Pinewood Derby

Since the pinewood derby race was scheduled just a couple days after Christian's birthday, we ended up having two boys making cars this year. They had a fun time designing their cars. I made them each come up with three designs and then after drawing each one out, pick their favorite. Christian seemed like he knew from the start that he wanted to do an arrow car. Ethan's kind of evolved as he thought about different options and his final car was a mixture of a few. We got an early start on them so we had plenty of time for the boys to take their time on planning, sanding, and painting. I think the only thing that I did for them was cut them (we only have a circular saw and I don't think they are quite ready for that) and pour the melted weight in them.

On the day before the race we tested them on our folding table to see how straight they ran. Both went pretty well, but then the boys really wanted to see whose was quicker. Ethan's was faster than Christian's and at first Christian seemed a little bummed about that. We tried to fix part of the paint that was possibly rubbing against the wheels and I talked to Christian and Ethan about the point of the races and how it can be fun even if your car gets last place.

On the day of the race when they weighed their cars in, Ethan's turned out to be about half an ounce over and Christian's was about half an ounce under. We added some money to the bottom of Christian's car and drilled some of the weight out of Ethan's.

In our ward they use this racing program where all the boys are randomized into heats and a final winner is chosen based on speeds and how they do in their heats. So there was one race where Christian and Ethan were in the same heat. Ethan's car did end up beating Christian's again, but they were both great sports about it. In fact, they were great sports the whole time. In the very first heat Christian's car got last place and I was a little worried about how the rest of the night would go for him, but it turned out that the other three cars in that heat were the three fastest ones for the night. Christian's car later got first in some of his other heats and he was happy about that. In the end, Ethan got third for his age group and Christian got second for his. But most importantly, they both had a fun time.









Christian's car is the second one on the left that looks like an arrow and Ethan's is the silver one right in the middle.