Tonight Benjamin and Jacob participated in a program called Creativity Mindset. It falls under the umbrella of Destination Imagination. The kids were in similar age groups of 5-7 kids. Then they were given instant challenges which had to be performed within a certain amount of time (usually 5 minutes or less). Each team was given a baggie and then had instructions of what had to be done. In the first challenge, they were given things like scissors, tooth picks, mailing labels, coffee stirrers, index card and a few other items. The had to create a tower that had to support a very large washer for 5 seconds. The parents were not allowed to help at all. There were a few other rules, but plenty of room for thinking outside the box. It required teamwork and critical thinking. In the first challenge, one of the interesting things they pointed out after the fact, was that the rules never stated the washer had to be supported at the top. Therefore, one of the youngest groups won because they had a tall tower built on an index card and the washer was at the bottom of the 'tower' - touching the index card but not the table - therefore the tower still supported the washer. Here was the first challenge. (Joseph was my photographer, so most of the pictures were of random things and not the challenges...)

The second challenge they were given a bag with different items and they had 4 minutes to create a 'product' and then 1 minute to do a commercial for their product. Jacob's team created twin towers that could be used to parachute off of, climb, etc.

Another challenge involved building a catapult for a cotton ball. One of the items was a balloon and I loved watching the team that thought to put the cotton ball in the balloon and use that as the launcher. I loved the whole concept of the evening of thinking outside the box and having to work together. Destination Imagination is an international competition and this year they have 8 challenges and teams can sign up to tackle one challenge and then they compete in February. It is all student led. They have an adult manager but they are not able to give any input. They encourage teams to get recycled supplies. I am really interested for both of the boys to participate but not sure yet if they will enter the competition.

The last couple of days we have been in the 90s, but the high this weekend is suppose to be in the mid 50s. The boys have been getting lots of outside time after school. One of the things entertaining Jacob is catching bugs. Him and a neighbor kid spent about 20 minutes trying to catch a hobo spider. They had me lift up the basketball goal and they were so excited to see so many spider webs. They always wear batting gloves in case some of the spiders are poisonous. They carry around empty plastic containers never knowing what they will find.  (I think a Christmas gift for him will be a dissecting kit...oh the hours I see him using that!)

This past week Benjamin discovered a food chain game online. He asked me to play with him and I lost big time. We played several games today and he beat me every time. I am just now starting to understand how it works. You pick your animal and then you have to create the best habitat for it to survive and multiply. You pick the predators and prey on your turn. Benjamin just amazed me as he would look at it and then tell me in order for his lion to flourish, he needed to add a certain prey, that would diminish one of his lion's predators. It ends up being this huge web of tangled stuff on the screen. I can guarantee you though that he understands this concept and is pretty good at it.

Another quiet weekend coming up. Jacob has a birthday party and I am going out to eat with a friend during the weekend. Other than that, pretty low key.