The major project of Gabe’s 6th grade year is Egypt Day. The class studies ancient Egypt in history and each child does a report on a specific Egyptian topic. Gabe’s teacher, Miss Rokicki, warns all the parents about Egypt day during orientation each year, but most parents pay it little attention until it suddenly requires all of their attention.
The Egypt Day drama started on the day before the kids could choose their topics. Gabe pestered me in an attempt to get me to agree to bring him and his best friend, Riley, to camp out overnight outside the school in a tent.
“Miss Rokicki will be there at 6:40am for us to sign up for our topics. If we camp overnight in front of the doors, we will be first in line.” He entreated.
“No. You are not camping overnight for an Egypt Day topic.” I replied.
“It’s not fair! If I don’t beat Alexandra, she’ll choose mummies.” He complained.
“There is no way Miss Rokicki will be there at 6:40am and no other parents will be driving their kids there that early to choose an Egypt day topic. If Alexandra gets there and chooses mummies, you can do pyramids. You and Riley have spent the majority of your lives building things with legos and I am quite certain you would be the best fit for the topic of pyramids. The best I can do is get you there by 7:30 am, a half hour early.”
Gabe moaned and groaned and complained to everyone who would listen and to everyone who wouldn’t listen for the rest of the evening. The next morning we drove up to the school at 7:30am and all the girls in Gabe’s class were peering out the window to see who would arrive next. Gabe dashed in to discover that Alexandra had signed up for mummies and Riley was nowhere to be seen. I started texting Riley in an attempt to speed his progress. Almost every girl in the class had made it to school just after 7:00am. At 7:40am, another 6th grade boy arrived at the school. Before he could get in the door, Riley came running at a sprint around the corner of the school and dashed in front of him. Riley and Gabe signed up together for pyramids.
As soon as Gabe entered the van after school pickup on sign up day, he started complaining, “It’s not fair! Alexandra shouldn’t have been able to sign up for mummies without a partner present. Miss Rockiki said your partner had to be there if you wanted to sign up together. Justin didn’t get there until 8, and he signed up for mummies with Alexandra. Riley and I should have been able to take mummies. We were both there at 7:40.
I argued back that since one person in the class would have to do the assignment alone, Alexandra (the first to arrive) could possibly have had no partner and was justified to sign up alone. I told Gabe that if mummies meant so much to him, he had the choice to do mummies with Alexandra as his partner. His true choice was between his best friend and mummies. He disagreed vehemently with my opinion and moaned and groaned and complained to everyone who would listen, and to everyone who wouldn’t listen.
Later, I expressed my surprise to Alexandra’s mom about her early arrival time on Egypt Day topic sign up. She said, “She just wouldn’t stop asking. She would not leave us alone. We finally gave in. I don’t know why she and Gabe are so competitive against one another, but even if her motivation is solely to beat Gabe, it forces her to do well. My husband says if beating Gabe is the cause that gets her good grades. He wants to shake Gabe’s hand.”
The next task was researching and writing out source cards for the information gathered. This proved a process similar to pulling teeth. This took Gabe hours and hours and hours. Unlike me, he did not go to the library and check out books. Believing all information can be more easily attained via the internet, he wasted hours and hours and hours on line trying to find the information on websites ending in .org or .gov His teacher does not accept any commercial source of information as valid.
I commented to him on the excessive length of his search for information. He replied, “I found this site listed on the 14th google page.”
Next, he and Riley worked together on their board display. I had to take Gabe to the craft store to find the correct pyramid paper color, and Dale got his favorite job of discussing fonts and print sizes with one of his children. Whenever the font discussions start around here, I run and hide in the other room.
Then came the mess of preparing the speech. Gabe and his teacher had a serious miscommunication on what information he was to deliver in his speech. The first speech run through was a disaster for Gabe and the majority of his class. They were all threatened with bad grades if they didn’t improve prior to Egypt Day. A major rewrite was needed and Gabe was initially quite unreasonable. “It’s not fair! That’s not what she told me! Now I have to change everything!” Life became momentarily unpleasant in the Manry home as Gabe moaned and groaned and complained to everyone who would listen and to everyone who wouldn’t listen.
When Egypt Day arrived, Gabe and Riley had a good presentation and did a great job teaching the other students in the school about the pyramids. When it was finished, all the 6th grade parents breathed a huge sigh of relief. “I can’t wait for this to be over,” my friend told me, “It’s stressing me out!” Unfortunately for parents, 6th grade class projects keep rolling in.
During the Egypt Day project, the leaf project was assigned. At the start of the project, Gabe went outside, picked 5 leaves off the ground and brought them in to iron in wax paper. He then told me, “Now I have to look them up online and determine what kind of tree they come from.”
“No. Absolutely not,” I said. “We are not going through this again. Put your shoes on and come with me.” We walked out into the yard. I walked over to the oak and tore off a leaf and handed it to him. “Oak,” I said. Then I walked over to a different tree and tore off a different leaf. “Maple,” I told him. The process continued with “Dogwood,” “Redbud,” and “Cherry.”
Sixth grade class projects: the reason I moan and groan and complain to everyone who will listen and to everyone who won’t listen.
Egypt Day