I have so far managed to not "help" with any school projects this year. Ivy had BEAR month (Be Excited About Reading) where the kids are supposed to do several cool projects about books they've read and I didn't help. At. All. Because I've been busy with Nathan, piano,... Besides it's HER project and it ended up OK so I felt vindicated for my lack of participation. I also didn't help with science fair projects--that apparently worked to Eva's advantage as she not only advanced to the district competition for the first time ever but also advanced to the regional competition. I didn't want to help with Reflections projects either so I convinced the PTA board that it would be super helpful to have a "submission clinic" where the Reflections committee prepares the art for submission. I was quite proud of myself, to be honest.
But Animal reports are due this week. Yay. The teacher sent a note home saying that they WOULD need parent help--we were supposed to sign a form and return it (which I didn't but I DID read it). Ethan has to construct a diorama, write a written report, and prepare an oral presentation. We've known about this for a long time but have procrastinated in order to prepare him for college because everyone knows that when you go to college you have so many projects and papers due all the time that you have to do them all at the last minute anyway. So we are responsible parents.
Last night we started (and finished) the diorama (Vince and I are both college graduates--we can start and finish big projects quite quickly now). It was really big because we decided that Vince would be the best person to help with the diorama and I would be the best to help with the written report--we made no determination about the oral presentation but I will try to go watch and smile encouragingly. Anyhow. The diorama turned out big. Because Vince was in charge and I am reminded of what Vince's Aunt Betty said about our coffee table: "It turned out bigger than you thought it would, didn't it--that's because those Olcotts always make everything big!" It's true.
Eva woke up this morning and was asking about the really cool features of the horned toad lizard diorama like the anthill, ants, prickly pear cacti, giant boulders, grasses, horny toad,... She said to me: "Why is it so big?" and then "Mom, how come you didn't make my animal diorama this cool?" She didn't wait for an answer to the first question because--duh--and I was a little surprised/hurt/sheepish/giggly when she didn't wait for the answer to the second question either. She just walked out of the room laughing. Rude. Just because when Eva did her animal diorama Vince was really busy and I helped with the whole project. Apparently even though her frog diorama included a pond with actual water and lily pads (among other things) it was neither large (true) nor cool (debatable since she thought it was cool at the time and said the other kids were ooohing and ahing) and doesn't compete with what Dad can produce. Not a huge surprise, I guess.
Now I have approximately 20 hours left to help Ethan finish that written report...
4 comments:
Way to prepare your kids for college! I once pulled an all-nighter starting and completing a project on a semester long behavior change... not procrastinating my homework. I think my professor gave me an A because he was humored by the fact the glue was still wet when I turned it in.
I think the frog project sounded cooler than the lizard one!! Go Linnea! I don't think that smiling encouragingly at the oral will prepare him for college. Maybe you should skip that. Bugs, let me introduce you to a hairdryer. You probably don't use one on your hair because it's so beautifully curly, but it can totally dry glue! I promise! (I graduated from college too.)
Denise--the frog project may SOUND cooler but the lizard one looks authentic and the frog pond was obviously a clear rubbermaid container and the lily pads were foam...
And now that you mention it Bugs would have been WAY more successful in college if she had known how to use a hair dryer!
Don't even get me started on the whole parent involvement with projects. What do you parents do who have more than 2 kids in school at once? "Hey kids! Tonight for FHE we are going to work on Weston's project and have a lesson on teamwork" Yep, that really happened. And I'm not even a procrastinator with this stuff. Trying to figure out what we are going to do when the other 2 get into school.
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