First Waite family bridge building contest

A few weeks ago Matthew was in charge of the activity for Family Home Evening.  He comes up with good activities.  We have played some great games that he has designed himself.  This time he organized a bridge building contest.  We worked in pairs.  He gave each of an allowance to buy K'nex pieces to build a bridge together.  When we were done we tested the bridges to see which design would hold the most JENGA blocks.  Everyone's bridge held at least 66 blocks.  Matthew and Joshua, Emma and Lydia's bridges held the most. It was fun to watch the kids work together and come up with their ideas. Neil, MaryAnne and I had to adjust our design because it was too wide to hold a JENGA block.  Emma thought through her bridge and decided it would hold more if she changed the direction of one piece.  They are definitely thinkers and they have their dad's math mind to figure things out.  It was a fun activity and didn't get too competitive.

Here are some pictures of the future bridge engineers:

The crash at the end