Another Rung

Since I never did a Science Fair project growing up, the whole process is new to me. June (as you learned before) moved on to the district level from her classroom. She was very excited. I was....less so. The good news is that I have been very honest with her from the start. I have told her that although I want her to do well, I really don't like all the extra shuttling around and setting up.

A few days ago, we took June's project over to a High School and set up in the afternoon. Later, we returned so the students could sit by their projects and be judged. During this time (an hour and a half) the parents had to wait outside. Then, everyone was allowed to walk around and view all the projects. This was pretty cool. It was neat to see all the ideas that had moved on. (I wish I had taken more pictures. I know I am going to need good ideas later.) Here is June by her project.

Another hour and a half later, they had the awards ceremony. (This is why I was not so thrilled. It was 9 o'clock at night. I wanted the other girls to come see the projects, but that is a little late for them. Plus, Tyler was sick, so it was just Junie and me this time around.)

I think there were about 235 projects. 55 kids would move on to the next level and 25 kids would get an honorable mention.We all sat in a large auditorium and they announced the honorable mentions first. Even with all my humbugging, I will admit that I suddenly very much wanted June to move on to the next level. I knew it would make her so happy. And what parent doesn't want their child to stand out and do well?

They called each name by announcing the school first, so every time they said the name of June's school, my stomach would get tight waiting for the following name. I was also excited because I know a lot of the kids in June's class. I was hoping they would do well also.

June did not get an honorable mention. So that meant she would move on, or get nothing at all. We sat on the edge of our seats while they started to read those who would move on. They weren't in any particular order. They would just call ten or so names at a time and then let people clap and take pictures. Then the announcer would tell a joke or story and then read another ten names.

Then it happened. They called her name. Like I said, she was super excited. As a strange coincidence, there was a boy from her class, whose project had been next to hers, and he happened to sit in the same row as us, and he was called up at the same time. That was pretty cool. So I got a picture of them on the stage together. (Gotta love pictures off my phone.)

Yes, I am very excited for her. The next step is getting to take a day off school and take her project to BYU. I think I'll stop complaining and just go with the flow. I don't expect June to move much further anyway, simply because her project doesn't deal with major issues such as world hunger or innovative science, but I'm proud of what she has done. And I know she is an amazing kid.