Roller coasters on the brain

Last week we took the kids to Six Flags. They had earned their tickets through the read to succeed program at school, and the school was nice enough to save their tickets even though they're no longer enrolled. We had a great time. Both Aiden and Zoë are over 48" tall now, so they were able to ride a lot of the rides. Although Zoë was apprehensive about riding the Ninja, she got on it anyway and had so much fun that we rode it twice. She seems to have a healthy amount of fear.

Aiden is a different story. Frankly, he scares Tom and I to death. He showed absolutely no fear whatsoever. He rode everything he was tall enough for, and was slightly disgruntled that he couldn't ride The Batman. At one point Tom took the kids down the speed slides in the water park while I watched and waited. Zoë chose to ride one of the curvy slides, but Aiden insisted upon waiting for the tallest, straightest slide. I watched all the people coming down the slides and Aiden was by far the youngest and shortest to come down during those 20 minutes. Tom told me later that everyone in line was shocked he wanted to go down and couldn't believe he was only 6.

I think some amount of fear is a good thing. It can stop you from doing stupid things that we shouldn't even be contemplating. It can help us find limits to our abilities. At the same time fear can be limiting. If we're too afraid to try something, we may never know what we're capable of doing. As with most things, problems arise at either extreme. My concern is that so far Aiden seems to be an extreme. I'll be much happier if next week he decides that the Millennium Force (a 310 feet tall, 93 mph, 82 degree drop roller coaster at Cedar Point) is too much for him. Otherwise his lack of fear might be too much for me!

Since all everyone can think about is our upcoming vacation and the trip to Cedar Point, I made up our own story problems for math today using facts about different coasters. The kids had a great time comparing all the different roller coasters and answering the story problems. When we finished class for the day, they headed up to the artroom to draw designs of their own coasters. Zoë said she was designing one that would be three times taller than the Millennium, but she wasn't going to ride it. She would have a team of testers ride it and tell her how it was. I'm hoping Aiden won't be on that team!