PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 19, 2018
KeizerCommunity
Keizer kid mastering Rubik’s cube
KEIZERTIMES.COM
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Keizer 7-year-old, Wyatt
Isom, learned how to solve a
Rubik’s cube the only way a
boy his age in this day could—
watching YouTube.
It took him less than four
hours, on a Saturday over
Thanksgiving break.
“I just saw it on YouTube
and I really wanted to be able
to solve it,” Wyatt said.
The Rubik’s cube wasn’t his
fi rst puzzle.
“His mind has always been
interested in puzzles and try-
ing to fi gure them out,” Wy-
att’s mom Kaysha said. “From a
very young age, he’s always had
the determination and dedica-
tion to sit there to solve the
puzzle. When he sets his mind
to something, he’s going to fi g-
ure it out that day.”
After mastering the standard
3x3, which he can now solve
in under a minute, Wyatt be-
gan trying other size and shape
Rubik’s cubes. He has six and
can solve all of them. The easi-
est is the 2x2.
“The funny thing is every-
one says they can solve this
(2x2) and they just end up not
solving it,” said Wyatt, who
has impressed his classmates at
Clear Lake Elementary, where
he is in the second grade. “Ev-
eryone brings them to school
to solve. There’s one kid that
wants to have a lesson.”
Wyatt has learned how to
solve them by watching You-
Tube. But none of them have
been as diffi cult as the fi rst.
“It was a lot easier because
I already knew how to solve a
normal one,” he said. “It was
just really easy.”
Wyatt plays video games
like a lot of kids but he’d rather
work on his Rubik’s cubes.
“He takes it to school with
him. He takes it everywhere
with him,” Kaysha said. “He
just wants to keep challenging
himself. He’d rather pick up
his cube than play a game. I’m
okay with that.”
Wyatt solves each cube by
memorizing different sets of
algorithms. He plans on going
to his fi rst competition either
as a team in Eugene or individ-
ually in Corvallis on Feb. 24.
He’d also like to go to na-
tional and international com-
petitions.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Wyatt Isom, a second grader at Clear Lake Elementary School, can solve the standard 3x3 Rubik’s cube in under a minute as well
as fi ve other kinds of Rubik’s cubes.
“There’s some in Japan that
I really want to go to,” Wyatt
said. “I want to get the world
record (4.73 seconds).”
“It just blows my mind that
he can do it so fast,” Kaysha
added.
Museum needs volunteers
The Keizer Heritage Mu-
seum at the Keizer Heritage
Center tells the story of Keiz-
er’s history.
They wish to have the mu-
seum open more hours but
need two or more volunteers
to work specifi c hosting shifts
in the museum.
What does that entail? It
includes greeting visitors, as-
suring they sign in the visitor
book, offering answers to ques-
tions about the exhibits and the
building itself.
The two- or four-hour
shifts are currently available on
the fi rst and last Saturday of
each month, either 1-4 p.m. or
2-4 p.m.
Scared to fi eld questions you
don’t know the answers to? No
worries, they will train and
you will learn all the informa-
tion needed. Call 503-393-
9660 or email Tammy Wild at
keizerhistory@aol.com.
Let us handle the rest
THE SPRINGS at SUNNYVIEW
INDEPENDENT LIVING
1950 45th Ave NE , Salem | 503-589-1200
THE WOODS at WILLOWCREEK
TheSpringsLiving.com
ASSISTED LIVING & MEMORY CARE
4398 Glencoe St NE , Salem | 503-581-4239