Second Place

One of the things that Lastborn struggles with is low self confidence. He never got to see his big brother struggle, and he thinks that if you struggle, you must not be very smart/strong/whatever. So he will often give up quickly or cop an attitude to get out of doing something he thinks he can't do.

Since attending Kumon this summer for math, he has learned that sometimes, if you work at something you think you can't do, not only can you learn to do it, but you might actually be good at it. So we are seeing less of a struggle with trying things.

For example, his first year of pinewood derby, he wanted to stick the wheels on and race a wooden colored block, not paint, no cutting, no decorations, We finally compromised at this:


And he did well, until the wheel came off. This gave him hope and he allowed a single cut the next year and painted the car red. The wheel fell off that one too.

Last year, Dad helped put the wheels on. We put the extra work of deburring the wheels, adding graphite and weight. The car was perfect in every way. It didn't do too well though. But Lastborn was happy. His big fear is that he will make a fool of himself. And he proved that he could do pretty well. This is the 2008 car.





We will see what 2009 brings.

But before the 2009 pinewood races, we had to get through the 2008 raingutter regatta. We've never done a raingutter regatta before, so we weren't sure what would happen. Again, Lastborn didn't want to even try. A plain wooden boat with his name on it was all he wanted. In fact, for this race that is all that was needed. It's more the skill of blowing on the sail in the right position than anythign having to do with physics or design. But Dad was able to convince him to go with a cool hammered metal spraypaint and I was able to suggest a Bakugan theme. He had fun working on this boat and because the theme was so popular, he knew he would not make a fool of himself.

His cub leader made a neat block that the boat can rest on with 2008 written on it.

Lastborn entered the first race. He had watched a friend get left at the starting gate in the previous race. So, he was very worried. It would be his worst fear to not be able to make his boat move and since the friend who faltered in the last race was very into scouting, Lastborn figured he didn't stand a chance. The race official called a start to the race and Lastborn concentrated on the instructions I gave him to blow low on the mast to keep the boat from tipping. The boat jumped forward almost halfway down the gutter in one gust of Lastborn's Scalzi hot air. You could see the look of surprise on Lastborn's face. He gave it a couple more blows before his opponent even got his boat to leave the starting line and won the race handily. This meant he would wait for the winners round.

Again, we worried when Lastborn stepped up for his first winner's round. He was going against the boy who pummelled his friend. Lastborn knew his boat was fast, but everyone figured this kid's boat was the best. He had a different design to his mast and sail. But his opponent's boat kept getting snagged on the sides of the gutter and Lastborn's wind was true. He handily won that race too.



All that was left was the final race for 1st or 2nd place. This is where Lastborn's luck ran out. His boat kept getting hung up on the sides of the gutter and he came in second. He was sad, but very happy that he had gotten second instead of coming in last. I'm sure he will be looking forward to next year's race and ready to get a bit creative with his boat design.