Making non perfect equipment, perfect

Sometimes it is hard to find the "perfect" piece of equipment for your child.  It might tick all of the boxes bar one.   If you find yourself in this situation ask if it can be modified to meet your child's specific need or consider what you might be able to do to modify it yourself.  Here are a couple of items I have "modified".

Kaye Height adjustable tilting table

I wanted a height adjustable, tilting table, with a cut-out for Owen to sit at and do school work.  Do you think I could find this height adjustable, tilting table, with cut-out (big enough for an 8 year old) in Australia?  I'm thinking winning lotto might have been an easier task.  I'm not saying there are none, I just couldn't find one on-line.   What I did find was the Kaye height adjustable tilting table.  It ticked all the boxes except the cut-out.  I looked at the on-line photos and noticed it looked like the top was plywood and attached by only a few screws, so I thought, why not get someone with a jigsaw to cut-out a "cut-out".  After more thought, I thought Plywood is cheap,  why not make a new top out of plywood and paint it black (to help Owen see things on the table more clearly).  The plywood was around $20, the paint aerosol was $10. A carpenter friend did the cut-out for me, I spray painted and my dad swapped the tops.  Owen is using it below. Now it is PERFECT for Owen.

Foot rest on Tricycle.

Owen has an awesome tricycle.  It has a parent handle, I strap his feet to the peddles and when I push him, the peddles go around.  This action strengthens his muscles and he learns to peddle................ Only issue is that sometimes we would be 10 minutes or so into a ride and he would decide he did not want to pedal any more.  Owen knows his own mind, if he doesn't want to do something, he does not want to do something.  You can imagine then, the fact that the peddles go around whenever the wheels are moving and there was no where else to  put his feet, caused a few issues.  It did not take me long to realise I needed some sort of "foot rest" for those moments.  There didn't seem to be many options, so  I went to a Brendale bike shop that sells speciality bikes (https://www.blindfreddyebikes.com.au/).  I told the owner I needed a foot rest and asked if he sold anything like that.  He didn't but put his thinking cap on and in just over an hour he had custom built the below foot rest for me.  It was just over $60.00 but made my life so much easier. I can thoroughly recommend him.

I am sure these won't be the last items I "perfect" for Owen and hopefully they may help you in some way.

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