Looks like a second grader did that!

Today was the annual reading fair competition at my girls' school. They're seven. They're in second grade. They notice things. That's why I felt like a horrible parent as I walked out the front door of the school, leaving them to defend their poster boards. You see, when we entered the gym, where the fair was to take place, my jaw dropped. I had never before witnessed such an incredible display of artwork and mastery of books from first through third graders. A fleeting thought passed through my mind that I should have pushed my kids to do better, until the rational part of my brain took over; obviously there is no way a second grader could have created these boards. This is about how I felt,

 

 

and when I glanced down at my daughters, I'm pretty sure we looked something like this.

 

 

 

Over the past three weekends I have been hounding my kids to work on their boards. I went out and bought two folding boards, a bunch of sticky letter, and some stencil tracings, and told them to get to work. Now, obviously I had to go over the elements needed, and do some advising, but it was up to them to come up with the plot, the conflict, the solution, find the publisher and publishing date, figure out the author's purpose, and determine the mood/tone. They also had to figure out where they wanted to put everything on the board, and draw all the pictures. The only thing I outlined for them was a dragon for one board, and a trophy for the other. There wasn't even a trophy in the story, but that's what she wanted, so that's what I did. Anyway, when my husband saw the dragon on the board he said, "They're going to know she didn't draw that. It's too good." Good point. So I made sure the girls knew to tell the judges I had drawn the dragon and the trophy.

 

Well, I'm sure you can imagine my surprise, then, when we entered the gym and found posters with 3-D cardboard cutouts, colored tissue paper perfectly glued to mimic grass and clouds, carved wooden accessories to compliment the stories, and so much more I can't even continue. One sweet dad came over to check out our boards, and said, "Oh, I like the dragon." I just felt like crying, and I felt like I owed my kids some kind of explanation, but I really didn't know what to say. So I found the librarian, who is in charge of the fair, and apologetically explained the situation. It went something like this, "Hi, so, I'm Mari and Vidya's mom, and I didn't realize that parents were supposed to help so much with the poster boards. And, well, theirs look like second graders did them." Yes, I actually said that, and it wasn't until the words left my mouth did I realize that I was apologizing for the hard work of my daughters.

 

That's when I finally figured out what to say to my sweet daughters, and they just beamed with pride as I went on and on about their beautiful projects, the hard work they put into them, and how proud I was of them.

 

 

It took a six mile run with a good friend, and some of her homemade sweets, to finally put things into perspective, but I got there. I wanted to write this post before I found out what grades they received or whether they placed, because I didn't want it to be an excuse for not doing well, or a subtle message to parents about the importance of letting your kids do the work. I want my kids to succeed, and do the best they can, but more importantly I just want them to try. You never know what you're capable of until you give it a try. Most importantly, though, I hope they are proud of what they accomplished. They certainly didn't have the prettiest or most interesting boards, but a lot of hours, frustration, and tears went into those projects, and they deserve every bit of recognition for it.