Curiosity - Key to Invention

I know I'm not the only one out there with a child that has an over active imagination!  She is constantly telling me that she's going to grow up to be an "Inventor" and be famous.  Well, I hope she does and I am always looking for new ways to encourage her curiosity and "genius".  She really likes to "invent" and build things and comes up with some crazy contraptions and names to go along with them.  One of her favorite movies is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!  Go Figure!  

I believe it's one of the side benefits to lots of outdoor time and very limited TV time.  She actually has to think in order to have fun each day - not just sit and be entertained.  If you like Charlotte Mason, then you know all about that approach to learning - give them lots of books, lots of outside time, lots of room to imagine and create when they're young...

We went on a mission to find a toaster one day.  She really wanted to take something apart so I figured a toaster would be simple and cheap.  Well...mine works quite well, so it wasn't going to be that one she was disassembling!  So we set out looking for a used toaster.  We first looked at Goodwill but they wanted almost as much as a new toaster!  So then I looked at Big Lots and then Ollie's.  Ollie's was the winner - they had a great little toaster for $9.99!  We promptly brought it home to Daddy and had him help her disassemble the thing and learn how it works.

 "let's smash it Dad!" 

He explained how each part worked and instructed her how to remember to put it back together.  She at one point said "Let's just smash it Dad!" and picked up the big hammer!  He didn't go for that idea, to her chagrin!  He had her explain back to him how the toaster worked and what each part did as she put it back together.  It was a neat experience.  I think we'll start an Inventor Box and just pick up old appliances or broken ones and let her mess around with them making up her own "inventions" in the future.