I think I was a bit of a swot at school and it has lasted into adulthood, but perhaps not on the job side of things. I see my children's homework and rather than it making my heart sink, as it does my partner's, I actually want to do it. I miss fractions and decimals! However, I realise that the homework is not really for me and my role is as co-educator and encourager general. This is quite easy with rebel daughter who really knows what she is doing more or less. We had one session on angles, which, I admit, was not my strong point at maths. I was just never neat enough for geometry. It always seemed to be about drawing straight lines and my hand was never steady enough. I think I have never really been able to grasp the significance of neatness. In fact, it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, which is what makes having three children and two jobs possible. I have a very high untidiness threshold.
Bonkers daughter's homework is another story altogether. I have tried endless ways of getting the whole difference between odds and evens into her head. She knows her two times table, she says, but she still insists that 27 is an even number. I decided last week that the problem was that it was all a bit abstract for her so I got out my purse and divided everything into groups of twos and threes. She was more interested in singing a song about Bradley's mum in Eastenders, who I divulged in a weak moment that I had done an acting course with eons ago. She thinks Bradley's mum is my best mate and that it is only a matter of time before I too appear on Eastenders.
Anyway, needless to say, the coins approach failed, as did the turning it all into a game approach. In fact, big girl daughter seemed to be better at it than the bonkers one, who just doesn't seem to look at life in a logical way. This is the girl who said to a friend, a propos of nothing: "If I was a giant strawberry and I was sitting on your thumb, would you eat me?" This is also the girl who spends every second of her life creating 3D cards, castles, guinea pig runs, cots, etc, in the moments when she is not gazing intently at herself in the mirror and designing new hairstyles and outfits. She wears an eye mask to bed and sometimes one rubber glove with the fingers cut out. Literacy homework is slightly easier, although she does insist on either whispering or singing the words or reading the book under her legs. Spelling for her is some sort of artistic endeavour. She loves to write, but her writing is more like a picture than a coherent sentence. I know I should persevere on the homework front, but I am kind of in awe at her inability to grasp basic logic. I think she might be some sort of artistic genius.
Follow Mum on the run on Twitter at WorkMumOnTheRun
Follow Workingmums on Twitter at WorkingMums
del.icio.us
|
Digg
|
Newsvine
|
Reddit
There are currently no comments on this post.