This year, my 5th grader, Mr. Minecraft (MM for short),  was required to participate in the school science fair. Just the mention of doing his own science fair project made MM extremely happy. He told me how awesome this was going to be. MM truly loves science and is excited any time they do  experiments in class.

The trick was to come up with an experiment. I knew that I could be super helpful in this department. After all, I did two science experiments and went to state finals. So, there you go…a bonafide expert. I told him about my projects and the painstaking research (pre-computer age, which meant going to the library and gasp reading books!). It took days to come up with each of the projects.  After my schpeel, MM set to work searching on my laptop. After about an hour, he announced he had found his project. Really, you found one already? He was excited to tell me about it.

MM decided to race six toy cars down a ramp to see which one goes the fastest. I asked…and then what? MM said that’s it. I then proceeded to try to add to his project. How about we add weight to the cars?  Oh I know, let’s race them on different surfaces. Or, we could build a maze and just race one. Or…

Ok, I finally did realize how out of hand I was getting. But only after MM stopped my continuous suggestions with a reminder about whose project it really was. Of course he was right. It wasn’t my project.

So, I had to try extra hard to sit on my hands and let him do it all on his own. It was really hard and I did slip up. Now, if you just put your conclusion on this side of the board, it will look better. That isn’t cut or glued down straight, how about I just help you fix that. Ok, so obviously  it was really hard for me to let go.

In the end, MM did all of the work himself, and it looked great. The science fair was packed with people and very successful. After it was all over, I told MM how proud I was of him. On the way home, I asked him if he had fun doing it. MM said he was glad it was over and it wasn’t as fun as he thought it would be. I asked him why. He said it was just like working really hard on a long job and not getting paid for it. I told him you better get used to that. And I have to get used to letting him do his own work and grow up.