Homework Mix-up

Most of the time, I oversee the kids completing their homework each day. Long before Bruce gets home from work.

With Clay, that means nothing more than asking the question, "Do you have homework?" Usually, his reply is a simple "no". Because he does it before he gets home, either in some down time at school or if he rides the bus home.

With Spencer and Allison, I spend 30-45 minutes, mostly listening to them read. And actually, that time would be shorter if they'd come prepared to do homework with a happy attitude. Depending on how they are behaving, sometimes they'll do their homework together at the same time. If they're acting like snotheads, they go one at a time. I'm looking forward to them being in second grade next year, because that's when my hands-off approach to homework kicks in.

Occasionally, if I'm having a harried day, I'll ask Clay to listen to his siblings read and help them accordingly. And rarely, if I'm having a harried day and I'm running somewhere in the evening, Bruce will pick up on homework slack.

Clay missed a few days of school a couple of weeks in a row recently. He did well to keep up with all his work at home so he wouldn't fall behind once he got back into the classroom. But he had one extra credit assignment sheet that I'd left on the counter top. It wasn't due for a few more days, so we planned to do that over the weekend.

Along came a harried day when I also had plans for the evening so I asked Bruce to work with Spencer on his homework while I was gone.

When I returned home, Spencer had done Clay's extra credit assignment!

The assignment was to draw a picture of your hero and then list 10 adjectives to describe them.

Spencer drew a picture of Jesus. Sweet, huh?

Then he wrote a few sentences describing Jesus. Now, I'm not sure if that means that Bruce didn't really look hard at the assignment, which wasn't really Spencer's to do anyway. Or if that means that my husband has been out of an English class for far too long and no longer remembers what adjectives are.

No matter. The end results are blog worthy, so here's what Spencer wrote, in his own special way of spelling things:

"His name storts with a G. He live's in Hevien. He is a prechr. He loves us very moch. He Hls peopol."

With some effort, I figured it all out, but the last sentence. It is not "He hells people." Spencer said he wrote "He helps people." Yes, I like that much better.

When Clay did the assignment a few days later, he drew a picture of his dad. Awwww!

Here are the adjectives (and, yes, he definitely knows what adjectives are) Clay used to describe his dad:

funny
smart
cool
nice
tough
strong
great
weird
odd
youngish

Perfect adjectives for a hero. Aren't all your heros weird and youngish?