Today was build your own pirate ship day - at least it was at my house this morning. My oldest son and I were building the pirate ship shown here, and had a great time! Even though he was running a bit of a fever, the project was engaging enough to keep him from zoning out on the TV and being fussy all morning. It took up about an hour of the morning, right after he got up, and I think it allowed him a little time to get in a better mood slowly. The picture above is the result of our project this morning.

Against my better judgement, I let him help paint the model, and aside from a little paint on his hands, nothing got wrecked, surprisingly. He's only 2 and a half, so I wasn't expecting Rembrandt, but he certianly didn't get any on the table or his clothes, which is usually the first place paint brushes tend to orient themselves and are drawn to when they're first placed in a toddler's hand.

       Once we got finished with the painting, we put together the sails and rigging and it's currently sitting on the table in our kitchen waiting for a little touch up on the paint and then to find a permanent home. All in all, this was a very easy model to put together and paint. It came with all of the items needed to complete the model (paint & paintbrush, glue, string, etc), and it was just long enough to eat up a good chunk of time, but not so long that he lost interest. I'd recommend checking it out for a good rainy day activity or a good distraction for an otherwise suboptimal mood or lack of things to do in the house.