Oh man! How the world is a different place when you're 4 and how often it is easy to forget about the most simplest things because we see them everyday, but for a 4 year old they are brand new experiences.
I had a conversation with little miss, she asked me about the wind and the air how she felt it when she ran. She'd tried to catch it, sometimes it was cold, sometimes it was hot but she couldn't see it. We spoke about how we needed it to live and it's what was going into our lungs. I think it was at this point that she realised she was breathing. Maybe I shouldn't have raised it with her because she immediately tried to stop and started trying to hold her breath.
What better way to learn about air and wind then with a kite? She'd never seen one before and I got excited about my younger days flying a kite. So we headed out to the shops in search for a kite. I was quite surprised about the fact that not many people had kites for sale anymore. Apparently they just don't sell. It had been some years since I made my own and I really couldn't be bothered.
We finally stumbled across a bargain shop that had some for sale, cheap as chips $5 and little miss was excited. As its almost winter it's colder and windier, perfect kite weather. We assembled it and off we went!
Talking little miss through the process I informed her we needed to create what was called lift. It's how birds and planes fly aswell as anything in the sky. Running into the wind as a plane flys into it creates a force that opposes the weight of what ever it is that is flying.
It's also important to create drag and thrust, we create thrust by running into the wind as well as once in the air using our arms to pull the kite in. As kites are light they don't require much to keep them flying.
I have to admit, it took me a little while as it has been a number of years since I've flown a kite but it didn't take long until we were in the air.
Lil miss was immediately fascinated with what was occurring and wanted a turn. I wasn't too confident in handing over the kite to her in its fullest as no doubt she would probably lose control and end up having it fly away. She was upset with me.
We established a compromise on my holding the handle while little miss played with the kite string. As the kite began to fall I helped guide her by telling her to pull on the string the bring the kite in. This providing thrust which created drag and lift. She had an absolute ball playing with the kite and wanted to know if we could make one big enough to fly on!
Mumma bear got in on the action also with lil bloke, I never knew but my wife had never flown a kite before. This was her first experience with a kite also. It was nice sharing both first times with lil miss and mumma bear.
We continued to fly the kite for around 2 hours, dad attempting to do some tricks but unfortunately it is just a basic kite with one string. The best I could do is as air pockets dipped and picked up make the kite twirl abit.
Lil miss asked me about the air, how if we can go through it that it didn't go through the kite. We talked about how air or the wind doesn't go through things and hits them. When we walk the air is moving around us but it is a light gas which we shift around us.
These discussions led to more questions and I was totally not prepared and many of the Whys I didn't know how to respond to.
Was a great day outdoors flying a kite and teaching little miss about air, wind and how things fly!
