It’s almost pinewood derby time and as is our custom, we started building the car over Christmas break. The design is always child-directed with adult supervision. I enjoy listening to the sounds emerge from the garage and being called over to see the phases of completion. There is always a lot of buzzing, whirling and instructional conversation. Thanks to Bill’s patient tutelage, my boys both know about how to operate power tools safely and properly. They know better than I do.
The kit comes with a simple rectangular block of wood, four wheels and four nails.
The transformation begins from there with a basic cut, smoothing with a planner, sanding, sanding and more sanding. Next come the weights. The goal is to get the car to be as close to 5 ounces as possible without going over.
First they drilled a hole in the back and pounded in a cylindrical weight. Then they cut out and made space for some flat weights on the bottom.
The final step for today’s session was to add a details to the body work. When all was said and done, both boys seemed pleased with the results.
1)Priceless pictures of them working together, love that.
2) Love your use of the word tutelage.
3) Bill looks great, but even thinner than I remember…I think he deserves to eat a Napoleon, too!
We had our last Derby 2 weeks ago. 10 years and Way more than 10 cars later! (Matthew and joel over-lapped and we also have an open division for family). Time flies! If I was Maria I could pull tougher pictures from all 10 years……I forgot …….acceptance…..I am not Maria