Monday's {Mini} Family Adventure ~ Disassembling a Cassette Player

Inspired by one of Mama Scout's Monday Missions to Start an Adventure Fund ~ a fun way to bring magic into our week. We save up our loose change for seven days and turn it into a fun family adventure to celebrate Mondays!

Disassembling a piece of technology and exploring its inner workings can tell you so much about how a machine works - no matter how outdated it is. With that in mind, I gathered up our spare change for the week, and headed to the Salvation Army to see what I could find.  Luckily, I came across a Fisher Price Cassette Player, exactly like the one I had when I was little!  I knew my son would just love pushing the buttons and carrying it around, and I couldn't wait to see if it worked.  

Not long after dinner this evening, my husband and son set out to collect the tools they needed to deconstruct our new treasure.  We started by putting a few batteries inside to see if it would run.  As luck would have it, the tape player worked!  Then, we got down to business.

Upon closer examination of the cassette player, we were able to see the push buttons and remove them, investigate the volume control, and watch as the motor and pulley revolved from the inside. Grady also found out that the belt that helped it spin was rubbery and flexible when he spontaneously removed it from the pulley! Luckily, we were able to reattach it easily.

We wanted to dig even deeper, so we whipped out the flashlights to take a closer look.  He inspected all of the nooks and crannies and liked putting random parts of the cassette player in every spare space he could find.   

      
My husband also gathered a couple of loose parts that were similar to those found in the machine so that Grady could manipulate them and see how they work.  My son absolutely loved this activity!  He was so serious about the whole process and truly wanted to help his Daddy disassemble the cassette player from square one.  I know we'll be revisiting this mini adventure soon!   

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