Science Fair

Last night was Miss M's school announced the results of her sciece fair. She didn't get a ribbon, and she cried. Poor sweetie.

I wish we could say we did the best we could do with the science fair - we did okay, but not our best. I say "we" because it's Mr. Mac and me involved, as well as Miss M. She has to do a lot of the work, but we have to enable that work, and assist her with it. Frankly, at the ripe age of 8, we have to do a lot of the organization of the boards for her and help her get letters cut out.

At the end of the day, however, Miss M's efforts weren't those of the other kids who had older siblings who've done it in the past. I think I've got a plan for the coming years: do the experiment over the summer and work with her to get it learned, down pat, during the fall - the day to learn the project and understand its results isn't the day before the science fair judging. I also think that we need an experiment that comes with more built-in props than the one we had.

She views herself as a scientist, which as a 3rd grader is admirable. I viewed myself as a farmer at that point in my life (maybe I should've listened to that ambition?). I think Mr. Mac still viewed himself an astronaut. I want to encourage her as much as possible to excel in her chosen field, but we also struggle with getting her to also excel elsewhere. She says she wants to go to Duke, and I think that's a great goal. But, we tell her, getting into Duke starts in Kindergarten - you have to learn HOW to study in order to be a good student in high school. You have to make excellent grades, very high on your tests, and also get people to recommend you to go there. The mere fact that Daddy, Granddad, Auntie H, and I went there will matter very little. It's that hard.

But she says it's what she wants, so we will keep on trying to help her learn the skills it will take to get there. And also try to make sure her goals are on par with what she can expect. Let's shoot for the moon - just making sure it's the right moon for us! :-)