I bought the marshmallows and the toothpicks and hauled out the stale Easter candy which I had saved for just this purpose. The pastel bunnies which were once soft as little lambs were now almost as hard as rocks. Nevertheless, I could see that the flat bottoms on each piece of old candy might lend some stability to the emerging skyscrapers. Skyscrapers being built with great care right before my eyes.
It seemed impossible to build anything that didn’t lean. It was a true geometry lesson and set the stage for discussions about how many things in the wide world are built.
Some kids like to build out . . . not just up. This young man worked all evening and again in the morning. He got better with each try. He even said that the stale Easter candy was PERFECT for the project and he wished that I had more. I reminded him that he had eaten the rest on Easter afternoon. Oh. He remembered.
Well. Things got more complicated as time passed until it was impossible to tell where things started and where they ended.I sent the grandsons home with the rest of the marshmallows and the rest of the tooth picks, fully realizing that by nightfall they would be in the garbage.
“We’ll do it again when all of the cousins are together
and we might even let the grown-ups help.”
-Grandma-