Tinkering

Able continues to amaze me with his inventing skills. Yesterday he had a bowl full of stuff he’d harvested from a tape player, a vacuum, and a power drill. I was folding laundry, and when I came to the dining room to check on him and Eli, Able showed me his invention. I’d assumed he’d just hot glued some stuff together as Eli was doing, but then he pulled the power drill trigger and his invention started spinning. I came back a few minutes later and this time he showed me that he’d wired the trigger to make the spinning thing change direction when he pulled the trigger. I know he used two batteries, but other than that I’m not sure how he managed to make the trigger pull off this feat.

This evening we went down to the basement to invent and he built a fan powered car. I was organizing stuff, and when he called for me I assumed he wanted my help, but he just wanted to show me how he’d wired up the motor, an LED, and a switch and how fast the thing went– it had a metal fan blade for propulsion, making it extra dangerous. Before we came up for dinner he had installed a magnet on its bottom so it could pick up nails, and was working out how to add another power source in the form of a rear powered wheel.

He said he’s interested in getting the Arduino out again since now he sees more of its potential. I think the current inspiration for both kids is the Annedroids series they’ve been watching.

Fan car in action:

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZY8fowDevajyf7Uv2L