Trapping a Leprechaun

Beth is staying up a bit late, tonight.

She and Dan are downstairs, working on her leprechaun trap. This school assignment produced a bit of anxiety for Dan and me at first. The trap must utilize some sort of "simple machine" to capture a mischievous leprechaun that might be lurking in Beth's classroom on the night of March 16th. The entire class will set their traps before leaving school that afternoon, and will arrive on March 17th eager to discover whether or not any of the traps have been successful.

I spent a few days racking my brain (and taking a peak at the millions of traps displayed on the Internet), but Dan and Beth soon came up with their own unique idea. They've been hard at work for a couple of weeks now, making a paper mache pot of gold, and they have designed a really neat way to trap the leprechaun inside the pot. Tonight, Beth is painting the pot with sparkly black paint, and decorating the rainbow that attaches to the pot of gold.

They're having a blast together with this project. I've come to realize that this is something that Beth will probably remember for the rest of her life. Hopefully, what she remembers about this experience is the time that she spent with her Dad, brainstorming ideas and then putting them into action. Whether or not the finished project works as well as planned is irrelevant, as is the final grade she receives from her teacher.

I can hear them laughing in the background right now. I'm not sure whether she'll actually manage to capture a leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day, but I can already tell that this project is going to be a great success.