Our girls have done far more building projects than our boys, simply because the girls were interested. When one daughter was 13, she wanted her own room, so I showed her how to frame in a wall to our open front room we never used and she built a wall. The 11 year old then built her own loft bed with me (doing most of the design and work herself) and THEN the girls both helped build a loft bed for their brothers as well.
They also love creating fashion, art & lots and lots of makeup and hair things.
My sons were raised with the idea that girls are just as capable and strong as boys. We never really thought much about gender (my kids are older and were here before the internet, so I never even had the knowledge of the gender info we have at our fingertips now!) but I also never felt the need to define it that much.
The boys loved balls/sports trains, but also loved wearing pink and dressing up in heels and dresses with their sisters.
No one worries about it much in this family, so I feel like I must have not messed up too much, even in my ignorance (not to say that I didn't make many MANY mistakes, because I did!)
I like what you're going for here. You should think about holding an art or graphic design contest for making shirts and whatnot. A lot of places do print on demand for Tshirt sales and stuff. I don't know a lot about it, just that people do it :)
LOVE the idea of a design contest! <3
That could be my first contest...! I'm not really sure what I want to do with all this, a coloring book? little framable cards/prints? T-shirts... I guess there are places you can order just about anything!
Your kids sound awesome! My sisters and I grew up helping my dad remodel the house. I really want to build a loft bed for/with my son - Maybe your daughter could give me some tips! I love that she did that.
I built a loft bed for my husband and I, actually. I LOVED having a nice cozy little place to sleep :) It isn't terribly hard to do, it's just a matter of building the framework and then having fun with the external design! I should hunt down some photos and make some posts about it.
Coloring books would be GREAT! You could even do a "Mommy and Me" type coloring book with the prevalence of so many "adult" coloring books! They could be in pairs and you could offer free printables to get people to participate and get the word out :)
I'd love to see posts about your bed building! I've built a book shelf before...This would just be like a very large shelf, right? ;-)
parent-child coloring would be awesome!