“Mom, I have a science project that is for extra credit. I don’t want to do it.”
Two days later: “Everybody else is doing it, and people will think I’m stupid if I don’t do it.”
Next day: “I left the instructions at home.”
Next day: “I left the plants at the cabin.”
So, two days before the project is due, I tried to figure out how to help her get this “extra credit” project done. Grumble, grumble.
How do we assemble a terrarium when we live in a two-bedroom apartment?? I’m not going to go buy *bags* of gravel, sand and soil to make this. I tried to come up with ways we could scavenge the bits she needed. Luckily, I did have an empty ball jar (who needs corn starch anyway?).
Finally, I hit on brilliant idea. We joined the Oakhurst Community Garden when we moved into an apartment precisely so that we could “get our green thumb on” if we ever felt like it. So, with ball jar humbly in hand, we stopped by yesterday and asked for assistance. As it happens, the woman we talked to actually has a son in Chloe’s class and happily helped us get the terrarium assembled…
Another crisis averted. As a bonus, I learned they take household kitchen compost too!
I am afraid you will find that “projects” are a regular thing! We’ve had many this year. Some examples: An ecology board game, a fossil thing where he had to research the fossil and then write a story as if he was the fossil, a file folder where the cover had to be done with artwork and then a long list of items that had to be in the folder, and I could go on. I keep poster board on hand (under the bed) because that is needed often. I often think “What do they actually do AT school?”