Science Fair! Fini!

Science fair projects give me the hives. Believe me when I say I'm not one of those mothers who takes charge and does the project/board for the child. I do not. I don't even TOUCH the board. But, the whole drawn out process annoys me. Truly it's over a month long process. I know they do it so as not to overwhelm but, good grief, it still overwhelms me. It's not the actual experiment that I despise. Those are actually quite fun sometimes. It's just the process. Yes, yes, I know the process is the whole point. And the only reason my children know I feel this way is because they are standing over my shoulder pretending not to read this.

Luckily, Bear is super self-motivated. Even more so than self-motivated Lamb. This is the 1st year for his project, and I have not had to nag him once. He has done all his research, his data collection, and his typing all on his own. Tonight, he finished his presentation board. A WEEK EARLY! This makes Big D happy because he was really bummed that Bear's teacher has all of Lamb's old science fair boards. He thought we could just recycle one of them. ;)

This is Lamb's 5th year. Usually, her daddy & I have to be right on top of her. Reminding her over and over again what's due when. She's an awesome student. She's just like us in that we hate this time of year. Knowing that this past weekend was our last weekend to work on it, we had to hurry & conduct her experiment. She wanted to know if different types of turf affect speed at all. Her variables were field, track, and concrete. She lined up her runners: herself, Bear, Big D, and the BFFs. So we all met up at the school and it was COLD. The wind was fierce and the degrees were low. But, everyone was a trooper and we got it done.

And, added bonus: Lamb can do her presentation on power point! No pesky science fair board to deal with this year. Alas, her power point isn't done yet. But, my mouth is firmly closed. She knows what needs to be done and when.

It has been so refreshing to just sit back and let them keep up with the time frame.

Next year, I'm hoping we are back to just one science fair project.