using them in my shop. We built her a simple workbench and I got a Wilton vise for her to hold her work which she is very proud of.

Jim Dunn
11-26-2007, 9:46 PM
When my granddaughter went home for the evening she wanted to take her "instruments" home. No idea where she got that word from. I was floored and her mother was in shock. Kids!!:)

Gary Herrmann
11-26-2007, 10:10 PM
She's a doll, Jim. Keep her out of the coffee for a few years tho.

My son wants to go straight to the cordless drill now. Still have two boards with about 100 nails in them next to my workbench tho from when he started coming downstairs.

Ken Fitzgerald
11-26-2007, 10:38 PM
Uh...Jim....what are you doing? You have that kind of influence on her and she could end up like my daughter.....very petite...very pretty....with a college degree in "automotive mechanics"...........

Give her guidance Grandpa! Teach her well!

Jim Dunn
11-26-2007, 11:03 PM
She's a doll, Jim. Keep her out of the coffee for a few years tho.

To late Gary I already give some of grandpa's coffee when she come to the house:eek: Course it's heavly laden with sugar, water and milk not really enough coffee for an ant but she believes in grandpa's coffee.;)

Jim Dunn
11-26-2007, 11:04 PM
Uh...Jim....what are you doing? You have that kind of influence on her and she could end up like my daughter.....very petite...very pretty....with a college degree in "automotive mechanics"...........

Give her guidance Grandpa! Teach her well!

Nothing wrong with em being able to take care of themselves. The way cars are going it's going to be rocket science before to long anyway:o:D

rick fulton
11-27-2007, 12:17 AM
Kids love wearing hats. The other day a friend stopped by after a trip to the bike shop. In the back seat his two kids are wearing their bike helmets. He looks in his rear view mirror and starts laughing , "Come on you guys, my driving is not that bad".