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Part of starting the channel was to get Sam involved. He was 5 and wasn’t talking very much then, so it was a way of getting him to communicate a bit more. The very first one was a take on ‘Elephant’s toothpaste’, which I called ‘Dinosaur’s toothpaste’. It was a simple chemical reaction and Sam loved it. He likes hands on activities, heating things up and pulling things apart, pops and explosions. 

 As he’s got older he has got a little more camera shy but in one of the recent videos we turned a bike into a boat and he was really able to join in properly - use the tools, screw things in. That was momentous. Prior to that his attention span wasn’t great so he’d hang around and watch and help a little bit. But this was the first time we started a project together and worked together until the end.

Sam likes watching lots of Youtube himself, so sometimes he’ll see something and say, “Hey can we make that?” We don’t film everything, because he doesn’t always like being filmed these days, but we enjoy doing it together.

Tonight the rubbish goes out in our area so Sam and I will hop in the car and drive around the suburbs and Sam will pick out stuff that we think is interesting. We do that every Thursday night together. I’m always thinking, “How can I give him experiences that will help him enjoy learning?”  In the past, as a teacher, I worked hard during the day and would come home quite exhausted and lie on the couch for a few hours and not interact as much with the kids. I was feeling quite guilty for not spending enough time with the kids. So I feel like I’m ticking a few more boxes now which makes me feel a bit better about myself.