3D Printing...

Remi has been researching 3D printers for quite sometime, so when his birthday rolled around this past September, we got him a great little starter printer for him to play around with. These techy things are so out of my element, but the good thing about Rem, is that they are 100% in his wheelhouse! He got that thing out and running in no time!

He has really had the best time creating, researching and printing! He has printed everything from ballmarkers, to carabiners, coffee mugs, yo-yos, fidget puzzles and most recently, he has printed spirographs and illusion pieces! He even went out and tested his carabiners with his full weight hanging from a tree with a homemade harness! He loved testing out the different designs and seeing which ones were strongest and could hold the most weight!

I love that this is just another creative outlet for a boy who craves building!

School Projects...

When it comes to learning, Remi will always be my hands-on learner. This year, he has been blessed with an amazing Science teacher. She fills her classroom full of opportunities for hands-on projects, creative journaling and experiments. 

Remi is always doing his own experiments at home, learning by doing and so his prior knowledge of Science is pretty extensive, but his teacher has taken what he knows and built on it. He has learned so much this year and is loving every minute. He has loved being challenged in something where his interests are high. 

Right before break, the 5th graders created their own circuit boxes. Remi has been fiddling with circuits for as long as I can remember, so to say he was excited would be a vast understatement! He ended up turning his box into a cute little gingerbread house! They designed their boxes at home and then added circuits with Christmas lights at school.

As much as he loved this project though, there were definitely challenges! He is about as stubborn as they come. He is used to having his own supplies and his own timeline for the projects he dreams up at home. The fact that he not only had to do things the teacher's way, but had a deadline was a bit irritating to him. In fact, one evening he got downright angry that he wasn't able to use his own wiring system because it was 'the better' way to do it. 

In the end, he was able to get his box finished, and even though he didn't like having to do things 'the wrong way' I think it was very good for him!

Having an excuse to get out all his electrical supplies always leads to side projects and distraction! It's like his little brain goes into overdrive thinking of all the things he wants to create! As you can see in the last pictures, he ended up making a little snow globe as he was going through supplies he thought he might need! 

Little Inventions...

It's no secret that Remi loves building and inventing. His love has slowly trickled over to Roen and he often comes up his own little creations in the mess of Remi's workshop. I love seeing the boy's imagination come out through their hands!

This is Roen's little cross bow he made with some scrap pieces of trim. He still has plans to make an arrow to go with this, but he was pretty proud!



Remi decided he needed a fan for his golf bag and so built this little clip-on fan...





On this day, he was on a mission to create his own burnable fuel. He experiment all afternoon with different techniques of breaking down sugar...







Remi is a problem solver and when there is a problem, he loves to find the solution with engineering up one of his little inventions. Roen tends to build weapons that he can play with- lots of bows, rubber band guns and cross bows! I love how different these two are, yet love to be side by side bouncing ideas off each other, helping each other create their visions!

ID Tech Robotics Camp...

Months and months ago, we signed Remi up for a week long robotics camp in San Antonio. We were going to stay with my aunt while he attended camp and had planned to have a great little week of family time!

With the Covid lingering around however, the camp got converted into virtual online classes. Some camps couldn't be converted into a virtual setting (like robotics), so those camp kids were given virtual classes in an area as close as they could get. This put Remi into Game Coding.

Like most kids, Remi loves his fair share of Minecraft and Fortnite, so he was pretty excited. However, if you have ever done any amount of coding, you know it is very meticulous, dealing with letters, numbers, symbols and perfect spacing. This was a HUGE challenge for Remi. In fact, when it came time to type in coding, I hopped on the computer and did it for him. In reality, there is no way he could have typed it all in that format- it would have taken him much longer than the amount of time he had. This is one of those times that his Dyslexia showed it's ugly side.

But, there was a magical moment too.

They learned how to work in a program called Piskel, to draw and create characters for their game. Remi not only loved this portion, but excelled, making many different characters. As I sat there and watched him, I saw him forming a love for the very thing I am so passionate about. The boys are always following right in Micah's footsteps with the activities they enjoy, but for this one little moment, I got to see a little bit of myself in Remi. It was incredible watching him on my computer creating, drawing and discovering a love for graphic design!














Of course, Remi had a little spectator! Roen is always so enthralled by the things Remi does...

A Mind that Builds...

He builds and he builds and he builds.

This boy never stops. His mind is in a constant state of imagining, inventing and creating. Most nights, as I lay with him before bed, he talks about things he wants to builds, ideas he has, solutions to creating it all. He goes down to his workshop for hours and hours at a time. Sometimes he comes up to show me the things he created and then sometimes I just find them.

I think his mind must never really shut down, I think he probably sees the world in a way most of us can't, and there is rarely a day that goes by that I am not fascinated by the workings of his brain.

Here are a few of his recent creations...

Hand-held, home-made fishing pole...





A little battery operated crank...





This is one of his bigger projects. He took a broken scooter and broken motor bike form a trash pile- the scooter had bad batteries and the bike had a bad motor. He took the motor from the scooter, rewired it into the bike and got that thing running!







Just for fun, I went down to his dungeon of engineering to peek around. I never know what all I will find, but it is usually lots of little projects in the making, a giant mess of wires, tools everywhere, duct tape, batteries, hot glue guns and bits of anything you could imagine.

Kiowa Clay Painting...

A few days ago, the boys took a quick little walk over to the North Beach. They ended up discovering this thick, red, muddy clay and had a blast scooping it up to take home... and rubbing it all over themselves like little Indians.

They each gathered up giant globs about the size of bowling balls to take home. Remi insisted that he could turn this clay into paint and wouldn't be told otherwise. Roen put his on the back of a scooter to get his clay home and Remi made a knapsack out of his swim shirt to carry his, barefoot, all the way home.

Remi even fell asleep that night trying to come up with the best solution to turn his clay into paint.

The next day, we used warm water to get the clay to the painty consistency we wanted. We divided it up into 8 little cups so the boys could each have four colors- they loved adding the food color. Remi used lots of coloring and his colors turned out bight and vivid. Roen did a bit less and his were pretty earth tones! These little paintings were so fun and the boys were so proud!




























Roen's painting


Remi's painting