Well, our first K'Nex Education kit arrived today. It was the Bridges kit, which is not really covered in the The New Way Things Work, so we decided to try it out. There was lots of excitement about building our first bridge, a beam bridge. The kit provides instructions and some information about each bridge type. The instructions were not too difficult for me to follow, but I do not think that the girls would be able to follow them by themselves, at least not yet. But, to be fair, the recommended age for the kit is 8+. Madeline and Isabella were, for the most part, able to put the pieces together by themselves to construct the bridge, once I told them which pieces to connect next. All in all, it was a success! Madeline even added some embellishments once we finished the construction as described in the instructions. I did neglect to take pictures of her additions, but I did get pictures of the process as well as the bridge completed as described by the kit.
This is the kit we used to build the beam bridge.
I was kind of surprised about how excited Isabella was to try this activity. She really wanted to do parts herself, and was very proud of the finished product.
Madeline constructed one half of the bridge, and Isabella constructed the other half, and then the connected them in the middle. It was a great cooperative effort. Also, I continue to be convinced that Madeline is going to write a Broadway musical at some point. She "wrote" a whole long, dramatic song about the bridge and its story while she was building.
When the bridge was finished, Madeline and Isabella decided to walk their fingers across it.
Just a note about Isabella's hair... she has a babysitter this morning who French braided it. It did not stay very well, but she did not want to take it out, or add barrettes to keep it it of her eyes, thus it covers her face... oh well.
