Man Time

The title explains most of it but here are some details. "Man Time" has been established for the development of the older boys masculinity. There are 5 boys from ages 3-5 years old that need some strong male role models. The current form of modeling that these boys get are from the nannies, who are feeding babies, cleaning, changing diapers, and doing children's hair. Though men surely do these activities, we wanted to expand these boys opportunities by exposing them to more masculine stereotypical activities.
We have made time on Thursday afternoon's each week to do a man activity. This process always begins in the shop where we are surrounded by tools. We are approaching our third week and the boys are thoroughly enjoying themselves.
The first week we built wooden cars. This process involved the boys pounding nails into pre cut wood and painting the car either cherry red, forest green, or cobalt blue. After the cars were built, a ramp was inevitably constructed and races began.
Week two we decided to help build boats with the boys. This process went quickly as far as construction goes, but we had to wait for the paint to dry. During drying time the boys wanted rides on the motorcycles. I took the mo ped out and took each one on a ride around the yard. They loved it! We have great pictures of them with over sized helmets on.
The paint dried and we tested the boats in a little blow up pool. Floating boats were only entertaining for so long, the light splashing of water escalated into a water fight. The boys began knocking each other into the pool and laughing. They also got there hands on the hose and came after us.
It was fun to see the boys experience new things and get much needed male attention.