このあたりの小学校、中学校ではScience Fairが盛んらしい。小学生の娘はさっさとプロジェクトを済ませ（まだ親の言うことをよく聞く）提出したのは先月のこと。一方、中学生の息子のほうは、3月初旬から、「いつ提出期限なの？」、「何が必要なの？」と数限りなく聞くも、「まだダイジョブ、ダイジョブ」と妙にリズミカルに答えるだけ。一応、題材決めと実験だけはパパとふたりでやったものの、レポートの内容を考えたり、プレゼン・ボードの準備をしたりはちっとも進まない。4月はじめには1週間のスプリング・ブレイクがあったわけで、ぜひ休み中にある程度形にしておきなさいという親のアドバイスもむなしく、何もせずに終わる。そして4月の中旬も過ぎた頃、「ママ、明日、持って行かなきゃいけない！」 アホタレ！ 実は、彼にはアーロンというパートナーがいて、ふたりとものんきに構えていたらしい。すぐに、パパとやった実験結果を持ってアーロン宅に行く。そして1時間後、かなりビビって帰ってきた。アーロンは親にScience Fairのことを何も話していなかったらしい。しかもアーロンのお母さんは学校の先生。お母さんは完全にキレた！定規を持って怒りまくり、アーロンの頭をバシッ！定規は折れた。息子曰く、「ママの50倍おっかなかった。」 それは、相当おっかなかったろう。。 ということで、アーロンのお母さん、キレてくれてありがとう。それからというもの、二人で心を入れ替えて準備をしたところ、最終の提出期限にはなんとか間に合い、立派なプレゼン・ボードとレポートが出来上がった。書いていることも、なかなかマトモ。親が手を出さなくても、友達と協力してこんな立派な仕事ができるんだぁとちょっと感心した主人と私でした。しかしながら、この期限ギリギリは誰かさんの血だねえ。。。It seems Science Fair is a big thing around here. Our daughter in elementary school worked hard on it and turned it in already in March (interpretation; she still listens to her parents). On the other hand, our son in middle school is a tough one to handle. I have been asking him when the due is or what materials he needs, and he kept saying, "It's ok. We still have plenty of time." Somehow, my husband persuaded him to pick a topic and did a little experiment with him, which was good, but that was that and no more progress. He had a week long spring break in the beginning of April, but he simply ignored my advise to do at least a part of the work during the break. Then one day past mid April, he came home saying, "Mom, it's due tomorrow!" I totally pretended I did not hear him. Actually he had a partner, Andrew, for the project. That afternoon he rushed to Andrew's with his experiment results. Andrew was even worse than our son. His parents was not aware of the project until that time (which is the day before the preliminary due date), and his mother was a school teacher. She LOST it. She smashed Andrew on his head with a ruler, and the ruler got broken off. According to our son, "she was 50 times frightening than you are at those moments." ... and that did the trick. After that, the two boys dropped everything and worked on it really hard. They barely made the final due. The presentation board looked quite cool, and the report was pretty well written. My husband and I were a little surprised (in a good way) to see how well those two boys worked together to produce a quality work. Kids grow while you are not aware. However, this VERY last minute thing I cannot take ... I know whose blood it is.
