Girls and science
Across the country, children are putting their new pencils, lunchboxes, and gluesticks to work as they re-enter the classroom for the year. But in our district in the Philadelphia suburbs, we still have a week to go until we hear that first school bell. Plenty of time to reminisce and think about all the fun things we did this summer, and plan for the school year.
We had a summer packed full of fun, and one of the highlights for Audrey, our almost-3rd-grader, was Camp Invention. This camp, held at local schools in many states, is sponsored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. To Audrey, it's all about bringing a broken appliance (this year, an old tape deck) and taking it apart herself with real tools to make her own invention.
This year was Audrey's second time participating in Camp Invention, and she was so excited about it. But when we arrived the first day, the first thing that struck me was that there was only one other girl in her group. In fact, there were only a handful of girls participating in the entire camp. As I was handing in her permission slip, I turned around and noticed one of the girls from Audrey's second grade class standing in line with her mom. I excitedly pointed her friend out to Audrey as I took my two younger girls home for the day. I just knew that Audrey would have even more fun with her buddy there! Audrey would not have cared if she was surrounded by boys--she was at Camp Invention to do science--but it's always more fun with a friend.
But when I picked Audrey up from camp that afternoon, there was no sign of her friend. Instead, I saw her friend's dad picking his son up from a younger group. Audrey asked me why her friend hadn't been in her group, and I guessed that maybe she had picked a different camp...
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