Thursday, July 19, 2007

And so it begins....



Well, the day has come. A new milestone and the beginning of a new life for, well, all of us.

It's certainly not a stellar day in the world of photography (yes, I can say I have done better) but it IS however...

...the first time my child has brought home some HOMEWORK!

Noah is off to kindergarten in about six weeks. I asked his Montessori Preschool teacher if she thought he was ready to go, socially as well as academically. She felt he is pretty much good to go...

"...except for...well...his penmanship."

"It sucks?" (No, OK, I didn't really say that)

"Yeah, it sucks" (OK, I am maybe paraphrasing here a little.)

"The kids in kindergarten can usually write a bit better than he can."

Three days later he comes home with two pages. One has the letter "a" written a couple times across the top and the other has the letter "b". Each letter is followed by rows of empty lines with that dreaded dotted line down the middle that we all came to know and love in elementary school.

Noah was actually kind of excited for the first time about practicing his letters (he usually peters out after about 2 "a's"). A little quick math had me wondering if I had 13 more nights of letter practice in front of me. But he sat down with me and we talked about how to make each effort a little better than the last and the ones at the end of each page were certainly superior to the ones at the beginning!

He was very proud. I was very proud. But I was also imagining a life of sitting at the dining room table most evenings trying not to do his homework for him.

And that screechy Mom-voice I just know I am gonna have...

"Noah???? Didja do your homework???"

2 comments:

Snowbird said...

Hee, hee, hee, now you know how it feels. Geez, though, homework in pre-school??? Ugh!! I don't think I was ever that cruel when I taught pre-school.

Shama-Lama Mama said...

I don't think the other kids got any homework. I think this was Noah's, and his alone.