Catapult Expert

Never fear! The catapult expert is here!

Clayton did his research project on Catapults this year. Here are the pictures I promised. There are a ton - but hey, that's what I do.
So the assignment was a "Resident Expert Project" (still don't know what exactly that means). There were no rules. No guidelines. Barely any explanation. "Just do anything." the teacher said. "As long as you produce something to show for it." Clayton chose catapults (mostly because of the whole Narnia phase when he and Nate built these cool Lego catapults which were completely destroyed [ahem, by Brigham] and had to be rebuilt. . . and then were destroyed again [by Brigham] and rebuilt again.)
Clayton also became an expert in film-making. I let him have full reign of the video-editing software. I showed him how to delete, move, delete, arrange, delete and fade the clips, use fast and slow motion, and add text and music. . . and delete. (I shouldn't have showed him how to delete - he deleted my favorite parts!) Clayton spent several days working on this Catapult Documentary. And only became frustrated a few times when our low-budget technology couldn't do the special effects he had in mind. He discovered some cool tricks though, that even I didn't know about - like how to loop sections of the music track. I think I'll hire him to do our family videos from now on. Just as long as he's banned from using the delete button.

After the school expo, he took his project on tour to the 4th and 5th grade classes - which made him very popular among the older kids in our neighborhood. As was evident by all the extra waves from across the street, and "Hey, I liked your project, Clayton!", high-fives at the grocery store, and "Mom, that's Clayton - the boy who did the catapult project!" Clayton was all smiles.
His teachers asked Clayton to present his project at a regional GT teacher training meeting. We all went. I stood in the back with Isaac, Brig, and Eliza (threatening them with their lives to behave).
The teachers got a kick out of his "famous Chinese" comment on the video. And we all laughed when Clayton said, "And there's one more thing Alexander the Great hurled in catapults but I don't want to say it because it's a bathroom word. Er. . . so I'll use the scientific word which is. . . (whispering) manure."
My feelings were slightly hurt when someone asked, "You mentioned your dad helped you with the Lego designs. Did he help you with the video documentary as well?" Clayton said, "My dad??? No. He didn't help me at all with that." I waited for him to mention me. He never did. Ouch.
Last week Clayton presented his project (for the final time) at the District GT Expo. The Legos were a big hit among the boys there, young and old.


Eliza, on the other hand, was bored out of her mind. And glad when the whole thing was over.

"The rocks of the hills, taken and shaped by hard work,
Are made to soar forward from the sling of a machine;
Through wind and clouds they ride upon their way,
Like meteors they thunder through space."
- Unknown Chinese Poet, 1300 A.D.



Way to go Clayton!
I'm glad I listened to you, kiddo.
(And didn't make you do your project on Bartok, like I wanted.)

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