Creating an Ancient Weapon of Destruction at the Dining Room Table

Rarely is there anything as exiting as destruction and mayhem to a 7 year old boy.  Couple that with a father that prods him on with an ancient machine of destruction- and you’ve got a winning afternoon!

After Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandma’s House this year, my husband and son brought out Leonardo Da Vinci Catapult Kit, available at ThinkGeek.com.

Getting Ready To build the Leonardo Da Vinci Catapult

The kit came complete in the box with a number of wooden pieces, a few screw eye holes, string, and glue.  The instructions were straight forward and there was no backtracking necessary to get it done right.

Sample Page of Instructions

The kit is recommended for ages 12 and up- and for building that’s true, but for playing and watching – 5 years and up is enough. It is fun for adults too!

Father and Son Putting the Kit together

After about 40 minutes, the kit was complete.  The Leonardo Da Vinci Catapult Kit came complete with a small slab of clay from which Elijah crafted ammunition and ordnance.  It turned out in the end that launching caramel corn was much more fun when my husband tried to launch it into Elijah’s mouth!

Finally Built! Took about 40 minutes

The whole family was initially afraid of the power of this device- especially with Great Grandpa sitting in the other room within EYE-shot of it.  We started slow, and found the right system.

You'll shoot your eye out!

After the first few minutes of play, the included string became loose- which is what was said would happen in the instructions.  Re-tightening the tension strings gave us a much much much more powerful catapult- if we had the room, we’re betting on 50 feet!

Knocking Down Blocks

Elijah set up the target of wooden blocks.  He had fun trying to position the catapult to aim at the blocks. I love seeing my kids try to figure things out through trial and error and then succeed!

Buy Leonardo Da Vinci’s Catapult Kit

ThinkGeek has a great number of products available for the smart kid and dad.  Go take a look!  This catapult was a high quality winner!

This was not a paid post. My own opinions were used based on my perceptions and experience. Thank you to ThinkGeek.com who provided the products for review.