The lean-to

Michael has told us he wants to be an engineer like Daddy when he grows up, which is fine.

However, we don't push it because it's hard to know what you want to do in life, and the last thing we want to do is pressure him one way or another. We don't want a Lifetime movie on our hands here.

Seeing that Michael is decent at math and interested in science-y stuff, I do want to encourage an engineering-minded thought process because learning how to think as an engineer is one of the harder things to learn. If you learn it inherently growing up, it might help one day if he really does decide to be an engineer. I think it helps in normal life to begin with!

SO - what does that mean?

Lately, when Michael has a problem, I try my best not to solve it for him. I ask him:

What is your problem?

What do you know about your situation?

What do you have to work with?

How can using what you have to work with help you towards a solution?

Well, when our little cardboard constructed taped house started falling over (big surprise - a chemical engineer could not build a structurally sound house), Michael fixed it by doing this:

I didn't ask him the questions up there this time, but I did encourage him to "find a solution" to his problem.

So when he said to me, "Come see Mommy!!! I found a solution!!"

I was pretty pleased to see our lean-to.