I adore this boy's creativity. I gave him and Penny the containers from two Panera salads we'd had one day to play with in the bathtub. Upon getting out, Penny held hers up to her face to look through, and as soon as she did, I could see his little gears turning.
Seeing the clear plastic orb over her face will remind him of an astronaut. The "astronaut" will make him think of a rocket ship. "Do we have any big boxes?" He'll want to make one.
It being Friday morning before the kids' Enrichment activities, I tell him we can get started on it, but we won't be able to finish. So he gathers all of the supplies ask him to get.
When we got home in the afternoon, we get right back to work measuring, cutting, and taping.
Others will occasionally jump in to help.
The big blank sides make him think of drawing paper. Being the artist he is, he'll ask for some colored pencils, to see a picture of Mars on my phone.
That's where this ship is going.
More helpers will come to "help."
He'll want Dad to move it to the basement. On the way down, he'll spy the stampers we played with earlier in the week and have to take a stamping break..
He'll want to add some stamping embellishments to his rocket. Hooray! It's [not] finished! He and Penny will watch Wall-E, their heads resting on the rocket, backlit by the basement bar light. Goodnight, Moon. Goodnight stars.
Saturday morning! Zeke goes down to see his rocket and notices how bare the inside of his rocket is compared to the outside. He'll have to add a control panel and ask Mom to make some levers to attach to the inside of the ship.
Alas, we've used up all of the packing tape, so Mom will have to search high and low for more tape. She'll find some duct tape on Dad's workbench and proceed to get distracted cleaning the mudroom counter, doing a load of laundry, starting a pot of coffee, going through the mail, paying some bills, finishing getting the pot of coffee started, wiping down the pantry counter, pausing the newly started laundry to throw in the dirty rag, getting Penny up, on the potty, and dressed, helping Opal with an IEW paper, feeding Kitty, who is whining (Is she lying? No one knows.), and taking her morning supplements before she hears Zeke screaming for her in the basement. He'll have completed a rather involved control panel and she'll help him add some pull levers.
Seeing the finished rocket will make everyone happy about the communal effort put in to build it. And make us want to check out books about spaceships from the library. (Another photo my phone made using a cool watercolor filter)
And Mom will yawn, reminding her how tired she is. And chances are, if she feels tired and it's still before noon, she's going to go get a cup of coffee.
(Don't mind my inconsistent pronouns and tenses. I'm not going back to make them match 😛)
