Star of the Week..

otherwise known as Mom Homework.

So in the first grade students have a lovely assignment where they get to make a Star of the Week poster.

Glitter star, cause everything is better with glitter

On this poster they are supposed to tell about themselves with pictures, stickers, or whatever else they can find.

So next week is Daughter's week.

Glittered letter from Daughter's name

She has been looking forward to it, I've been dreading it.

First thing, we did was select 56 pictures ... yes, 56.  Apparently Daughter has a very healthy sense of self esteem and wants to share her fabulousness with all her friends.

Of course we don't have developed photos laying around the house, I mean who does?  So that meant I Nadim had to print out all the photos and Sophia I had to cut them out.

Front of poster

Most kids decorate one side of a poster board, Daughter did front and back.

Back of poster

Then Daughter threw some glitter in for good measure :)  Actually it was more than "some" glitter, it was like a giant tub of glitter.  Each photo needed to have a border of glitter for good measure.

Glitter border

Because nothing is better than a little glitter than a lot of glitter!

More school assigned family fun

This post continues the saga of the "fun family" assignments that we have been receiving.  With the 1st grade blend extravaganza done, it was time to move onto my 4th grader's Mission Report.  Yes, it is time to learn some California history, people.

4th graders no longer do Mission dioramas because the parents ended up doing all the work - hmm, sounds familiar - so instead Son 1 gets to write a 5 paragraph report on the mission of his choice.

Assorted parts of the Mission report

Luckily, Son 1 picked Mission San Gabriel Archangel, close enough to visit.  We headed up to the mission, took lots of pictures and did a whole enrichment thing, which honestly was pretty fun.  This is the kind of "fun family project" I like.  We also had lunch at a great local deli, but I digress...

More papers

After we visited the mission, Son 1 started writing.  It was pretty painful, trying to manage a 10 year old into producing work that will earn a grade higher than a D.  But the worst part was waiting for the cover page and bibliography to come home from school.  Those two elements along with a information sheet were the only things completed at school.  The information sheet came home in a timely manner, but the cover page and bibliography were MIA.  I started sending the teacher emails and asking for updates on when these two papers might actually make it home.  Really, I'm just trying to be helpful (hear the sarcasm in my voice).  Finally we had the report all done, except for the two MIA pages so I sent off another email.

The MIA cover sheet

The cover page was finally sent home along with a handwritten bibliography just a day or two before the report was due.  I should point out that the picture my son selected is blurry, not sure if it is a resolution problem, printer problem or what.  But at least the report is done.

I know I can be a thorn in the side of my kids classroom teachers, but I'm only saying what everyone else is afraid too.   Besides, I balance out my high maintenance side with volunteer time.  That counts for something right?

It's beginning to look a lot like

... Mom homework.  So I admit it, I'm getting pretty annoyed with the "fun family project" homework coming home from school.  Over the last couple of weeks I've, ok my kids, been assigned two pretty big projects. 

From the 1st grade class came, what I consider busy work, a "blend" assignment.  This entailed finding 4 pictures for each of 24 constant blends. For those of you not familiar with consonant blends let me refresh your memory:  br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, sh, sm, sk, sp, st, sw, tw - AND - for good measure the "H brothers" also known as th, sh, ch, wh.  If you are counting, which I am, that is 24 total blends which means a total of 96 pictures.  Let's pause for a second and take that in... 96, yep 96, still 96.  Hmmm, for a 6 year old this might as well be 1 million.

Here is the completed poster, fun times...

I helpfully pointed out to the 1st grade teacher that perhaps 96 might be a bit much, when I complained spoke to her about the assignment the next day.  I repeated 96 several times just to make sure that she really understood my point, but it didn't help.  The teacher responded that it took her only 4 days to complete the project and I had 3 weeks.  Not very helpful.

When Nadim came home that night I complained to him about the stupid, busy work assignment and he famously replied "That sounds like fun!", so I put Nadim in charge of the assignment.  Perfect!  The "fun" assignment lasted until he couldn't find any more pictures with the blends he needed.  So good Dad that he is, he sat down, made himself a list of all the words Daughter needed, googled them, and printed them out at work the next day.

"H" brothers side of the poster

When all was said and done, Daughter's part of the homework project consisted of writing the words underneath the pictures.  I'm really not sure how much educational value this had.  Now the poster board gets to live under my stairs for the next two weeks until it is time to turn it in.