Astronaut Engineer In Training

[I'm supposed to be busy working on a project here at the house, not posting or viewing other blogs, so SSSSHHHHHH don't tell anyone! And pay no attention to the obviously unfinished template here; I'm working on it!!]

Santa got the kids a kit wherein you assemble a bunch of plastic pieces together in various configurations to form a sort of roller coaster of chutes and rails that, when completed, becomes a fun track for running marbles through. We thought it might be just a little advanced for our 4.5 year old son, Astro, so he and Daddy put the track together as a team the first few times.

Then Astro started putting it together himself. And if his configuration didn't work, he found out why and explained to us why it wasn't working, and what needed to happen in order to work properly. He would then proceed to correct the design, and make improvements upon the design. He would picture in his mind the pieces he could put together and the type of result that would achieve, explained that to us, and then proceeded to build it.

So. I guess it wasn't too advanced for him after all! I think there's an engineer inside that little boy of mine. Now I'm keeping my eye peeled for other kinds of things that he can assemble. Hey, kid, we've got a couple of chairs that need fixing...

It's neat to see the blossoming of what you have long suspected. He has always seemed to be strong with mentally assessing spacial relationships, but this is the first really amazing exhibition of just how strong he is in that area.

Gee, maybe he really will grow up to be an astronaut...er, engineer...er, BOTH!