Summer Science Project

Sophia's been taking a couple of summer enrichment classes through the school district.  What a great program!!  For $100 she takes an hour art class and an hour science class four days a week through the month of July.  Plus, the bus picks her up and brings her home.  Can you beat that? 

Last week Sophia came home with a 2 liter bottle a couple of balloons and some straws.  She said she had to make a car that moved.  By the next morning.  UGGGHH.  They had watched that show -- I cannot remember the name -- where two teams are in a junk yard and have to build a car.  So, she came home and asked if we had extra training wheels and a lawn mower starter.  She was obviously thinking a little bigger than I was. 

I should say that I am from a family of engineers.  Almost exclusively, that's what everybody in my family does.  I did not inherit any of their genes.  My undergrad degree was in political science and my masters was in business.  I like to think, plan, and organize, not design and create.  Science and math were not my favorite classes to say the least.  Chris is a writer.  While he can build things and fix things, by nature he is a writer and more than that a storyteller.  Someday, (after he sits down and takes the time) you will read a novel that he is written and you will be impressed! 

That being said, Sophia didn't have much of a chance!  So, I did what any mom would have done.  I got on facebook and started chatting with my brother, talked to my brother-in-law on the phone, and also got some ideas from a friend.  I am surrounded by engineers.  Luckily, they all had great advice.  After taking in the limited "wind" capacity that a 7 year-old can generate we settled on a strategy of using the balloon stretched out like a sling shot.  In the end, her car moved!  A minor miracle in my opinion.  Not only did it move, but it went clear across the room.  Success!  We had bamboo skewers taped together to form a stick that she would gently push into a balloon which was secured inside the 2 liter.  Then she released the bottle and it actually moved. 

She even drew herself as the driver!

So, thank you Chris, Tony and Tara for helping me impress my child.  Geesh, she's only 7 and I'm already having problems helping her with her homework.  It will only get worse I'm afraid!  Good thing for friends and family!