Model rocketry

FW's special interest has recently veered back to something he first enjoyed when he was two or three, airplanes. Since he'd already collected pretty much every Matchbox Sky Buster (and saved each package), his focus now moved to radio-controlled planes. To be honest, I have no idea how he knew such a thing even existed. Sometimes his special interests come to him like magic--nothing we've introduced or encouraged. When this mysterious new passion hit, I helped FW learn as much as possible, and we spent a lot of time on YouTube finding RC plane videos to watch. He became so excited by this, that I did a little research and found a local RC airplane group that flies planes at a local field every weekend. FW went with his dad a couple times to see the planes fly, but it was pretty obvious that this was a hobby we were not going to be able to embrace. The world of RC aircraft is sophisticated and expensive--these "toy" planes are really for grown men, and FW is simply too small to handle them. So we had a dilemma--how could we allow FW to enjoy his special interest if the special interest was something we couldn't manage?

In my original search for local RC airplane clubs, I happened upon a model rocketry club operating in our county. Since FW has a vague interest in outer space, I thought maybe we could get him as excited about the rocketry as he had been about the RC planes. When I mentioned it all to my husband, I learned something I didn't know--my husband had been a model rocketry enthusiast when he was a boy. As it turned out, he was quite giddy at the prospect of getting back into this arcane world.

After jump-starting FW's interest by letting him pour over old Estes catalogs online, we picked up some rocket kits at Michael's Crafts and at local hobby shops. FW and his dad worked together to build, paint, and launch the rockets with the local club. Very cool.

Sometimes they blow up.