Hold Still while I Shine this Flashlight in Your Face

*Carson is awesome.  He does science experiments. 

This boy needs to make a laminated sign that says But, How Does It Work? and carry it around with him everywhere he goes.  That way he could just flash the sign and save the breath.  He's interested in science, mathematics, nature, physics... asking questions like, 'but how does the electricity charge the battery?' and 'how does the poison from the spider make you sick' and 'how can hair actually grow in your belly?' (he was most disturbed when he saw that Timothy had hair - apparently growing the rest of a human body is acceptable, but hair crosses the line.)  So when news came home from school about the science fair, I knew he would love it. I was totally right.

He and Brian spent some fun time together talking about and executing their experiment.  The question:  How do different lights affect pupil size?
The experiment enrolled several willing participants, one rather forced participant (sorry for shining bright lights in your eyes, Timothy!), lots of different lights, and a find-the-pupil-size chart (I'm sure that's the technical name for it).

Miles was ecstatic to be the headlamp guy.

The day of the science fair finally arrived and, because we are all procrastinators at our house, we had yet to make the poster.  Procrastination is never fun, but this one bit us pretty hard because we had a tiny baby in the ICU on this day... but Brian was excited and happy to help Carson put the poster together while I stayed at the hospital, and I'm almost certain that they had more fun without me there suggesting that they cut the lines a little straighter, or position the pictures a little more symmetrically, or wouldn't putting a mat underneath each picture make it look better?  My poor family.  I was super impressed with their poster, but I was even more impressed with Carson's ability to explain it all.  He did awesome!  And he had such a great time doing it.  The kids he taught were so enthralled with his short explanations and (mostly) at the demonstration part when Brian took the flashlight and showed the kids exactly what Carson had been talking about.  Awesome! they said.  Wow!  Cool!  Carson felt like a million bucks.

Love, love, love it when my kids feel fulfilled by things other than receiving candy.