1m2aSandbox

Last year, Maddie and her friends undertook that classic kids’ boredom game, Digging to China. Many of you will remember that Maddie’s posse began assiduously working on a hole to China on their school playground, calculating that they should be finished by sixth grade. Maddie even asked Brian to be there the last day of school in sixth grade – and bring scuba gear for getting through the oceans – so the family could go to China together. Fortunately, the gang called it quits a couple weeks into the project after one mother brought up concerns that their digging might cause shifts in the tectonic plates, triggering earthquakes in other countries. Ever ones to worry about causing other people harm, the girls regretfully called a halt to their diggings.

Until now.

Yes, Operation: China Dig is back and in full force. I don’t know if they’ve forgotten the earthquake thing, or are more confident in their math skills and hence believe they can calculate around it, but whatever the case, it’s back, baby. The girls have returned to one of the original plans: dig straight down until they’re about a mile from the liquid magma core of the earth, then dig circuitously around the core until they’re at the other side, then straight back out again. This way, according to the girls, no one has to get inadvertently blown out by a volcanic-type eruption.

Always thinking, these kids.

In addition, Maddie has refined her digging style. She’s purposely sought out earth that’s clumpy rather than smooth dirt; she reasons that big clumps are easier to lift out of a depression, thus removing more dirt in a shorter amount of time than simply digging fine dirt would do.

I am truly beginning to wonder if we will need to bring some scuba gear to school in a few years.