What Were You Playing With?

Steve Jobs' autobiography is one of the books that I am currently reading. One aspect of his childhood that contributed to his success in the invention of Apple computers and other technologies is that he had the chance to play and experiment with things that he was interested in, and in his case, it was electronics. 

One night, I was discussing about this topic with my husband and I told him that perhaps we should let JS play with more variety of loose parts instead of just the Lego. Since he is an engineer, he would certainly be able to guide and influence JS in this area. 

After the discussion, I decided to go upstairs to check on the kids to see whether they were both asleep but I found JS sitting at the bottom of the staircase, listening to us. 

Well, I am not sure whether he understood what we were talking about but on the following night, after I put JE to bed, I found JS playing with my breast pump and baby's feeding bottles. 

I asked him what he was playing with and he said he was trying assemble the pump but could not figure out how. I did not know whether to laugh or to be happy about his curiosity and his will to learn to assemble something. So we gathered all the parts and he assembled it according to my instructions. It was a very simple machine so he did it without much problem. 

JS inserting the star valve into a hole at the centre of the pump body and funnel.

JS fixing the diaphragm and stem piece. 

After the star valve and diaphragm and stem piece, JS had to fix the pump handle and test to see whether it was working well. If it was too loose, most probably he had put the star valve in the wrong direction.

JS testing out the pump handle.

Then he put on the pump cover, the cup neck and the cup. Finally, he put the petal massage cushion on. 

JS putting on the petal massage cushion. 

It must have been quiet easy for him because I told him to do it once more on his own and he could do it all by himself, making only one mistake - the position of the star valve. 

I might have hopes, just like other parents who have their own hopes in their children, but I am trying to tell myself that it would be better to let the kids find their own interest because after all, it's their lives.