I didn't really need convincing, but I recently got yet another illustration of the importance of spouses having different strengths. I will forever be happy to handle "Electronic Devices" and "Food Shopping & Preparation", as long as my wife is designated for "Dioramas".
All the way into April, I'm still having trouble adjusting to how much homework we have now that we're in first grade. I beg your pardon; as it turns out, only one of us is in first grade... yet somehow the homework turns out to be a family affair.
We have muddled our way through the various math worksheets and spelling lists and flashcards and phonics readers -- it's been no bed of roses, of course, but anything in the service of education. Plus we have to initial the homework sheet every night and I'm afraid if I fib it'll go on my Permanent Record.
Just when we could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, came the dreaded Diorama Project. The first graders were assigned to make a model of our community, and we got to be Dunkin' Donuts.
Not to worry -- the seven-year-old springs into action. He finds a shoebox, assembles crayons and scissors and tape and construction paper, and before we know it he's busily sketching, cutting, and assembling.
No, of course he doesn't! Who in their right mind expects a seven-year-old to even make a tangible contribution to a project like that? Let’s not be coy, folks; we all know that even for the older kids, the parents are doing the lion’s share of the work here. And in the case of a first-grader, probably the best you can hope for is that the kid stays at the dining room table long enough to watch his parents (OK, his mom) build the silly thing. As far as I can tell, the only educational objective being served here is that the kid learns that the parents can be made to do almost anything when a teacher writes it on an assignment sheet.
The saving grace for me is that we all agree that my arts & crafts abilities are confined to coloring inside the lines. Even then I’m better off from an esthetic standpoint if someone else selects the colors for me. So my wife naturally took the lead without my even having to whine. I mean, suggest it. She took a big batch of digital photos, found all the materials, sat him down to do what little cutting and coloring he could contribute, and put it together. Well, almost.
You would no doubt be stunned to hear that, before we knew it, it was the night before D-Day and we had a shoebox resplendent in orange and pink, but not “branded”. So I (as the “Electronic Devices” supervisor; see above) got to spend the evening surfing for logos and resizing them and printing them – and, as it turns out, creating a few of my own signs from scratch.
I felt kind of vaguely icky about how much work we parents did until I saw the rest of the projects. As it turns out, there’s a high percentage of photographers, artists, architects and graphic designers in first grade these days. What are the odds?
All the way into April, I'm still having trouble adjusting to how much homework we have now that we're in first grade. I beg your pardon; as it turns out, only one of us is in first grade... yet somehow the homework turns out to be a family affair.
We have muddled our way through the various math worksheets and spelling lists and flashcards and phonics readers -- it's been no bed of roses, of course, but anything in the service of education. Plus we have to initial the homework sheet every night and I'm afraid if I fib it'll go on my Permanent Record.
Just when we could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, came the dreaded Diorama Project. The first graders were assigned to make a model of our community, and we got to be Dunkin' Donuts.
Not to worry -- the seven-year-old springs into action. He finds a shoebox, assembles crayons and scissors and tape and construction paper, and before we know it he's busily sketching, cutting, and assembling.
No, of course he doesn't! Who in their right mind expects a seven-year-old to even make a tangible contribution to a project like that? Let’s not be coy, folks; we all know that even for the older kids, the parents are doing the lion’s share of the work here. And in the case of a first-grader, probably the best you can hope for is that the kid stays at the dining room table long enough to watch his parents (OK, his mom) build the silly thing. As far as I can tell, the only educational objective being served here is that the kid learns that the parents can be made to do almost anything when a teacher writes it on an assignment sheet.
The saving grace for me is that we all agree that my arts & crafts abilities are confined to coloring inside the lines. Even then I’m better off from an esthetic standpoint if someone else selects the colors for me. So my wife naturally took the lead without my even having to whine. I mean, suggest it. She took a big batch of digital photos, found all the materials, sat him down to do what little cutting and coloring he could contribute, and put it together. Well, almost.
You would no doubt be stunned to hear that, before we knew it, it was the night before D-Day and we had a shoebox resplendent in orange and pink, but not “branded”. So I (as the “Electronic Devices” supervisor; see above) got to spend the evening surfing for logos and resizing them and printing them – and, as it turns out, creating a few of my own signs from scratch.
I felt kind of vaguely icky about how much work we parents did until I saw the rest of the projects. As it turns out, there’s a high percentage of photographers, artists, architects and graphic designers in first grade these days. What are the odds?
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I think I missed something. What are the kids supposed to learn from this? Couldn't they just look at a map to find dunkin donuts? When I was that age I made a wigwam. At least I learned that native americans used pipe cleaners very effectively.
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