Homework

Anna was so excited when I picked her up today - running to tell me that we needed to be sure to check her backpack for her Homework. She didn't know what Homework was, but felt so important to be a big girl with Homework to complete, just like the big kids.

Apparently, Homework for a pre-K class consists of reading to your child for 15 minutes and recording the title and date you read to them (or they read to you) in a reading log. Not much of an assignment for a child who would read all day if you let her.

So, I turned the assignment into a writing practice as well - where Deonne and I helped her spell the title to the books, and she wrote them herself.

She couldn't have been more proud and can't wait until morning when she can show her teacher her accomplishment.

I remember those days - not the just learning to write days - but the days of looking forward to Homework. I suppose I was one of the few kids in school who actually enjoyed homework. I looked forward to it during the summer months when I had nothing new to learn (yeah, okay, so I probably was indeed a geek - but who cares.)

I remember the anticipation of back to school shopping with my mom - not for clothes - but for school supplies. As a little kid, the thrill of a new pencil box, new Crayola markers, scissors, and pens was enough to put me in a tailspin. And the year my mom bought me my first Trapper Keeper, shiny green and complete with the snap closure - I was over the moon. As a teen and young-adult in high school and college the blank empty pages of a brand new spiral notebook were exciting as could be - because I knew they would someday be filled with notes and assignments from the new classes I was embarking upon.

Do you know I still have ever single spiral notebook from high school and college (and graduate school)? I'm really not a pack-rat (that honor is reserved for Deonne whose bedroom at his parent's house looks exactly like it did the day he graduated from high school) but I did save the notebooks. It's fun now to look back and see my education evolve (including my handwriting) as I progressed from high school english classes where I studied To Kill A Mockingbird to graduate studies in environmental policy and law.

Back in middle and high school, I looked forward to study time with my mom. We'd sit (one on each end of the couch, sharing a blanket between us) and she'd drill me in all sorts of things from various bones and muscles for Mr. Potter's biology tests or the dates of important happenings in history for Mr. Woodward's AP history exams. They were some of my favorite times of my education - just learning - mom and I.

I wish so badly that I could share this time with Anna with my mom. She would delight knowing Anna is growing up to be a bookworm - just like me (and her as well.) I miss her so much - and feel her absence every day, but especially as we reach milestones with the kids.

I have a lot to say about that - about what happened to mom - her massive stroke following brain surgery in April '07 - and how I'm finally getting to the point where I feel I can share a lot of it - but that will be the topic of another post. Right now I have some more Homework to do with Anna.