National History Day

Last week was a week of late nights for The Banana as she worked to pull all the parts of her history day project together before the competition on Saturday. Process papers were written. Annotated bibliographies were organized. Quotations and student composed text was typed. Photographs were printed, and an exhibit display was created. There were last minute trips to the hardware store for spray paint, and to the craft store for eight rolls of double sided tape and lots of cardstock in just the right colors.

It was a proofreading fiesta.

But after all that work, she did finish her project, which was about how Gallaudet University broke barriers in deaf education. It was hot off the press at 2:00 a.m. only hours before she needed to appear in front of the judging panel on Saturday morning, but it was complete and the board looked great.

We even handled a last minute snafu that popped up when we set her exhibit board on the table in the display hall and looked at the board to find that she forgot to tape on the photo credits for five images on the board. The Banana gasped and moaned. The slips of paper were sitting on the floor at home. I looked at the clock (30 minutes until judging!) and started running to the car, which was unfortunately parked in a lot far away from the building we were in since the competition was at the university. I tore home. Luckily we live close! I ran inside, located the teensy tiny slips of paper, carefully grabbed them, and hollered at YaYa to get her shoes on to help. I knew I didn’t have time to park the car and run back to the building, so my plan was to drop YaYa off at the entrance to the building and have her run the slips up while I parked the car.

YaYa was NOT impressed about having to be roused out of bed on Saturday morning, but she handed the slips of paper to her sister a full five minutes before the judges were at the table, and by that time everything that needed to be on the board was on the board. Yikes. There’s nothing like a little last minute crazy! The Banana took it all in stride, and it was all worth it in the end because her project ended up qualifying for the state competition.

National History Day projects are a ton of work. There were times when The Banana wanted to tear her hair out, I think. But even though it has been mayhem for weeks to get the project finished, it is totally worth it. There is nothing like a history day project to prepare you for college. It is a compilation of so many different skills: critical thinking, research skills, concise and clear writing, the ability to prove a thesis and pull quotes and information to support it, organizational skills, and communication. Yay!