The Science Fair

Ok so (we) Kyle signed up to enter the science fair like 6 weeks ago. It was open to any kind of project he wanted that had anything to do with science.......His first choice was (enthusiastically) a Volcano...mom doesn't know how to help make a volcano. I suggested a poster all about his bee keeping and the importance of bees. (we have tons of bee keeping pictures he could use). "ummmm.......NO!"

So I searched the Internet for science projects that would be easy enough for a first grader to create, and still know what the heck it was about. ---found the Volcano ..... sounded expensive .... acted like I didn't find the volcano.

I did find a Rock Candy experiment. Kyle thought it sounded cool, so we attempted it. we used lots and lots of sugar....a little bit of water......boiled the crap out of it until it was a syrup....then put it in a jar with string hanging down. (we followed the directions). We waited like 2 weeks for the "crystals" to start climbing up the string to start forming the "rock Candy"........ then we waited another week .......... NOT even one crystal formed. BAD science project!

So then we were down to like two and 1/2 weeks left. ummm... we were pretty lax about it.

Thursday night after we finished Homework, I mentioned to kyle that we needed to decide quickly about the science project.
Kyle: How many days left?
Me: 4 days!
Kyle: We should have started this sooner!
me: No kidding!

I so perfectly popped the idea of the bees back into his head. I reminded him that we had all the pictures, and he could bring in a jar of our honey, and a piece of the comb, and his bee net hat. I also reminded him that the judges would be going around asking questions about the projects and the kids are supposed to be able to answer them. - He would have no trouble talking about the bees. He is an expert now.

He agreed to make it his science project (UN-enthusiastically). I was relieved - No! not because I had won.....but because I knew it would be easy for me him.



Over the weekend, we traveled to AC Moore to get our supplies....glue dots, yellow poster board, foam board, and a fresh set of markers. (the ride home from this shopping trip deserves it's own post due to the fact Kerrigan was miserable - we found out why in the car - she puked all over herself (the real stinky kind) her car seat and her bag of lunch. I had to pull over, kyle climbed out quickly while gagging, I stripped her naked, sat her on a sweatshirt back in her seat, and had my mother continue driving us the rest of the way while I sat in the back with a plastic bag, "catching" the 2 more puke episodes. - not fun)



Kyle had a great time with the glue dots. Some of them were even used on the poster. He also insisted on drawing some of his own pictures....... it was a great Idea! - then in his own words, he described each of our pictures and the importance of the bees. This part was not his favorite... oh he had such "hand cramps after all that writing" boo hoo. (somewhere around the eleventh hour of him whining about all the writing, I was wishing we had just done the damn Volcano!).

Here is the finished project.......

Notice Kyles original artwork in the middle section. ( this was our first big project - it was a little hard for mom to let him do it without help. All I did was make sure the pictures were pretty straight.)

The things on the table are a jar of our honey and a piece of the honey comb. Kyle wore his bee keeping hat during the whole fair. (I couldn't get a picture of him with his project because it was extremely crowded in that little library with 15 to 20 science projects + the kids and their families.

I was VERY happy when I noticed that 5 other children had done Volcanoes ....... and none of them won.

Kyle didn't win either........1st, 2nd and 3rd place got gift certificates to a book store.......but he did get a certificate for participating, and a little bag of goodies with some gross goopie stuff that he was very happy with. On the way home, I told kyle I think he was a winner because he did something original. No one else had a bee project, and everyone that walked by was genuinely interested in his poster and his hobby. (deep down I was happy he didn't blame me for not winning...since I did have to coax him into the bee idea....phew.)

Another thing I learned about the school science fair?- never bring kerrigan again!!!!! - She was a little monster. - She wanted no part of being cooped up in that library..... She finally coped when I took her to the little kids book section and let her pick out her own books......I pity the librarian that had to deal with that aftermath.

Vivian was an angel :0)