Science Fair

The West View Elementary Science Fair is upon us. Guy U and I have agreed to chair it again for the PTA. Not that anyone else wanted or asked us to do it. We just took interest in it last year after hearing some complaints about way things were run and we were willing to work with the teachers to make changes. At first, there was the fear of whether we'd get some backlash regarding any modifications, but surprisingly enough the teachers here are very accommodating. "You want to change the judging rubric? Sure! You want to split out the information packets? Go for it!" Of course, I did sense a little frustration when some of the changes didn't go as smoothly as planned, but we learn from our mistakes. We also have lots of volunteers who are very willing to help and have great suggestions. You never know if you're going to get stuck working with people who either don't give a rat's ass about the entire situation or fight you every step of the way. Even our temporary principal has given us the thumb's up for every idea.

Asia, as usual, wasn't sure what she wanted to do for the science fair. At first, she was going to show how to make a home-made lava lamp. Then she heard from me that there were some other kids that were doing the same thing. (Evidently other moms read the same Family Fun magazine that I do!) So Asia started to veer towards doing something with eggs. Last year she did a project in Mrs. S's class with turning an egg all rubbery by soaking it in vinegar. This prompted Asia to have her science project about what makes eggs the worst - Sprite, water, vinegar, Coke. You'd think it was the vinegar, but from the outside, Sprite made the egg look all cracked and bloated and yellowish. With the vinegar, at least the egg still looked like an egg. So this year, I looked for projects with eggs again and we found one where you can make an egg float by putting salt in the water. Asia then tried to see if she could get a glass bead or quarter to float. She used about 15 teaspoons of salt and no luck. John noted that if she put enough salt in it, the egg would definitely seem to float. It'd actually be sitting on a mountain of salt. I started trying to explain density to my dear daughter and she started to get flustered. This past weekend we finally agreed on what her science project would be - what cereal will get mushy faster. Of course, she wanted to throw Sprite into the mixture, so instead of what cereal will get mushy faster in milk, it was what cereal will get mushy faster in Sprite. I was able to explain to her that most people eat cereal in millk so it would make more sense to measure cereal in milk rather than Sprite. Thankfully she agreed.

I remember when science fairs were less about consumer science and more about your usual science basics. Our family did projects such as how birds fly and a model radio kit. I have a picture of my friend Denny holding a huge conch shell to her head. Now the popular science projects are what popcorn pops the fastest or what diaper holds more water. I even found some science fair suggestions like what food makes you produce gas. Anything to make science more interesting for kids these days!

Today we started Asia's project by choosing the cereals for her experiment. She almost took the opportunity to buy all sugary cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms. I got her to agree on Froot Loops, Total, and Cheerio's. Right away, she thought that Froot Loops would get soggy last because it has a coat of sugar. I like how she knew that it was a sugar bomb. Then it was a toss-up between Cheerio's and Total. She doesn't usually eat Total corn flakes and she said she has had Cheerio's before when they were mushy. Based on past experience, she was going to choose Cheerio's as the first to get soggy but then after I insisted she look at the two cereals and munch on them first, she thought the Total will get soggy first because it's so thin. Tomorrow or this weekend, we start the experiment and we'll see just what cereal gets mushy first.

Zach's project is going to be on what cleans stains off glass better - Windex, Vinegar, or Soap and Water. The tough thing is we were going to use a pane of glass or something and put some hard stains on it - dried jelly, marker, but I was hoping we'd have something in the basement to use. I haven't found anything yet so I'll have to keep looking. I asked him to write in his journal today because it's required for experiments and he wrote one line - I hypothesize that vinegar will work better. Then he got carried away on to something else. It's tough drawing the line between how much you help your older child when you think he should be able to do some of these things on his own. Yet he sees how much time you spend with his younger sibling and you hope he doesn't read into that.

Well we'll see how things go as our science fair experiments progress.

Mothers Day

Yet another bittersweet Mother's Day. It's always tough around this time of the year because I usually have a band concert and Asia has a dance recital which is what brought my mom to come and visit one weekend two years ago so that she would get to see all these great things along with Zach's musical. She did see Zach's performance and Asia's dress rehearsal and dance recital. Unfortunately she had a heart attack before she could make it to my band recital. So every early May, a little part of me is really sad when I'm playing at my band concert or watching Asia's dance recital.

Sometimes I applaud my kids' teachers because I think if they didn't force their students to make a card for their mothers for Mother's Day, some mothers wouldn't get a thing for Mother's Day. Asia made this cute card with a little pin that had her picture on it. Her card reads:

"Roses are red. Violets are blue.
Look at the Sky. The sky loves you.
When the violets are blue I love you.
When roses are red that's when I love you as much as a circle is round."

Zach wrote a poem on a cut-out heart but thought it didn't look that great so he put half the poem on a heart card.

"No matter the cost
I am always there
I know what you're thinking
Your heart will not tear."

Where do they come up with this stuff? They're so good! You have to cherish this stuff now. Here's the two scenario's I envision when my kids are teenagers.

Scenario 1: Zach walks in my office and tosses me a card. "Here mom." He leaves quickly so that he can return to his computer game. It's a Hallmark card signed simply "Zach." My daughter walks into the room and gives me a flower, saying: "Happy Mother's Day! I'm going to the mall. Can I have some money?"

Scenario 2: I walk down the stairs to the smell of food cooking. Asia yells out, "Mom, have a seat at the dinner table. Enjoy a glass of wine!" Zach pulls out the chair so I can sit down. John is cooking something fantastic at the stove. Both children and dear husband sit down and we enjoy a delicious home-cooked dinner over great conversation. Relaxed. Unforced.

Ha ha ha! I can dream. Or I can start training them now for scenario 2! Kids, get in the kitchen now and cook me some food!

So back to reality, I spent some time on Mother's Day reading a book and relaxing on the couch. Not unlike most Sundays. I was reading "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" for my book club. Of course, I get to the part where the dad dies. It is just so well written and I know so well what narrator Francie is going through. She realizes that her Papa is gone. That she will never hear him come walking up the stairs singing a song. That all she has left of him is a shaving cup with his name on it. I couldn't help but get teary while reading that section. Then to top it off, later on John and I were watching the end of a movie on the Reel channel. It was an old movie with Ann-Margaret. She has 10 children and lives on a farm, but then she gets some kind of cancer that only gives her a little time left to live. Her husband is an alcoholic and has a hard time keeping a job, also because of his arthritis. He's not a bad dad but they know that he can't take care of the kids, so she decides to find parents for all ten children. Little by little she gives away each of her children. The hardest to find a home for is her 6 year old who has epilepsy. She ends up having to bring him to a children's home for retarded children. Just before she dies, she takes one last bus trip to see all of her children. You can tell that she's in a lot of pain and she is travelling, but she tries to hide it from her kids. As a somewhat happy ending, the 6 year old boy is adopted by a family who has already adopted one of the younger sons. And at the Mom's funeral, all the kids crowd around their dad because they realize now that he feels he has no one and they want him to remember that they're always a family. Gotta end in a happy note, right? Anyway, J and I were bawling our eyes out. Can you imagine having to give your kids away because you know you're dying! You have to watch Spongebob or something after that just to cheer yourself up.