Pinewood Derby=Tough life lesson

Jonah and Keith have been working on Jonah's pinewood derby car this week.  Our neighbor cut the car out for them, but Keith made Jonah do the rest.  Jonah sanded the car and painted it by himself.  He worked really hard on it.  Keith helped him put the wheels on.

Yesterday Keith rushed home from work so that they could put some weights in the car.  Jonah had a friend over and told Keith that he didn't want to stop playing to put the weights in.  Keith told him that his car wouldn't do well without them.  Jonah said he didn't care and kept playing with his friend.  Keith didn't push it and told him that he had to decide.

Keith was right and Jonah's car did not do well.  He was in last place every time.  It was really sad to watch him standing at the bottom of the track watching the other cars race by his.  He looked discouraged, but I was really proud to see him give the other boys high fives and tell them good job.

They took a break half way through the races.  Keith went over to talk to Jonah.  I knew exactly what Keith was saying to him.  He asked Jonah why he thought his car wasn't going fast and told him that he worked hard, but you have to finish things out and see them through until the end.   I think Jonah learned his lesson.  These are the kind of lessons that will impact Jonah, just talking doesn't do it for him. 

During the break Keith and Jonah put graphite on the wheels and that made a big difference.  He was so excited when he took 3rd place on a heat instead of 4th!  It was fun to see him excited to see his car come down the track instead of embarrassed.

On one heat there were only three cars and Jonah's car almost took first place.  Keith pointed out to Jonah that his car probably would have done amazing that night with the weights.  I think it was also good for Jonah to learn to lose.  He did a good job at having a good attitude and having fun even without winning.  That is tough for Jonah because he is so competitive.

Jonah ended up taking 15th place out of 16!  They gave everyone an award for their cars.  All in all it was a fun night and I think Jonah learned a valuable lesson!