Diagrams and Development

Ready to "fly" his rocket

A day when Mom was proven wrong has to be recorded (although I'm sure it won't be the last time!)  Sunday, Hunter pulled out a set of K'nex that his cousin T had given us ages ago.  They were something T had outgrown, but Hunter was not ready for yet.  At least that is what I thought and kept telling him.  They are kind of a cross between tinkertoys and legos with a lot of small pieces and a couple of books of diagrams of things that you can build with them.  To me, they looked like a big mess all over the floor or something where Mom or Dad would actually have to sit and do the building for Hunter.  Well, on Sunday Hunter dragged them out to the living room floor while I was in the middle of doing something else.  I told him that I didn't care if he tried them, but I was busy AND he would have to clean up every last little piece himself.  He flipped through one of the books and found a rocket ship that he wanted to build.  I told him that he had to try to make it just like the picture by matching the pieces in color and size that the diagram showed.  The whole time I was thinking, "Yah, right, a four year old is not going to be able to follow a diagram and have the attention span and perserverance to build that! (thought in a very sarcastic voice)"

Well, by golly, that kid did it!  I started making supper, and he kept yelling from the living room, "Come see the progress I'm making on this, Mom."  Each time I checked I was amazed more and more.  Then he finished it and "flew" it out to the kitchen.  Well, I just had to take some pictures.  He said, "See, Mom, you were wrong.  I could do it."  I told him I was soooo glad that he had stuck with it to prove Mom wrong in this case.  He was so excited that he went back to the book and found a diagram of a ship to build.  That one was a little harder.  He worked on these for about two hours.  At one point I even heard him talking to himself, "I have 3 yellow pieces, so I need two more because the picture has 5 yellow sections."  Yes, my mouth dropped open while the teacher in me was whooping and dancing.  Colors, diagrams, comparing sizes, addition/subtraction -- I love these things!  Why didn't I let him get them out sooner?!

Pretty thrilled that his rocket ship turned out just like the diagram in the book.

The ship (you can tell that he's pretty tickled with himself over proving Mom wrong)