Dear Kids,
It all started when Marshall brought home a special homework assignment from preschool. The homework consisted of some pictures and instructions for coloring, circling, etc. There were so many instructions that I knew it would take a while and that he’d need my help for most of it. I also knew that Livia would get jealous. So I decided that we should ALL do the homework. I made photocopies for me and Livia. Then, armed with our bucket of crayons, we set to it.
And we had a ton of fun! I was amazed not only at Marshall’s ability to handle the different instructions, but also Livia’s. So I decided that we needed to do homework every day. I paged through coloring books to find suitable pictures, added things to the pictures as necessary, wrote instructions, and then photocopied the pages. You were thrilled with our new homework assignments. So I made more, and sometimes even created the images myself.
Here for example, is one of the exercises I made for the letter “a.” You were supposed to trace the “a” in the top right corner, write an “a” in each apple, color the apples, then color by number the inside of the big “a” using the colors of apricots, apes, apples, ashes, etc. And what a great job you did!
When we were working on the letter “S,” I drew snakes to illustrate the shape. You loved the snakes and asked me to draw “the biggest snake in the world.” So I drew a big snake for each of you. You colored your snakes and added barbs (in imitation of some stripes I had drawn on another snake), then you asked me to cut eye holes so you could use them as masks. You chased each other all over the house holding these masks to your faces.
Scary!
Once we’re done coloring, Marshall runs to fetch the tape. Then we tape the pages to the glass doors of the curio shelf in the dining room, where they light up the room with their cheerful colors all day.
We’ve been doing homework nearly every morning for over a month now. I don’t know how much longer it will last. One day you might decide to give it up, and that day could be soon. Marshall complained about the homework this morning, saying that coloring letters was boring, but then he perked up when we started reading the letters (today’s exercise involved the short words WET, HOT, DRY and DOG, CAT, COW). Both of you were excited to be reading words. So maybe you’ll stick with it. I hope so. I enjoy the time we spend together this way.
Love,
Mom