Yesterday I asked Jacob if he would like to help me make some banana-vanilla wafer-pudding. “Sure, mom!” So I handed him the vanilla pudding I had already prepared, a cutting board, knife, several bananas and the bag of vanilla wafer cookies. He had watched his sister the week before make the very same dessert, so he knew what he needed to do. He began slicing bananas and then proceeded to layer all the ingredients together in a bowl. Seeing that he was fully aware of how to prepare the dessert, I moved on to doing some housework.

Jacob called me over. “Mom, mom! Come look!!” So I walked over to see what he wanted to show me. Oh.my.word. Ha! I love how my son’s brain is wired. Here he is making a pudding dessert but he’s thinking about space. “Check this out Mom! I made the grid design of the engines of the original Falcon 9 version 1” “And look Mom!!!! Watch! I’m going to now make the Octaweb design of the later Falcon 9 engines, using the cookies!”

Wow! Who thinks of rocket engine configurations while making a pudding dessert? Yes- my 8 year old son. How did that thought even enter his mind? How does handling banana slices and vanilla wafer cookies trigger a memory of a research project he did last April? We ended last school year with a H-U-G-E unit on Space. He thoroughly researched SpaceX’s rockets and even got to go on a tour to the facility. I stood here in our kitchen in awe of how the neurons in his brain fire off and make connections. This is pure awesomeness! He clearly must have loved, loved, loved that unit on Space!

Falcon 9 (v.1) original engine configuration        Falcon 9 (v. 1.1) Octaweb configuration