I had a great time with a construction project at my son's Cub Scout meeting Tuesday night, and we both learned more than just how to build a structure.

My 9-year-old son is a Bear Cub in the Cub Scout pack sponsored by our church. Tuesday night, the activity was to learn a little bit about architecture by using marshmallows, gumdrops and toothpicks to put together some sort of structure. We could go one of two ways: build the tallest marshmallow building or one that would hold the most weight.

We set out to build a load-bearing creation. We used three types of marshmallows, cross braced them with toothpicks and anchored them with gumdrops. When it was time to test it, it held eight heavy washers and two bolts. My son was ecstatic! He was sure he had a winning design, even though it wasn't really a contest and no prize was awarded.

The euphoria didn't last long, though. Another scout also built a structure designed to hold weight. He basically built a marshmallow brick that ended up holding every nut and bolt in the bucket. He and his dad worked together and came up with a design that did the job.

My son was crushed. As a special-needs child, he doesn't take disappointment well and can be very emotional. The tears flowed.

Things settled down as the scouts were told that they could rebuild their project into something else. By now things were a sticky mess, but my boy didn't care. He was back in the game.

As the meeting wrapped up, he looked at me and said, "Thanks for helping me Dad, that was fun. I know what to do next time."

As I said before, we both learned a lot last night. My son learned about working together and how to get over a rough patch.

I learned something I already knew. I have a really great kid.

 

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