Whenever Colby has a project for school, Lee and I have to rein ourselves in and not actually do the project for him. I suppose that makes both of us extreme dorks, but we’re cool dorks, so that’s really all that matters. “Our” latest projects hit us both at the same time.
Physics wanted a raw egg to survive from a 25’ drop with no packing material and extremely restrictive size and weight constraints. With the demise of several eggs from various techniques, this contraption won out.
Sure, there are simpler designs; but that’s not how we roll in this house. The more complicated we get, the smarter we feel. If it had a name, I couldn’t tell you what it was – but it’s made of wire hangers, pipe cleaners, and loads of duct tape.
Test runs were hilarious simply because Colby doesn’t know how to use a ladder. He’d climb onto the ladder on the deck and perform the experiment, then forget he was on the top rung of the ladder and step off… the first time I freaked out, checking to see if he was ok – the second time I was rolling in the floor laughing. I know – I’m a horrible parent. But trust me, I’m laughing with him, not at him.
The project was a success. Somehow the egg escaped the 1,000,001 pipe cleaners and rolled out onto the ground, but it didn’t crack. He was stoked.
At the same time, LA wanted an independent reading project to which Colby chose to do a Trivial Pursuit Style game on a 12 book series – can we say “just like mom”? I had visions of what his final product would look like – since it involved pc graphics I was all over it. Then I came back to reality and realized no teacher would believe he’d done his own project. So I stepped aside.
He worked on it constantly for a week and did an awesome job. He came up with 300 questions – worked on his cards – made his game pieces… We tried to convince the teacher he needed 3000 points because he worked so diligently, and it was after all on an entire series. She didn’t fall for it. But he did rake in 105 points for it and it counted as 2 grades. He was a happy camper.
