Who’s Helping Who with the Kindergarten Homework?

Hambone, who is five, comes home from school on Fridays with homework that is always due the following Tuesday.  It normally consists of two relatively easy assignments, which takes about ½ hour to finish. Usually, we make the not so very wise decision to wait until Monday night to do the homework. 

This past weekend was no exception, but at least I have legitimate excuses.  Assman had minor surgery on Friday and then I caught strep throat, which landed me in bed all day Sunday. Anyway, I neglected to perform my mom duty of checking backpacks.  When I finally did check his backpack on Monday, I found not only his normal homework, but he also had to make a working leprechaun trap, which was due on Friday.  The assignment was for the student, but encouraged help from mom and dad.  We helped him – mostly Assman did - I had to bite my tongue and just walk away a few times because he was not decorating it like I would have wanted, but this was HIS project not mine!  He wrote and cut out his own signs, painted, colored and glued. Assman designed and installed the actual trap. In the end Hambone constructed something that he was proud of.  

We were the first ones to place his trap on the table today.  As I watched the other traps start to trickle in, I thought to myself wow -it’s a good thing this is not a contest because Hambone’s trap would not fare well. It was very obvious that maybe, and that’s a BIG MAYBE most of the kids helped their parents with the traps. Maybe, they put some glue on something and that was about it. 

I admit, I did some research online to get some ideas on how to build the trap.  I was shocked to see at least two of the exact same traps on the Kindergarten table that I saw online.  They were next to perfect – Unbelievable!

 At least I have the proud satisfaction of knowing that my son followed the directions and constructed the majority of the trap on his own. Shame on you other parents for doing your child’s project and robbing them of feeling the satisfaction of a job well done!

Until next time – teach your kids to live, laugh and love

xoxo