I'm not a big junk food buyer. R ate cheetos for the first time last year, much to the delight of a dear friend. She couldn't believe he was 4 whole years old and had never had a cheeto. I'm glad she got to witness his delight in the whole she-bang: choosing it from the vending machine, marveling over the packaging (this was during his big cat phase,) and eating every one of the bright orange crunchies. It was FUN.
Fortunately, he and his sisters also got to experience the wonder of The Twinkie. Although Twinkies were a coveted treat for me as a kid, I had never gotten around to procuring any for the kids. I'm not so much of a food puritan that I forbid it, but I'm sure as heck not going to go out of my way to provide it. The opportunity came up at Maker Faire.
What you see here is a Twinkie Cannon. It shoots Twinkies. Though my kids have had no more than one each Twinkie in their entire lives, the Twinkies they ate had been shot from a cannon. I have not failed.
This fall, my kids, my dad and my husband modified a child's ride on, battery powered toy to go very fast, and to navigate some significant obstacles. It was ridiculously fun. Then we entered it into a race at the Ft. Wayne Maker Faire. That was even more ridiculously fun (if you can believe that six people can find so much amusement in something so silly.) C drove it. It looked like this:
I'm not sure where to start with the history of Power Wheels Racing (read it here, instead.)
If you're the link-clicky type, I *love* this interview wherein a fellow race car engineer talks about education: Power Racing Series and Education in America We met him (and competed with him) in Ft. Wayne. I wish I'd seen the interview before meeting him; I would have loved to have talked with him about education.
And to top off the whole amazing deal, and take the homeschooling/holistic learning to a ridiculous extreme (because this project would have been well worth the price of admission without a history/language lesson,) the combination of 1--working with my dad, 2--on something that goes fast and is somewhat hazardous at 3--the family home that my great-grandmother used to live in (chock full of memories for me) brought to mind a funny family story in which the punchline is my dad (as a small boy) yelling "Hold 'er down newt! She's headed for the briars!"
(have I ever mentioned how grateful I am to be alive during the technological revolution? That I have a personal memory of hearing a catch-phrase from the 1920's...and I can google it and find out what the heck it's all about?? It's a dream come true!)
