This South African father definitely wins Dad of the year!
Johannesburg, South Africa – A father and son from Johannesburg have the internet gushing with admiration after their cardboard race car project has not only set new standards for ‘do-it-yourself’ school assignments but also showcased how to take a simple project and turn it into a more profound teaching moment.
Stephen Watson’s son Luca received an invite from ‘Reddam House Waterfall’ to a ‘drive-in’ movie night for all the Grade 3 students. The project – as father and son – was to build a car out of cardboard boxes that the child would sit in and watch the movie.
Luca asked his dad if they could build the ‘Redbull F1 race car’ and promptly showed his dad a picture of what it looked like.
Watson took the project head on but also decided to use the assignment to demonstrate that with hard work, one can achieve good things!
“I decided this was not about the movie but an opportunity to teach my boy that when you want something extraordinary, it takes hard work, patience, mistakes, pain, rethinking, problem-solving and if you stay focused and committed, with hard work you can achieve good things.
The task was daunting, and there were moments where both he and I wanted to give up. We got stuck too and had to ask grandpa for advice and help. We asked my brother to help print logos on paper that we could glue on the car etc.”
One hundred hours of effort later, fun, laughter, frustration, a few short fuse moments mixed in there somewhere too and the result is something they are both super proud of (and so are the rest of us).
“Thank you, Quinton Pascoe and the teachers Reddam House Waterfall for the exercise.”
Take a look at the process and the finished product below:
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