Okay, peeps.
Despite big intentions, I accomplished a lot less than I planned to, yesterday. OYE.
And, not for lack of trying!
I just kept running in to roadblocks with everything on my list. Which netted out to a whole bunch of partially-completed to-do's, which is pretty much my personal nightmare.
So…instead of completing a tiny portion of something that I wouldn’t be able to finish, I decided to shift gears and try to tackle another backlogged post. Of course, I started this draft, and never finished, ha.
But here I am, back at is while I wait on Chica at her orthodontist appointment. Multi-tasking for the win! ;)
So...this particular post is an ode to Little Man and his recent 2nd place Science Fair win! Woohoo!
For some context…last year was the inaugural Science Fair at our elementary school and though the idea of it was super fun, we all sort of muddled through it, not understanding the expectations and the completion plan for school versus home.
As it’s only for 4th and 5th graders, Chicklet participated (all kiddos in those grades are required to), but not Little Man—yet.
But, this year, was his chance, and he was excited for it!
Having learned a few things the hard way, last year, I suggested Little Man work alone instead of in a group. Kind of a bummer, but hands down the right choice (and he agreed). It just streamlined the process and made everything soooooo much easier. Including the main challenge of selecting his experiment.
We spent a week or two mulling over ideas. He pulled up some of his favorite online engineering videos and really noodled on some recommendations for what might make a good project. It was cute to watch him really give it careful thought.
Then, the following week, when I helped him pull together a handful of his top ideas to consider and rank, he immediately loved the idea of playing with…ANTS.
More, specifically: Which sweetener do ants prefer?
So fun.
He pulled together a handful of different granular options, water for control, and a liquid sweetener (agave), as well.
Then we hunted for a great ant pile (conveniently, on our property, ha), and set out the sweeteners before slightly agitating the pile with a stick.
He kept an eye on the sweeteners over a three hour time period, and it was fascinating to find that the ants were hands down attracted to the liquid sweetener!
Turns out, liquid sustenance is easier for ants to consume and bring back (and even regurgitate, yikes!) for other ants. Fascinating!
So…Little Man did the experiment, logged the results, then kind of worked on the project a bit at school (building Canva slides), but…the whole thing was due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which mean a lot of hustle and assembling just before we needed to go out of town for the holiday.
Nothing like tackling a major school project whilst packing suitcases, ha.
Luckily, we made it a really fun and joyous morning, printing out the Canva slides he’d created on some colored paper, then laminating and art directing it all on his tri-fold board.
We so rarely have time for crafting, these days. Believe it or not, this actually filled the void of that, just a little bit. Accidental positive. ;)
After gluing on some 3-D ants and finalizing all the details, Little Man was pretty stinking pleased (and silly, ha).
The next week, after he brought his project to school and all the students put theirs on display, as well, Little Man came home a little downtrodden, like he might not have a chance to snag an award for his work. And, for some reason, that was really important to him for this project.
We spent some time talking about the joy of the process and not any awards, and I made sure to build him up over a job well done, but when we attended the evening showcase where the winning projects would be revealed, I was really worried he might have a hard time masking any disappointment.
So…lo and behold, what a stinking JOY it was to locate his board and see the 2nd place ribbon he had been awarded! Amazing!
He was sooooo stinking excited, but also did a great job of containing it and not acting braggadocios, and it made my Mama heart so happy to witness his quiet pride. :)
And, the hubby was able to make it for the showcase, too, so it was lovely to see Little Man show off his work and award.
All said and done, it was a really lovely project to work on, together, and a lesson about finding joy in the journey and not the destination (but then celebrating the destination, too!).
Little Man is already scheming about a fun project idea for next year, so here’s to keeping the positive vibes going!
