Our Dear Boy sleeps with this book.  I had to repair it today because the cover had come off.

Our Boy is enjoying a joyous bout of carpentry before school begins.  He is only six but already has a confidence, passion and skill that I truly admire.

The first thing he made from this book was a ladder.  He made one last year with his Dad and when we got home from our trip, he took himself off into the backyard and on his own, using his own much loved tools, he cut everything to size.  A few days later he ask for some help holding everything together while he screwed it all together.  Then he gave it to his little sister as a gift to help her climb trees.  I wept and took photos.

Then he announced he wanted to make a chair. So we went to the hardware shop and bought some pine.  I helped him with the measuring. He read out the instructions and cut the pieces to size and screwed it all together, with me holding things again. I burst with pride and took photos again.

It works – you can really sit on it. Children are amazing creatures.