Pedal building with young children

[chromesphere]

Requires some imagination no doubt, lead, hot soldering irons etc.  When I say "young children" I'm talking under 5 here but of course any 'child friendly' suggests are welcome...

Anyway wondering if you guys have involved your kiddies in your hobby or had any ideas?  I have recently been painting the enclosures with my kids and even involving my 4 1/2 year old (you may remember James from some of my videos) with installing the hardware in the enclosures as well.   Here's a photo of 2 of the pedals we have painted together, the hand print is my daughters, she is 1, and the other with drawings is james (Posca pen).

(Photo was used as my new youtube banner)

[dan.schumaker]

The closest i get is when Jack (2 1/2) will wander into my shop and say "What you doing Daddy?"  And i try to explain what im doing before he decides he wants to sit on the tractor...

He does enjoy playing with all the pedals i have in our music room as i play though,  he will take any patch cords i have laying around and hook some pedals together.  Step two will be teaching him proper pedal chain placement

[mattc]

I've had my (at the time) 5 year old paint some enclosures.  The one year old hasn't shown any interest yet

[chromesphere]

he will take any patch cords i have laying around and hook some pedals together.

Funny enough James was asking if he could do this this morning.

Also I should point out here, I'm not the type of father that forces his kids to pick up his own interests.  To be deadly honest with you, I find that sort of approach to parenting overbearing.  I only involve my children in my interests when they show interest themselves and ask me to.  James absolutely LOVES painting the enclosures. Anyway, this is slightly off the topic, just didn't want to give that impression.

[jimilee]

Yep, with my daughter. Started out using pain pens on enclosures, eventually she built an EM drive on vero. She soldered and I wired it up. She keeps it at her moms on her dresser.

[thesmokingman]

not yet, I hope to in the future

[Stomptown]

I've had my daughter (5 yrs old) help populate resistors and caps a couple times which she seems to enjoy. I've been meaning to get her involved with artwork but it hasn't happened yet. 

On a side note, I got my wife involved a while back with enclosure artwork  which she really enjoyed.  Unfortunately, some idiot botched the 1:1 envirotex ratio. 

[sturgeo]

I find that my daughter (19 months) is a good reliability tester at the moment, if it can survive her it'll survive a tour 

[Boba7]

I find that my daughter (19 months) is a good reliability tester at the moment, if it can survive her it'll survive a tour 

Ah ah awesome

My daughter (9 months old) is very curious about my pedalboard and little practice amp, all the leds and buttons and shiny finish. And she starts "singing" evrytime I play the acoustic.

[mjg]

My 9 year old enjoys helping out - partly because he is the one who gets to play with the finished pedals, but he also seems to enjoy the building.  I get him to populate the boards by giving him the part and telling him "Ok this one is R37".  Once he has populated 3 or 4 resistors or caps I'll get him to do the soldering, and then I do the snipping of the leads.  I discretely check that he is putting things in the right spot as he goes. 

So far I'm only getting him to solder resistors, caps and sockets.  Nothing that too much heat will kill, just in case he gives it a little bit too much. 

He's happy enough to do half an hour or so at a time, and we've done a multiplex echo + reverb pedal, and a fuzz face pedal together.  Good way to soak up some weekend time.  We've got summer holidays coming up soon in Aus, so I'll have to get some more PCBs ready to go. 

[daleykd]

I love having my 3 year old come in and ask what I'm doing.  The best thing is when I just tell her "is the light on" (referring to my soldering iron), and she says "yes; it's hot, I'll stay away from it and be careful."

She loves playing with all the tools, ESPECIALLY the desolder sucker.  I'm waiting for her to be old enough to actually solder.

[alparent]

My son is 13 now, so any interest in anything else then video games is a miracle!
But in the good old days.....I started him with little Vellman kits (Got them at 50% off at a RadioShack)
Anything with LEDs will captivate them. Flashers, chasers. LEDs = Instant gratification!

Another thing with younger ones. They have good eyes, give them 3 resistors and ask for the Red,Red,Yellow one.
Takes for ever to build something.....but good times.

[jimilee]

I find that my daughter (19 months) is a good reliability tester at the moment, if it can survive her it'll survive a tour 

Ah ah awesome

My daughter (9 months old) is very curious about my pedalboard and little practice amp, all the leds and buttons and shiny finish. And she starts "singing" evrytime I play the acoustic.

I do the exact same thing!


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[rumbletone]

My 5 yo has painted or otherwise decorated a few enclosures. Sometimes she'll pull resistors for me. Will be great when she can start populating boards for me! 


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[chromesphere]

James has asked me to show him how to build a pedal but I think he's too young.  Hot soldering iron, lead, sharp tools etc.  Funny thing is he helps when I beer brew because you know....THATS OK.  Just call me father of the year...