Tear Apart Day

My husband is a civil engineer, and according to relatives, spent much of his childhood tearing apart any form of electronic that came near him to see what was inside. Truth be told, he still really likes to tinker with things, not all of which make it back together again. :) So it was natural, I suppose, that we would decide to do a Tear Apart Day, as my kids share his base love of destruction for learning's sake.


The other night, while the kids were at karate, I headed to the local thrift store to pick up some cast off electronics. I got a computer keyboard, an old corded phone, a small cassette tape player, a remote, and a VCR tape. I spent a total of $12. It was worth it, I promise.

We discovered a lot of things. We found circuit boards. At dinner, Adam explained to Zhara how the circuit boards work, and what all the parts are.


We found lots of different sizes of circuit boards in the various items.


We learned that Wednesday is really good with a screw driver, except for when it's aimed at Zhara. Thankfully, everyone survived mostly unharmed.


We learned that the keys on a keyboard can really get some flight time when popped properly.




We learned that sometimes, no matter how hard you hit it, you just have to take the screws off to get inside.
We learned that electronic buttons are super awesome inside. Zhara said they remind her of bubble wrap that never pops.


We learned that there is a massive amount of tape inside a VCR tape. So much so that you can make multiple trips throughout the entire house. Or make your own Rastafarian wigs.


Or mummify yourself.


And finally, we learned that there's not a lot to be done with electronics after you've demolished them. We tried making things, but glue just doesn't really stick to them. It was an awfully fun project, though.