Invention Update

Owen presented his invention on Tuesday and he received an A+. I can’t imagine that anyone received much less than that because each of those kids did a bang up job.

The third grade classes were asked to judge the inventions produced by the second grade classes and Owen got third place. He was very happy with that, and to be honest I was pretty impressed and maybe even a little surprised.

First place was a remote control dust mop, made by cutting and fitting a towel/rag to the bottom, and dragging it behind a remote control car. Very cute.

Second place was a little battery operated fan attached to a large clothes pin and pinched to the front of a ball cap’s bill, for keeping your face shaded and cool on those hot Tennessee summer days.

What I loved most was reading the list of “problems” that second graders have. Of course invention is often spawned from adversity and each of them filled out their invention journals by first listing something that bothered them. It was so simple, so innocent and it reminded me that we overlook so many things.

One girl invented a fleece pocket at the end of her bed to keep her feet warm at night. Socks make her feet sweat and she can’t take them on and off as needed throughout the night. Another girl had a spinning umbrella, to deflect raindrops because she was still getting wet under it the way it was. My boys were fascinated by the fork with a fan attached, to cool food as it’s heading to the mouth. If you know my boy’s ardent love for peanut butter and jelly you’ll understand why the two sided knife was a big hit as well, specifically invented by one fellow to use for PB&J.

The little things we don’t even think about anymore as adults, were expressed and written down, mulled over with intent to solve.

We call it maturity I suppose, but I wonder if the fact that we don’t try to scratch the little “itches” anymore is not so much because we have bigger problems, but because we have given up on small comforts to a degree.

I for one, would like a fan hat…maybe it won’t change the world, but it will sure help me enjoy it a little more.