One of the neighbor boys (9 y/o) and his single mom, we gave some gifts to. They weren't expecting it at all. He's a VERY on-the-ball little boy, and has chatted both myself and My Lady up quite a bit this past summer. Also, he "deals with his lot in life" like everything is perfectly normal. It's nearly impossible for him to ask for anything.
A few times this past summer, I'd call him over so that we could "have a look at your bike" and whatnot. I'd break out some tools, and we'd make adjustments for his growing frame. The second time he came over, he pulled a 3/16 allen wrench out of his pocket, and proudly handed it over asking if "we could use his tool" to fix his bike too. Seems somebody else had given him that one tool, and he cherished it. And armed with said allen-wrench, he could fix/adjust the world.
So My Lady and I dropped off a tool-set to the boy, and a few other things to his mom. We added a few other things to his set, such as a 'proper' ball-peen hammer and whatnot. There was an Olfa-knive in the kit too, so he asked me: "Can you get my mom to ask you to teach me how to carve.....?"
So, the seed has been planted and the interest is THERE. I'm more than happy to teach him how to use the tools, and to graduate him into bigger/badder/better/funner/gooder things. If I had a base of understanding when I was his age, I can only imagine what I'd have accomplished further. He is such an 'older/mature'er' young man that we both here just want to help him out and assist him in establishing "who he is and what he's about".
We Pray that this line of 'after-school education' will go forth. I'm happy to teach the Trades, for sure.
