A Helping Tower For My Helper, Part 2

(Continuation of post from last week... this time with links and more details!)

When I made the choice to do cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and babywearing with our son's arrival in late summer 2009, I became the targetns of many natural parenting products and company advertisements.  I also got a lot of book recommendatio, like Montessori from the Start.  These sorts of advertisements and articles shaped how I wanted to raise my child and what products I wanted to purchase (ex: wooden, basic toys that the child must operate vs. plastic, noisy and battery operated toys and baby food making cookbooks vs. Gerber plastic packaged products).

I found this product while browsing on at CottonBabies and it was referenced in a lot of Montessori methods books.  Its called a Learning Tower, and it is amazing.   You can see more information about it here, if you haven't heard about it before.  Its a neat company and concept!

Its expensive though.  Even at Christmas when some sites have a 20% discount, I knew we couldn't afford this and our standard, less safe kitchen chairs seemed to be pretty good compared to paying that much!

Also, my husband is pretty handy with tools and wood working projects.  He doesn't really have the time to devote to this hobby, so its more of an occasional project than something he does with much regularity.  However, he does have lots of saws and sanders and other tools, so I thought he could probably do this.

I found one design that I liked here, but for some reason... probably TIME... it got put to the back burner and wasn't accomplished.  Its a good design, but a little bulky.

A few weeks ago I saw this pattern on Ana White's site.  WOW.  I was impressed!

I emailed this to Husby, and he was enthusiastic about it.  It took a few weeks to be completed since we had other things to do... like raise a toddler and eat dinner and such, but I think he spent only six good long sessions doing prep work, cutting, assembling, redesigning it to suit his personal taste, painting and sanding and painting, and reassembling it.  Okay, it was a long time.  The materials cost around $50, and while his time is priceless, I bet he'd say that it was worth NOT paying the original price plus shipping from the company.

Here is the finished product!

When he spots this, he shouts, "UP!!!".  I think this is what he has named the tower.

Its the aqua color from our Hosta/Pasta conversation.

He can easily get up by himself.  Sometimes he chooses to yell ask for help though.

He often needs verbal reminders for how to get down, since its more intuitive for him to just dangle like a monkey until someone guides his feet to the floor.

Its the perfect height for a a writing desk or playing with cars table.

So far, this tower has been used to "help" make banana bread and cookies, as well as wash potatoes in the sink and play with water in the sink.  Its still messy.  But I like it for being so sturdy compared to a kitchen chair.

Its also been used to teach the words and meaning of UNDER and ON.  I can't believe it only took DHH a minute to grasp this concept.  Now he does under and sort of says it on command.  He will put objects ON or UNDER and yell out their position.  I think that is neat.

Its been used as a fort, a tunnel, and a dancing tower.   I think DHH and his Dad are having more fun horsing around with it than I am... I honestly used it as a drying rack the other day.  I think we could add a chalk board or easel to one side if we wanted, too, so its pretty versatile.  

And its great to see both guys so happy about the same project!