My Brandon, now almost five years old, has discovered that "if I draw it, Daddy can make it". Blueprints, yup - drawings on scraps of paper, indelibly inked in crayon, marker, and big-fat-pencils. Ideas on paper that eloquently bridge the vocabulary gap between father and son. It started innocently enough when Brandon asked me to make a machine. "What kind of machine, Brandon?"... a candy machine. "Tell me about it?" ... you put in it and it makes the candy. "well baby, where did you see this candy machine?" ... at that place daddy, you know, that place.
So we set out to better understand each other. Truth be told, we were both a little frustrated until we started making the first sketches of THE CANDY MACHINE. "So how does the candy machine work?" ... you put the things in the top and candy comes out the bottom. "ohhh, so you can put anything in, and it turns into candy?"... yeah! we make it now, right daddy?
The drawing were a good opportunity to discuss planning, blueprints, and thinking about how we would create something from nothing. We had, of course in the past developed a dinosaur trap -- honestly it worked quite well. Brandon decided that the best bait for dinosaurs was carrots. So after a night with baited dinosaur traps, we had caught six plastic dinosaurs. AMAZING, carrots worked --did the trick!
We decided that a bike would provide enough power to make the candy machine work, so that was included. We painted the boxes, made the holes, fused the pipes with electrical tape, and decorated the candy machine in bright candy colors. The test run was a huge success! Skittles in, Skittles out! All was wonderful until we had a mechanical melt-down a few days later.... it seems that Silly Putty doesn't quite make it through the candy machine tubes.
Ah, ha. Another teaching moment. We went back to the blueprints and dissected the machine, only to rebuild it better. You guessed it! Brandon also received strict instructions NOT to turn Silly Putty into candy.
Since that day, he's drawn up some pretty fancy plans for a castle. He's asked what the ETA is for delivery.
Now where did I put those blueprints for the dragon trap?
