Kindergarten Science Fair

My child is in Kindergarten and she worked on project and entered the science fair. I didn't ask her if she wanted to (it's not required until third grade). Instead, she brought a note home stating when the science fair was and I signed her up.

I know nothing about science fairs. I vaguely remember one science fair I entered in elementary school. I couldn't tell you what I entered but I remember working on the project and not really understanding what I was supposed to be doing. But I do remember enjoying laying out the text in Word or Note Pad or some similar software (of the few times I was allowed on the computer in elementary school), figuring out the right size so it would print large enough to see but small enough to fit on the board. All precursors to my graphic design career. In fact, thats what I remember most about all of my school projects—the crafting.

Having a Kindergartener enter the science fair seems overboard for a kindergartener. How much will she actually understand? How much extra work will I be doing as a parent? But really, why wouldn't I have her start this young. She asks a ton of questions, why not show her how to find the answers in a hands on way. And thats what we did.

This kid joins me everywhere. It's a habit I have made sure sticks. It used to be out of necessity. Being a single mom in a state thousands of miles away from a huge, reliable support system, she would end up with me taking her to classes, meetings, and appointments. I had to build my life around that being okay in order for us to not just struggle and survive but to thrive.

Now we live a whole heck-of-a-lot closer to an ultra supportive community that loves to hangout with her on the regular but I've seen the benefit of bringing her along that I continue to do so.

All of that to say, she came with me to a Backyard Farming series put on by the County and a local non-profit about composting. She sat through the lecture portion (completely bored until she started reading her book). It definitely was not kindergarten level stuff. Not until we got to go outside where we were both able to listen and I could translate what was going on into relevant scenarios that happen in our own home.

I came up with the theme of the project in relation to her going to this "adult lecture" on composting. I wanted to play with the idea of patterns in learning. It's not just about absorbing knowledge, it's about learning how to learn.

But really, I was mostly excited about going out for coffee a couple of times because you know, I needed these cups to create separate compost containers (/s).

My pride and joy got hands-on with this project. She made her own mini compost containers from plastic to-go cups that previously help a delicious pumpkin cold brew. She observed changes weekly, wrote short sentences and a few illustrations about what she observed.

When it was time to put together her presentation board I cut up one of our old moving boxes that was going to make its way to the curbside recycling cart. I pulled out some white paper from the printer and lightly made guiding lines for her to transcribe from her notes in pencil and again in magic marker. More handwriting practice. I cut the papers to fit and we glued them together. All along the way I would ask her questions about her project, testing her comprehension

She got 4th place (out of 5 total kindergarteners who participated).

Her handwritten presentation board made of recycled moving box was dwarfed in comparison to her classmates. You can see in her overwhelmed eyes, she was very aware. And in that loud, crowded gym, I hugged her and told her how proud I was of her for how hard she worked. My kindergartener was in the science fair.