Mickey is going to grow up to be a resourceful character. I’m sure of it. He’s only eight, but already he’s showing some fancy chops, crafting himself an elaborate sports stadium in the backyard. He’s even convinced four year-old Rudolph to help him – possibly not the best recruitment decision, given that Rudolph is still developing his fine motor skills, but I’m not complaining.
After closely examining the structure of the nets at soccer practice, Mickey has figured out a way to make something vaguely reminiscent of soccer goal netting. He’s doing this by tying knots in long pieces of cord, which he must have sourced from his grandma (okay, maybe she had a hand in formulating the netting technique as well).
It takes him ages, and I’m really impressed with his patience. It’s a fairly unusual choice of activity for a kid of his age, right? I’m wondering how I can help him channel this interest in other ways. I mean, it’s cool and all, but it would be good to know what the driving appeal is – is it a sincere enthusiasm for the structure of sports boundary netting? Or is it a desire to create his dream sporting environment, or perhaps a fascination with knots?
None of them would surprise me that much; Mickey has always been a bit out of the ordinary. I mean, he was quick to sign up for soccer, hockey and trumpet lessons, but he’s also asked if he can do boat-building classes (is there even such a thing?) and expressed a desire to start a kids’ book club specifically for reading about how electricity works. Then there’s his hobby of writing fan fiction about soccer matches on TV – whenever his team loses, he writes an alternative, blow-by-blow account of how the match could have panned out.
Anyway, today he went down the street, found some milk crates and cable tied them together to use as a netting storage cabinet. He also rustled up some leftover piping from behind the shed and constructed some goal posts. See? So resourceful.