Procrastination

Apparently procrastination is an inherited trait. I haven't done any studies on it, so I can't be completely sure if it is a nature or nurture type of thing... but somewhere down the line my kids got it.

Yep, I am a well known procrastinator. Anyone that really needs something from me needs to give me a deadline. Not an "around this time" deadline, a strict "has to be done or people die" deadline for me to get it done. I do it with work, with school work,with Christmas wish lists, with anything really. And today, I went through the roof when my kid did it.

About a month ago, Dillon was assigned a unit ending project, "Home, Sweet Home". He needed to create an early pioneer home that truly represented knowledge learned during the unit of study, Colorado History. It could be a tee pee, a sod house, a early cabin, a fort, you get the picture, right?

I first heard about the project when I accompanied his class on the field trip to the Colorado History Museum. His teacher casually mentioned to me something about talking to my group about their projects as we walked through the museum. There were some great examples there a sod house, a tee pee, and an early log fort. I told her that Dillon had not mentioned it to me yet, and she replied not to worry it wasn't due until after Thanksgiving.

I leaned over and asked Dillon about it. Yep, it was true. He had decided to do a project where he created something(forgive me, I think the original idea was a fort, but I could be mistaken) out of legos. Okay. We have some time.

I asked him about it again later on. Yep, he was going to get to it.

Sunday night I remembered again. It is due sometime this week.

Today I pick them up from school, we get home and dutifully both Dillon and Bailey work on their homework. Literacy done. Math done. Even some language arts done.

Dillon wants to play on the computer.

Bailey wants to watch Christmas shows.

I walk downstairs to sit with them when I remember to ask Dillon if he brought home his guidelines for the project. Nope, they are in his desk at school.

Oh, by the way, it is due tomorrow.

WHAT??????

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND???

A MAJOR PROJECT AND YOU WAIT UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE TO EVEN BEGIN TO WORK ON IT???

Okay, not a great moment for me as a mom. Remembering many a time, I did the same thing. Still do. (Yes, I am really up at 1:30 in the morning. I just finished up a quiz for a class that was due.)

It is on Kevin's side of the family as well, right Katie? Won't mention a thing about 2:00 am candle making Christmas eve ;)

So I send him down to the lego pile and he comes back with a 4 inch high wall.

Not gonna cut it.

So we get to work. What are your ideas? What do you want to build? What does that mean? What else is included? etc...

Okay, what can we reasonably do at 6:30 at night when your bedtime is at 8:00?

I must say... as much as I hate it that he did this... I kinda like how it turned out.

It is a Colorado gold mine. He has a miner, walls full of gold, an all important fan to filter out the bad air, and even a little store next to the mine with a clerk selling pick axes. Apparently they did that alot. The miners needed an easy place to get their supplies and turn their gold into pink money. I never heard of that myself, but we'll go with it for now.

Here is the outcome...



And don't forget the paper that is due along with it.