Sunday, January 13, 2013

Christmas present from school???

     It's the last day of school before Christmas break, and the teacher sends home a present... Open it up and it's my favorite, an at home project!  Yay!  And I get to do it over break?  Yippee!  Anyone that knows anything about me knows how I feel about these.  This one is school wide though.  That means I get to do it with all 3 girls.  Joy!
     Ok, honestly, this one doesn't seem so bad.  A book report on a cereal box.  This has the potential to be pretty cool.  I love reading and I love talking to the girls about their books.  So, I take the girls to the library to get some books.  I also knew that all 3 of them had 4 books each under the tree.  The bad thing is that the girls like to read as much as I do and they aren't exactly decisive.  Every day for 2 weeks, I asked them about the project.  The only answers I got were either "I don't know" or "I haven't finished the book I want to use yet".  Seriously guys?  Figure it out so we can get this done already.
     And now it's the Friday before the project is due.  It's now or never because they are at their dad's house for the weekend and we know that nothing good will happen while they are there.  Good news is that S has done hers already on the computer.  All she has to do is print and glue.  Even their dad can handle that.  Better news, I actually have empty cereal boxes and construction paper.  I don't have to go to the store!!!
     Books are finally chosen, and they pick out the colors for each part of the box.  And now it's time for the drama.  Every single thing they have to write or draw causes a melt down.  I'm still not quite sure why every little thing makes them cry.  I hope that they didn't get the type of perfectionist gene that I have.  The kind that if you can't do it EXACTLY the way that you want, then it'll never be good enough, but it sure seems that way.  We have so many pieces of extra construction paper because we were covering mistakes.  And yet again, my "I'm not doing this" got thrown away, but just a little.  All I did this time was write out the characters for them. 
     I'm kinda proud of myself.  And they picked pretty good books too.  S picked a book about twins that I found for her.  The chapters alternated voice, which I always think is cool and she really enjoyed.  M picked a Bad Kitty book.  And she free-handed a pretty great pic of the cat.  And best of all, A picked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they are so into good books now.  Spend enough time reading to and around your kids and they might just decide that reading is fun....

3 comments:

  1. This sounds like a fun project! I'm glad your girls love to read - that's so awesome. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorites as a kid!

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  2. My daughter inherited the perfection gene from both parents...lots of tears over projects and homework in this house. And, of course, even though I am a teacher, she and I can't work together. ;)

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  3. Kate- we have the greatest pop-up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ever. The details are amazing.
    Carrie- thanks for reading and commenting. I was a swim instructor for MANY years and I can't teach my girls to swim. It drives me crazy.

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