A Good Day for The Dotter
posted in Gymnastics, OmegaDotter, Parenting, Science |Once upon a time at the dotter’s elementary school, the science fair was an “official” science fair, with formal judging. But then, Fifth Grade Teacher (name unknown) informs me, things just got too…unpleasant. It seems that there were parents who were doing most of the work for some of the kids, and that some of the parents were competitive and/or defensive, and things got Ugly. So the elementary school just ditched the idea of formal judging entirely.
Which is why our cruisin’ and perusin’ of the science fair last night, during “public viewing” hours, revealed to us that it was yet another instance where everyone gets a ribbon.
There were some cool projects–like the one where the kid tested his dog’s intelligence by freezing vinegar, water, and beef mush into ice cube trays, then presenting the dog with one of each arrayed at a random distance. Alas, the boy reports, his dog just went for whichever one was closest, whether it was (ew!) vinegar or (yum!) beef mush. Then there was the project where the kid experimented with whether listening to rock and roll or classical music would help her do homework better.
But we also had pretty lame projects. The kid whose mummy poster session was printed out direct from the internet, for instance. Or the poster project where the thing was done in PowerPoint printed on high-gloss paper, using words that no third-grader would use.
And hanging off each one was the little blue ribbon…
I left feeling somewhat grumpy that our culture requires everyone to get a trophy.
But then, when I picked up the dotter this afternoon, she was all aglow: she not only got the “participation” ribbon–she got the honkin’ big “Master Scientist” ribbon (woot!) plus a recommendation that she enter her project in the state science fair in Big City this weekend (double woot!).
And then, as she was leaving her gymnastics class this evening, her coach was handing out packets to selected kiddos in the class, and one was handed to her, too: an invitation to join the Level 3 Pre-Team.
And then, at family night at the school book fair this evening, OmegaDad managed to put in the highest bid in the silent auction on a huge stuffed horse, which is now ensconced on the dotter’s bed and graced with the name of Zoe.
A big day for the dotter. I am fairly bustin’ with pride. She done good.
In other news, the volcano blew up again and sent up a big plume this morning. The ash fall went south, instead of north like last time; so far, we have been blessedly free of ash fall here in Suburban Alaska. OmegaDad’s agency closed the Homer office for the afternoon, as one of the guys phoned in and said it was raining ash there. This is a groovy cool satellite picture of the ash plume extending out into the edges of the atmosphere, and this is just a purty picture of the volcano smoking.
