Hi. My name is Erin my 5th grade son, Luke packed himself for science camp. I am no rookie to 5th grade science camp ritual where the kids pack for a 3 day trip with schoolmates to gain a deeper understanding of science. Luke has 3 older brothers who have done this before so I thought I knew what to expect.
Usually, the day of camp or the night before we go scrambling around the house to collect the list of supplies on a list the school provides. This usually takes a couple of stressful hours to find most everything. Even though I am fairly organized, it is always hard to find everything on the list. Ultimately, we end up driving to Walmart to get several things -that I know we have somewhere- but don’t have any more time to find…
This was before FindThingsFast.
First, I was a bit of a skeptic when my husband spent one Saturday with my boys organizing our garage using FindThingsFast. I was impressed with how quickly they had completed it. But, to be honest, I wasn’t sold on how useful it would be. That was until I came home to find that my 5th grade son had packed himself for Science Camp.
I came home from running my older boys to school and sporting events, dreading the science camp packing ritual. Where was the first aid kit my boys had taken on a campout 3 months ago? Where was the rain poncho? These lists can be torture! And the worst part is I always end up running to the store last minute buying something we know we have 2 or 3 of, but can not find. It can be even worse when several moms are out trying to buy the same things- making finding it in the stores even harder.
Well, this time things were different. I arrived home at 9pm and I told Luke we better get started packing for science camp in the morning. Luke looked up and said, “Mom, I am already packed.” As a mother of 4 boys, I know what this means; he has probably stuffed a few shirts and shorts in a bag and called it good. So, I told Luke we need to make sure we get everything on the list. His response was, “I did!”, pointing to a loaded duffle bag on the floor.
Still in unbelief, I asked, “Did Dad help you with this?” because this bag was loaded up with not just a few shirts and shorts- but with a rain poncho, a headlamp, a first aid kit, etc. I was actually proud of my husband as I was sorting through the items when my son responded, “No, I did it by myself.” Now I knew something was amiss. My 5th grader is telling me he packed himself with things I didn’t even know we had and he did it on his own?.
My response- “How?”
He smiled, “By using FindThingsFast.”
Thinking this might be a prank I walked up to my husband’s office and said walking in the room, “Is this a joke? Are playing a trick on me?”
I could tell from his look he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
“Did you help Luke pack for his Science Camp?”
My husband responded, “What Science Camp?” That was the most normal response of this night.
It turns out my 5th grader did pack himself for Science Camp and, most amazingly, without being asked or helped! He actually was very proud of himself –and I was proud of him, too- and made what is usually a stressful event an enjoyable one.