Atoms 101

First - let me say that all the kids can now pretty much describe the model below with some accuracy of how things work. That being said..
Bill has been teaching the kids about atoms, neutron, protons and such things. After several exhausting days of drawing atoms on paper, he came up with a different approach. In order to better be able to demonstrate how it all worked they constructed this model. The small balls are electrons, the medium ones are neutrons and the large thing is a nucleus.

Andi told me that in public school they would start to learn these things around the 5th or 6th grade. I'm thinking that would probably be a good starting place because I heard the "answer" the other day to the question, "What attaches the protons to the nucleus?"

The answer: Toothpicks