ONE CAN BE BLESSED BY PROJECTS BEYOND IMAGINATION
It's amazing what blessings one can accumulate when vigilantly observing one's grandchildren. I went to Texas to get my son's girls, Brooklyn and Abby, on Friday. I never know what I am in for when I pick them up. This weekend they each shared impending deadlines they faced at school on Tuesday. Brooklyn needed to put together a Rube Goldberg project (huh?) with at least five steps that ended with a constructive conclusion. When she announced this I said, "A what?"
"Rube Goldberg." Honestly? I had to google that one. When I did, I found a bevy of complicated movements of balls and levers bouncing and plopping to create a complex series of events. Books and dominoes fell down. Little cars scooted across ramps and light bulbs turned off and on. I passed the buck.
"Guess you'll have fun with your parents coming up with that, huh?" No such luck. Brooklyn sat and brainstormed ideas on what to do and how to make it happen. She settled on a heavy ball dropping into a cup which, in turn, lifts a tissue out of a tissue box. My little genius of a granddaughter was undaunted in how to make this occur. She just needed help putting it together. She listed the litany of materials she needed us to contribute. The entire project was her idea, right down to the first step being a marble to roll out of a wire bingo-machine. Tunnel down a paper tube, drop onto another tube cut into a trough, then against a wooden wall, ricocheting into another tube with enough force to emerge onto a block of wood with a carefully placed domino that knocks a heavy brass ball into a Styrofoam cup. The cup drops and pulls a string and the string pulls a tissue out of the box with a clamp.
Each and every step required testing the marble's pathway to ensure the correct placement of the next step. At one point the marble wanted to bounce out over the wall of the trough-like tubing, but Brooklyn bent it inward so it flowed through with ease. It was an amazing project and great trial-and-error learning experience with our 6th-grade granddaughter. Her cousin said, "I'm a senior in high-school and never had to do such a complicated assignment!"
It was so wonderful to have my husband there to help saw, nail, drill, staple, and screw the pieces of her project together. Brooklyn directed every step and was thrilled when she saw her imagined invention complete its task. We all learned something. I learned:
--That it's great to have a curious neighbor across the street who comes over to see what you're building in your driveway, and has an endless supply of items to create nutty contraptions.
--It's super to have a patient husband who will screw and unscrew and re-screw eye-screws to help Brooklyn get her string in just the right place to lift her intended target.
--Good teachers really do want to help our children think outside the box of routine and facts when they come up with assignments to stretch their learning experience.
--Parents enjoy the fruit of grandparents' labor, loyalty, patience and ingenuity in assisting them in raising their children.
--Grandparenting is not just fun and games, candy bars and video viewing. It takes real wisdom, intellect, and problem-solving skills to do our job. So glad we had 40 years to learning these skills.
--Nothing can quite compare to the joy you see on a granddaughter's face when a difficult assignment is finished and you are responsible for assisting her in its completion.
We took her yoke upon us. We were quick to listen and slow to speak. We rejoiced in the Lord and marveled in His ability to help us do all things through Him. selahV
