Sam's Science Project

I for one am so glad last week is over. Can I just say I hate huge school projects!!! I think they are more work for the parents than the students and I KNOW I was a lot more stressed about getting it done than Sam. I thought I was done with school when I graduated from college. They didn't tell me that I would be repeating grades K-12 four more times.

At back to school night we learned that Sam would have two major projects. The first one was for science. We knew that Sam would be responsible to build a 3-D model of the solar system. I guess we could have gotten a jump start on the project and started that very night on the project. However, when you are doing a huge project like that, seriously, where would you store it??? Especially in our house where none of Sam's three siblings would leave it alone. We also found out that Science is not one of the major subjects that are taught. In fourth grade, Sam would get Science the first semester whenever they could fit it in between the regular curriculum. We also learned that he science grade would only consist of three things. One was a booklet, one was this 3-D model, and the last was a test.

Let me tell you a little bit about this booklet. It was about 25 pages. It had a page for one of each of the plants. (Yes, they were counting Pluto.) Then there were a few additional pages for other "space" things. Then with each page they had to write, there was a page they had to correspond that went with the page they had just written. The writing was pretty easy. The teacher would put on an overhead what they were to write (basic facts about the plants, the climate, how big it is, what color it is, etc.). All the students had to do was to copy it in their best handwriting. This was supposed to be a project that they should have been able to complete in class. I had volunteered and subbed in Sam's class enough to know all about this booklet and had actually seen Sam's progress on this booklet. So at this point the booklet is the very least of my worries.

About the first of October, we decided to talk with Sam in more depth about what he would like to do for his 3-D project. Sam decided to do his project out of Styrofoam balls. We went and bought the stuff he needed for his project and started gradually working on this project. We knew we were going to be out of town for Halloween and so he wouldn't have the weekend before the project was due to work on it. I was still feeling pretty good about his progress on this project. I felt like we had planned really good and should only have to spend a few hours the week after Halloween, assembling it and adding the finishing touches.

Little did I know my world was about to come crashing down on Tuesday afternoon. Keep in mind that I teach piano lessons every afternoon until about 5:00. It is all I can do to get dinner on the table, manage four children, and do the basic homework and reading that needs done every night. Bryon usually gets home between 6:30 and 7:00. Bryon usually works on cleaning up the kitchen while I finish up homework and get kids ready for bed. Anyway, on Tuesday after school Sam happened to call and find out where Bryon was because Bryon wasn't in his office. Sam said in passing something about his big science booklet got ripped up by two boys in the class. I was LIVID! I told Sam to have Bryon call me before they left school. I was going to have Bryon go in and talk to Sam's teacher. There was no way I was going to make my child do more work all because two boys decided to rip up his paper. Luckily Bryon ended up calling me about something totally different. He never did get the message from Sam. Strike one for Sam! So Bryon and Sam went to talk to the teacher. Bryon went in with his guns blazing. It didn't take him long for the teacher to shoot him down. The story wasn't exactly what Sam had told us.

I am going to do a little side note here for my parents. This story is seeming an awful lot like one I think my parents will remember quite well. It seems to me that there was an experience they had with me in high school where they too went to a teacher to defend me, only to find out what they had been told was NOT AT ALL WHAT HAPPENED! I think the only thing that would have made this experience sweeter for my parents would have been me being the one to go in to the teacher in this situation instead of Bryon. Then I would have known exactly how they felt!

Anyway, the teacher informed Bryon that she was quite surprised that she didn't hear from us on Monday instead of Tuesday. What??? Oh yes, she had the kids that weren't very far on their packet call their parents. Did I ever get a phone call??? Oh, no. Sam conveniently called my cell phone! The only problem is Sam knew all too well that my cell phone went through my parents washing machine and wasn't working. He later informed me he left a message. I doubt that. I dialed in to listen to my messages and there wasn't any message from him. STRIKE TWO!! The teacher was very doubtful that these boys had actually torn up Sam's packet. She said she could see them doing it to a few other kids in the class but not to Sam. She said she had been questioning him for about three weeks about his packet. He kept telling her that he had left it at home, lost it at home, etc. As we were working on painting the planets, we asked him to bring this booklet home so we could get some information to help on the 3-D project. He told us, he wasn't allowed to bring it home or he kept forgetting to bring it home. The excuses went on and on. So Bryon and the teacher ended up working on an agreement. The packet was due not on Friday but actually on Wednesday, THE VERY NEXT DAY. What we had less than 24 hours to complete this massive packet they had been working all semester!!! She would accept Sam's packet up until Friday but every day he didn't turn it in, she would be deducting points. They were also taking a test on Wednesday. They could use their booklet for the test. She would give Sam until Monday for the test but she would still deduct points for not taking it on time.

When Sam got home from school, I was livid! I happened to only have piano until 3:30 p.m. I called and told them I would be coming to mutual and then Sam and I buckled down to get this massive booklet complete. I was a stickler. I made him use his best writing and if it wasn't his best I would erase it and make him write it over. We pretty much worked on it nonstop from 3:30 until 9:00 that night. I think Sam's hand hurt by the time we were done from writing and coloring so much. Sam kept talking about this "choke collar" that Bryon and I placed around his neck. He told us we were pulling it so tight he could hardly breath. Of course this is all figurative, I would never put a choke collar around my child. . . Wait, now that I think about it, it does sound very tempting! I felt like saying, "You ain't seen nothing yet!" I tried to use this as a teaching example to teach that by not making good choices, it wasn't us that put that "choke collar" around his neck but his decisions. I am actually pretty hopeful that a lesson was learned this night!

Sam was so proud of his packet as he took it in and turned it in first thing the next morning. Sam got 100% on his packet. I was so proud of him. He even scored a 100% on the test that he took that afternoon with the rest of his class.

So on Wednesday and Thursday after school, I bet you can guess what we did. Yep, we worked on the 3-D project. A big thanks to Bryon who missed his Elder's Quorum meeting and working at the temple to prevent his wife from having a HUGE meltdown! Friday morning Sam took his 3-D project to school. Friday afternoon parents were invited to the school to look at all the fourth graders projects of the solar system. Sam told me Friday morning that the teacher told the kids that if their moms could, she would appreciate them bringing cookies for refreshments. So Friday in between my running, I hurried and baked some cookies to take. At 1:00, I picked Bryon up at the school and we went to see Sam's project. He did such a great job. Here of Sam in his class with his project.

While I was stressed out all last week about this 3-D project and ended up stressing about a booklet that I shouldn't have had to worry about, I am so proud of Sam. He did a wonderful job.