DadLabs Ep. 292 Gear Daddy - If you are a dad, you have a spaghetti drawer. Filled with cables and power sources for phones, iPods, cameras (video and still), GPS units and cable/dvd/game console in a nightmarish snarl of Gordian proportions. Fire your wires and hire your sires. Daddy Troy has a solution that turns your tangle into a teachable moment. This video is brought to you by Meridian Energy Systems. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Video Transcription

[Music Playing] Welcome back to Gear Daddy, I am host Daddy Troy. Everybody has got one, the spaghetti drawer. Today I am going to show you a fun way to organize this that involves your kids. [Music Playing] First, you are going to organize the cords and this is a great chance for you to talk to your kids about things like color, size, shape and length. This piece right here has a big side and a small side. You could talk about the similarities and differences between these two cords, they are both white but one is short and one is long. So look at different colors, you have got white cords, you have got silver and metallic cords, you have got black cords, you can also just investigative play such as, you have got this set of cords which looks a lot like this one but that what is the difference? Older kids getting into the naming of cords, you can teach them for instance this is called the USB cord and you can also look at the symbols for instance, this is a USB symbol. It is really tempting as a parent, the first time you are doing this to kind of just take over and do it all and just show the kid. Actually let the kid do the handling of the cords. You just step back and you guide him or her through it. Once you separated all your cords then, you going to coil them up, this is the thing that you probably have to do as a dad. You want to keep all the kinks out, coil them really neatly. Then have your kid help you bind them. Some great ways to bind them are rubber bands, your daughter’s hairs scrunchies, maybe some of this twist ties from garbage bags. Zip ties are neither great. Make sure you get the reusable kind. Or finally, what I really love are these Velcro strips. Kids can actually manipulate this pretty easily, simply wrap it around and you are done. Final step, ask your kid, this is big cord or small cord. Does it go into a big Ziploc bag or a small Ziploc bag? And I say Ziploc. Pretty important that you get the kind that actually have the zipper on them. Kids at this age are starting develop their fine motor skills and this is great for their little pinching fingers. You want them to be able to pinch this and open it, drop the cord in, have the kid pinch it and close it again. Finally, take your sharpie permanent marker, keep this far away from your kid. Label it, the last thing you do, give it back to the kid, he/she has some ownership, drop it back in the drawer. That is it for Gear Daddy and if you have any comments about this program or suggestions of things that you do with your kids, email me at geardaddy@dadlabs.com and if I use your idea on the air, I will send you some serious schwag. We will see you next week. Kid: This is a FireWire 800, it is really fast. That is a wrap. [Music Playing]