Science Fair Projects

You may be wondering what inspired this post. As we just got through the holiday season many parents and their children where discussing their science projects. Operative word THEIR. I realized that though my son is a straight "A" student, does 2 hours of homework a night and sometimes brushes up before school again, we as parents have been actively engaged in doing 3 science fair projects. Now I don't want Jason to be offended because he has worked hard on all of them!! However so has Tom Knapp (chief planner) and I'm in charge of computer stuff (sounds high tech, like printing headings etc...).

Right away you realize in order for your child to really do well it has to be a family affair. Not a bad thing mind you. It's good to be involved with your childs education. Where it gets out of control is when the parents start competing and taking the project on as their own. You know which ones they are. As you cruise the library previewing all that these great little minds have come up with, they stand out and say look at me!

For those of you who have never had the good fortune of seeing one, they are done by professionals. They include graphic design, photo shopped pictures, a hypothesis in 4 languages, and about $100 worth of bling!

You know this all started in kindergarten when your child was given a heart to color and decorate. My kids heart would come back in a kaleidoscope of colors all outside the lines. That's okay, they were so proud and so were we. Ahhh, but there were others. There were the ones that were outlined in a dark shade of red, lightly colored inside, for extra detail gems were added at strategically chosen locations, often times glitter was included and for the major over achieving parent it would be cut out and glued to a heart shaped doily. The kids job was to pass the appropriate craft tool to the parent on request.

What's the point? It's great to be involved. It's important to be involved! It's necessary to be involved!! So are the children. But remember they're kids.