A Construction Project

Recently there was a traveling dinosaur exhibit in the neighborhood.  Since we had some grand-kids visiting with us, kids who enjoy that kind of thing, we decided to head over that way and see what they had going.  They really had a lot of cool things.  Things that kept the kids interested for a couple of hours.  I was a little surprised.

One of the things they had was a couple of puzzles.  Lots of pieces and no instructions or pictures of the fully assembled creature.  The only hints were little numbers painted on each piece and where each fit together.  So find the two pieces with whatever number you're looking for and find how they fit together.  That was all there was to go on.

When fully disassembled, the puzzle looks a bit intimidating.  Not much to suggest what it will be when put together.

But I have a little grandson who is pretty interested in dinosaurs.  A couple of them, actually, but only one was with us that day.  And he decided he wanted to put it together.

So he sat down and got to it.  One piece at a time he began looking for numbers and putting pieces together.

Here and there, people would be there to watch and offer suggestions but for the most part he worked by himself and kept at it.

Gradually the creature began to take shape.  At one point he had to stop and redirect his approach.  Pieces kept coming undone so he had to back up and start over from a different angle.

It was the ribs.  At one point, what he had together was resting on the ribs which kept pushing them up and off the back piece, causing them to come apart.

But he solved that problem by putting the hind legs on so that it was in a standing position, taking the pressure off the ribs so they stayed in place.

Toward the end a couple of other boys came by and got interested.  They wanted to help with the finishing touches.

He had no problem with that and before long, the three of them had gotten the whole thing together.

And there is was, a fully assembled dinosaur.  It didn't really say anywhere what kind it was but to me it sort of looked like a Megalosaurus.  Who's to say.  But in any case, he was happy with it.  It sure was a great lizard. And then, quick as could be, he was off to something else.