Dangerous Things

My daughter loves to do Dangerous Things. She is referring of course to things that in HER mind are dangerous and crazy. So I loved this TED talk by Gever Tulley about 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.

So how am I doing? Let's see.

1. Play with fire: Son (11) is normally our fire tender. I recently dug a fire pit in our backyard so we could play with fire more often.

2. Own a pocketknife: Son (11) has several and has had one since the age of 6 or 7. Daughter (6) owns and regularly uses two pocketknives and an all-in-one tool.

3. Throw a spear: I am afraid I am deficient in this. I don't own a spear either. So I am going to have to substitute a stick. Oh woe is me.

4. Deconstruct appliances: We can do this more often than once a year ... Kids do a lot of fixing of things but not so much in the taking apart realm. I think the last thing we took apart was a printer. Luckily, I have a CD player and various other electronics waiting patiently in the basement.

5a. Break the Digital Media Copyright Agreement: We've certainly done this but haven't talked about it in terms of breaking laws. That could be fun!

5b. Drive a car: Ok, Son backed our car out of the garage and through the baby trees into the neighbors yard when he was younger. He also loves to drive go karts and other vehicles. But Daughter has never expressed an interest. Hmm. The wheels are turning ...

Ok, I have my homework now!