DAY THREE: Nashville, TN

Friday, August 25th, 2006

Nashville Science Adventure Centre
While the butterfly classroom (with its structured seats and powerpoint presentation) lost 40% of the room in under 15 minutes, the interactive germ display had a line of kids eagerly waiting to learn how to kill the bacteria in their body with lasers waiting for them to fire.

Coco tried three times in vain to beat an 8 year old at controlling her brain waves. The 8 year old kept on winning until he gave her the secret of his success.

The game was simple … wear a band on your head to measure your brain wave activity. The person who can reduce the activity the most pushes a small ping pong ball into their competitor’s space.

Adam (Coco’s adversary) was bouncing off the wall telling us how he ‘wins’. Up and down, spinning around, telling his Dad he won again. Coco sat silently stewing in her failure. How could this child calm down enough to beat Coco yet again.

And yet when the button was pushed he pretended he was asleep. He did not look at the ball. Did not glance at Coco … just went to sleep.

Coco couldn’t do that. There were people around, the ball was moving, the monitors charting her brain activity.

Implication: Kids can turn it on and just as easily turn it off. If you don’t give them a reason to keep you on … you lose.

Melissa (mom), Kaylar (7), Carmen (6) and Adam (dad)
Wow is the only way we can describe Kaylar and Carmen. Melissa had Kaylar when she was 16. Adam, (dad) was 19. Needless to say, everything has been put on hold in their life while they grow up raising their children. watch clip

Recently Melissa and Adam moved in with her parents (Doris & Vince) while Adam goes off to Marine boot camp. She is finishing her teaching degree.

You would think this family struggles. Feels deprived. Wants more. And yet they feel very happy with their lot in life. Very satisfied with their little family surrounded and supported by a much larger group.

When we went through their kitchen we saw some surprising things. Silk Soy in the fridge, Kashi cereal on top, organic teddy grahams for the girl’s snack. Every penny that Melissa and her husband make is precious and yet from time to time they do what they think is right for their health, their kids and their bodies.

As Lynn the nutritionist pointed out, mass market white families do not live by the "all or nothing" rule.


Implication: Life, while hard from time to time, still needs to have a few pleasures that make you feel good.

Taking On Soda …Hmmmm
Soda, in a staple in people’s houses. Every cart we saw in the grocery store had 2-5 cases stacked high. Every home offered it.

Implication: Soda is not going to go away no matter how hard we try. We need to find our own territory to own instead of positioning ourselves against theirs. We need to be smarter, not just better.

A Race Car Driver In The Making.
After a very competitive round of mini putt with Carmen and Kayla, (ensuring that Coco and I got many hole in ones with their guidance of our putt putt balls) the girls asked to go go-carting.

Carmen happily hopped into a double cart with her new best friend, Coco, only slightly concerned that Coco did not have a driver’s license. Adam (a cop) assured her Coco would do fine.

Kaylar on the other hand had a choice. She could wait and go in the only double cart that Coco and Carmen were now in, or she could venture out on her own with her own cart, me close behind.

Her foot wobbled in the air shaking. Should she. Could she. Would she. Just when I thought she decided not to, she jumped in, seat belt on, foot on gas pedal and gone.


10 laps later she ran to her mom and dad, yelling and screaming that she had done it. She had not only driven by herself … but won. Mom and Dad were so pround. And for the first time in the 4 hours we had been with them … Mom and Dad held hands.

Implication: Kids bring families together. (duhhhhhhh!)

Grandma’s Gift

Listening to Kaylar and Carmen, we were blown away with their stories: Dad being captured by mud bugs, mountains instantly turning icy so they become slides instead of hills and cookies showers from the sky. Water comes from ‘this thing’, orange soda from oranges and Dr. Pepper. The stories were endless and on going. There never seemed to be an ending. Just when we thought it was over, Kaylar would ask if she could finish it.

Grandma Doris said it better than anyone. The best gift you can give your child is the gift of imagination. watch clip

Implication: Leave room for them to contribute, don’t finish the story.