4th Grader's Invention

My daughter, who is in 4th Grade, was given an assignment to make an invention. And the teacher is really big on it being an ORIGINAL invention. I thought this assignment was pretty tough for a 4th grader, but what do I know!

So Audrey looked around the house for a problem that she could solve with her invention. I had to laugh when she told me what she had decided to invent. She said that the biggest problem in our house is messy catheters.... and she is probably pretty right!

It is NOT always this messy, we sort of let them pile up to make a point for the project.

So, my darling daughter, decided to make The Clean Catheter Station for her invention! I am proud of her for trying to help her brother keep his caths cleaned up instead of just always complaining that he messes up their bathroom!

This is what she came up with:

Instructions For Use:

Preparation For Use:

1)                 Put 5 squirts of soap or sanitizer in The Clean Catheter Station

2)                 Fill with water to the “Fill Line”

3)                 Place lid on tightly on The Clean Catheter Station

4)                 The Clean Catheter Station is now ready for use

Use:

5)                 After using a catheter, open the pop top lid and insert catheter into The Clean Catheter Station

6)                 Snap the pop top lid shut completely

To Clean Catheters:

7)                 Make sure lids are on securely

8)                 Holding your hand over the lid, shake The Clean Catheter Station for 30 second

9)                 Remove larger lid

10)            Pour catheters into drain station or the sink and rinse completely with hot water

11)            Place catheters on a towel to dry

12)            Rinse out The Clean Catheter Station with hot water.

13)            Use over again by returning to step one, as see above.

Catheter Chaos to CLEAN in one easy step with

The Clean Catheter Station!

My silly, cute and inventive 4th Grader strikes again!



DONE...... Finally!

Dang.... sometimes I think the kid's school projects are just exercises in ways to torture parents! I KNOW that they are to expand the kids world, but still....

So Audrey has been working on this horribly hard project for the last two weeks. Part of the problem has been how sick Nathaniel has been, and therefore how tired I have been. But another part of the problem is that the project was a creative art project that also needed to be a book report. My artistic daughter spent countless HOURS over planning and executing the details of her creativity, but didn't want to spend ANY time on the book report part!

Case in point: She needed to make a list of "ingredients" in the books she was reporting on. She took TWO HOURS to "write" the few words out in the MOST DRAMATIC handwriting EVER. The problem? Other than it took her FOREVER and drove me bonkers? You couldn't READ the handwriting because it was so dramatic! When I pointed this fact out to her the answer I got in return was "But it LOOKS beautiful and it adds visual power to the project." Seriously? Visual power from a third grader???

So we had to compromise.

I INSISTED that all the writing had to be done on the computer, and that she could not spend more time on the execution of the art than she spent on the execution of the report. Could have been a BAD compromise on my part.

See, my kid is pretty smart.

 I set a timer for how long it took her to answer the questions on the scratch paper, then type them all into the computer. Then the deal was she got to spend that long on the art too.

See a problem here?

Yup, you guessed it.

She DRUG out the writing part FOREVER to have FOREVER on her art.

Sigh.

Can't say I didn't try...

But the project is FINALLY done, and most of her planned "creativity" is still included in the project, yet it is readable enough for me to be OK with her turning it in.

So here it is, in all of it's glory:

I DID decide that this project was not a lesson in computer skills, so I helped with the formatting of the pages. That was a little over the top, but I did put everything where SHE told me to. And she TYPED all of the words, I just formated the pages so that they printed correctly.

Notice the words search in TEENY TINY letter that you need a magnifying glass to read, that was her plan! She was SO DETERMINED about that. Other than setting up the graph for her, and helping her to get all the words in there, I didn't help with this page. SHE put all those dang random letters in there! And she was HILARIOUS about the words she put in there NOT on her list.... her teacher's name, her school name, her name, thoughts about the project, the names she was calling her brother while he was picking on her during this project, ALL kinds of stuff. It was pretty funny to watch her.

And the BIGGEST plan of all: 

The spring loaded turtle that pops up when you open the box... my goodness she was so funny explaining that to the guy at the hardware store where we had to go buy a spring! He thought we were totally crazy I am sure!

It might have felt like it was going to KILL me to get through this project without hanging her, but it is DONE! Finally.....

Now I need a glass of wine!

Talent Show

It is time for the Spring Talent Show at the kids school, and of course Little Miss Diva was in it!

She and Kaia worked very hard to learn their dance and they did a GREAT job learning it!

I had lots of fun creating their costumes too!

(can you tell?)

Both girls looked darling up there in front of everyone... so brave for 8 year olds!

Now MY daughter had a DIVA day yesterday....

I should have KNOWN that she would pull a stunt!

And a stunt she did pull....

We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed... DANCING

Never ONCE did we discuss a microphone... they were supposed to be DANCING...

So you can imagine my surprise when she walked out on stage holding a microphone!

Ugh.....

The microphone did mess the dance up, but they were still cute....

Kaia did a great job.

Even if she kept looking at Audrey as if to say "WHAT is that crazy girl doing?"

Who can blame her???

So this first video clip is last night, the actual talent show...

The one where Audrey decided to be a DIVA :)

It's pretty darned cute, you should watch it!

BUT this second clip is the day before, at the dress rehearsal.

You should TOTALLY watch this one!
It shows how great both girls actually knew the dance and you can see how much hard work they actually put into this act!

Another year's talent show come and gone.

Another adorable Diva Queen on stage.

I love my daughter's daring to get up there and perform her heart out!