I am currently going through tons of old archived pictures in preparation for a magazine article I am writing called ‘Kids in the shop’. The article talks about the benefits of owning a home based business and having the kids growing up ‘in the shop’. I grew up working with my dad and I have endless wonderful memories of that time. He also taught me a lot about using tools and solving problems during our time together. Our kids were always a part of our business and we purposely remained home based since the start to allow us to spend more time with them. Safety is always of utmost importance of course and the tasks we do together take this into consideration. These days our grandkids are often in the shop, continuing the tradition. They all started young, ‘helping’ as they were able and spending as much or as little time there as they desired. Being in the shop was never mandatory. I’ve found that the tasks we do together only take a little longer with the kids helping but the benefits, in my opinion, far outweigh the cost. Peter was my constant companion as I worked, since when he was tiny. Becke helped too of course but wasn’t quite as eager to spend every minute in the shop. The picture below is Peter working on a ship we did for a small theme park project in Calgary back on the early 1990’s. He was about fifteen years old at the time. He had somehow convinced his teachers to allow him to shadow me on a major project, from design through construction as a school project. He not only got school credit for the effort but also got paid - real money. We had a lot of fun and made some great memories together on that extended road trip. That continues to this day with all of the kids.