Home Depot Kids Workshops & other thoughts

We went to the free kids workshop at Home Depot today. The project was biplanes.
Here is DH & L working on them:


L has gotten really good at nailing thanks to practice at the kids workshops. He does very well. H is not so much great at nailing though he likes trying, and loves the finished product! Well, they both do:






But pretty much, I made H's with some help from DH. It made me wonder about things that kids think they can do but really can't because their parents have done them for them. How bad is that?

I'm not really sure. It's not really a preschool craft, its aimed at 5-12 yr old kids, but they let us do them with the boys. And they do like the finished project. A LOT. I'd like to think that L has at least learned from it some, about how things are put together. I know he worked on his nailing skills. It wasn't really free play, or child led from the perspective that there are instructions, specific pieces and specific orders to put them together in. Is this really the parents enforcing a set of rules about how the craft turns out and expectations and setting them up to feel inadequate that they can't do it on their own?

If we didn't help them, it wouldn't turn out like the others, and that's what they wanted right? I think it is. I guess I didn't give them enough chances to say what they wanted and how they wanted to do it. L probably could have eventually done it himself with guidance, H just doesn't have the hammer skills yet. What to do? Probably take longer, be more patient and helpful instead of leading and being in charge like I prefer. Even with H. Because he is growing up so fast.

Well we got the package for last months craft that we missed to do with them at home, so I guess I have another chance this month to be good and patient and nice and genuinely helpful. And then there is also Lowe's workshops. ;)

Change of topic

L has really started to get into imaginative play that is genuinely his now. His doggie, who he has named "Fred" and he do many interesting things together and Fred also needs his own sunglasses, swimming pool, and anything else L happens to be doing. He has also tried to lead H in some imaginative home play that he picked up from a cousin I think. It's so fun to see.

While talking with a friend the other day about kids with labels, she talked about a nephew she has with a poor home life where the babysitter allows him to "run wild" all day. The phrase really struck me and made me wonder. What does it mean to "run wild". Can adults run wild? If so, is it okay for adults and not okay for kids? I think the meaning of the phrase is important, because I strongly believe in kids having free time to play however they want and do whatever they want. Structure is good in some things, but not all the time. Is that letting them run wild? Or is it when I don't make L put on his clothes until noon because he just wants to wear his PJ's? Or is it allowing them to eat pizza with me for breakfast? Or is it all related to a lack of discipline and cultural understanding of what is okay and acceptable as opposed to what isn't? I haven't decided yet.