We have a wonderful homeschooling community/group we belong to in our town called CHEACC: Christian Homeschooling Educators Association of Collier County. Every year they have a project fair in March and any homeschooler of any age can participate and make a project on any topic. We told Hunter he was required to participate in this event and he could choose any topic he wished as long it had an academic focus. The boy is crazy for any type of weapon or fighting machine used in wars, so he chose the topic: "The Weapons and Vehicles of World War II" and used the side bars of the project board to post general information about World War II.
We purchased our board weeks in advance and began the planning of our layout and what would be covered. Hunter found great books on WW II weapons and tanks at the library and spent a great deal of time reading and studying them.
A week or two before the fair we had an opportunity to submit some photos of Hunter working on his project to the local newspaper.
He had one weapon all written up, so I snapped some
photos of him putting his information on the board.
We thought the article was going to be published the week before the fair to get interest going in it, but it turns out it was published on the actual day of the fair. Hunter's photo was in the article and we were so proud to see it!
Hunter (and I) worked diligently on getting it done in the weeks prior to the day of the fair. I printed all the headings for him and helped him with putting the
information together in sentences. He had to write two to three drafts for
each piece of written information on the board. It was a lot of
writing, but he plowed through like a champ. I was very proud of him.
He worked so hard.
We finished by the hairs of our chinny-chin-chins on the day of the fair around 3:30 in the afternoon. The fair started at 6:30 or something. Hunter was so excited to see the finished product come together and show it to Nathanael when he got home from school that day.
We arrived at the fair and found his spot. There were nearly 100 projects at the fair that night! Hunter was right next to this boy who constructed a nice, loud horn with a button on a piece of plywood. The many children visiting our area took great delight in pressing the horn's button and marveling at the incredibly loud sound it made. It got a little old after about 3 minutes. Ha!
Hunter had the job of telling the visitors who stopped by all about the tanks and weapons that were presented in his project.
Meanwhile, I gave Nathanael my Ipad and told him to go around and take photos of all the cool things he saw at the project fair. Here are some of his photo highlights:
The photo of the project below was made by a boy who was the nephew of a local soldier named Mark Scialdo that was killed in a helicopter crash last year. As a matter of fact,
a blog post I did last year shows photos of the boys and I waving flags on the side of the road at his funeral procession.
Nathanael thought it was a really cool project.
Here are several more photos of what Nathanael thought were the highlights of the fair:
While Nathanael was off visiting his favorite projects, Levi found his favorite and didn't move an inch from it. The boy stood, mesmerized in front of this RC vehicle display and watched the truck go around and over and down this little mud mountain over and over and over and over and over again. He stayed there watching for quite a long time and we had to tear him away from it when we were ready to move on to something else. Then he went back to it after that for a while longer....
And during all this time Hunter was busy telling everyone
all the fascinating facts of the weapons and tanks of World War II.
I got an opportunity to go around and take photos of my favorite projects:
Fallen Soldier and Uncle of CHEACC Student: Marc Scialdo
This guy made homemade gum from a Sapodilla tree!
It was delicious and he had a variety of flavors. Hunter told me later that some gum has plastic put it as an ingredient and asked me if we should make our own gum from now on.
**SIGH**
He is his mother's son.
This was a really cool project that explored the possibilities of the type of fish that swallowed Jonah.
Hunter's longest friend since babyhood, Christopher,
did his project on the science of paper airplanes!
Nathanael spent time making a magnet out of clay.
This project was very interactive and lots of fun.
LOVED this project! The history of Trader Joes.
There were a couple of projects that I wish I would have taken a photo of, but didn't. One was all about how hydraulics work and this little girl had some really cool, hands-on examples. Very impressive. There was another one where a sibling team used petri dishes to see how much raw chicken bacteria was left after they cleaned a surface with various cleaners. Excellently done.
There was a kindred spirit directly across the aisle from Hunter. He had an unusual name and I can't for the life of me remember what it was, but he was 12.
Hunter thoroughly enjoyed this boy's project: The History of WW2 Aircraft. You could tell he did it all by himself and he did a wonderful job!
He and Hunter had a good time comparing notes.
At the end of the night every participant was given a cool bag of goodies and a certificate.
Hunter was very excited to get those things.
We were so proud of Hunter and all the hard work he put into this project. Our goal is that he would participate every year and become more and more independent with completing his project.
Great job, Hunter! We love you!
