Periscope Up

The subject of periscopes came up recently, as did the subject of experiments. As in, "Can we do an experiment? Why haven't we done any experiments lately? When are we going to do that one experiment?" So I had been casually saving the necessary parts of a periscope for a rainy day, a day when there would be another sudden interest in experiments. That day was today.

I got out my mirrors and my long, skinny cardboard box that I had been saving for such an occasion and we got to work. We held the mirrors in different positions and talked about reflection and angles. (OK, I actually made no attempt to explain how the process worked, but I would be an awesome mom if I had!) Maybe my mistake was to attempt to make the periscope in such close proximity to the basketball hoop. Maybe I am just slow. If I had made the periscope in 30 seconds then I would have had Luke's attention for the entire time. "Oh well," I thought, "At least this gives me something to do while I watch Luke play basketball." And, really, I had fun making a periscope all by myself. When it was finished he looked through it and said, "Cool." I said, "Hey, let's sneak upstairs and spy on Daddy and Jack." Luke said, "Yeah!" So we started crawling up the stairs, quietly. So quietly. And I slithered across the floor and got the periscope in position behind the couch and whispered, "Oh, I see them, come look." And I turned to look over my shoulder. And I realized I was alone. Alone, at the top of the stairs, on my stomach, whispering about a periscope. Alone except for Dave and Jack who were looking at me through the other end.

Luke may not be impressed now, but just wait until we incorporate the periscope into the giant cardboard box I want to turn into a pirate ship!