Lessons Learned by
Participating in the Pinewood
Copyright
© 2004
Dear Sir,
These are my thoughts after I
hung up from talking with you the other day about my husband making a Pinewood
Derby Car for you...
Your boy must participate in
the making of the Pinewood Derby Car. Even if you are a
total disaster at woodworking, I suggest that you contact a local veteran
pinewood derby-ist or a local woodworker who could
tutor the both of you, through the steps of making your car. This
is a time to get fathers and sons together, but you need not do so
alone. The son needs to have a lion-share of participation in
making the car, so if he wins he has the pride of knowing it was his car,
not just the owner of a toy daddy bought for him. Besides that is
against the rules.
I totally understand that
you do not want your son to be ashamed of you, if he looses again. I
think you are internalizing the event too much. There will always be
only one winner the rest, basically, are the
losers. Events like these teach the boys to handle these kinds
of situations which will inevitably happen through out their lives.
The boys look to their dads to see what their own reaction should
be. If you are ashamed, then he is ashamed. At the next
Pinewood Derby watch for the healthy reactions
of other Dads with their boys. You will see them patting their boy's
back and telling him that they did a good job, good try, or next
year we'll do better.
If a boy is shamed instead of
being supported and told it was a good try, when he attempts
something new, he will never try anything new. The boy needs to know
that when trying something new, that his attempts will probably not be as good
as someone who has been doing it for a long time, but he should still do
his best. In doing his best there is no shame.
The boy needs to know each
time he attempts that same thing that usually he will learn something he
can do better in the next attempt. I believe this is true with your
son's last race. What did you both learn? What seemed to not work
well from the last attempt? What seemed to make the fast cars
fast? Would being more careful of how the car is handled and set up in
the lane make a difference? Use tips that others have learned from their
attempts. See:
www.nay.org/pinecar.htm/.
Related tasks will help your
boy and you prepare for making the derby car. Doing other woodworking
projects will help give you both the skills like cutting, sanding
, painting, etc. that are needed to make a sleek body and a
handsome car. By doing other projects together, it will increases your
boys skills in woodworking, lets you spend quality time with your boy, and
increases the likely hood that he will be able to pass these skills on to his sons
and/or be able to use these skills in repairing or creating things in his own
home.
Take some community night
courses in wood working so you feel comfortable in wood working. You do
not have to be perfect at anything the first time. These courses have no
expectation of that. No one is going to grade you at the end of the
course. The measure of success is in the attempt and gaining
greater skills. Whatever you come out of the class
with will, be greater than what you went into it with. Make it
a date night with your wife and enjoy the course together. Enjoy the
process!
Best wishes for success,
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