Homework. Homework. Homework.

My mother, the teacher, has a serious disdain for the "take home project" when I was growing up. You know the ones that I am talking about culture reports, Science Fair, History Day, build a California mission to name a few, you know that ones that the teacher loves to give and prays that every child returns after the long weekend. I think it had something to do with teachers rewarding parents for doing their children's work and not encouraging the child to do it themselves. She usually delegated that kind of homework to my dad who would rather be taking a nap on his few days off of work then helping me with my project. So in the 1980s before word processing, the Internet, scrapbook supply stores, and craft super stores like Michaels and WalMart we would have to trek across town to Allards to get the stick on letters and the spray on glue that makes you high. Basically spending a small fortune on the materials that would hopefully make my handwritten essays or experiments pop.

Jack has reached the point in his education where these same projects are going to be coming home. But Jack has his mother who as a child was scarred by the not so pretty assignments that she was forced to turn in- NOT FOR MY KID! Luckily I have been helping my youngest brothers fight the good fight against lame looking projects for several years to get me good and ready for my own kids' "education". I was pretty much prepared for it all, except I wasn't ready for Jack to come home with an assignment that I am assuming was left on the bus the Friday before Thanksgiving! YIKES! The only clues I had were the weekly calendar saying that there was a cultural doll assignment separate from the rest of the homework- BUT NO doll and NO directions!!! Great!!! This I could not have prepared for! My solution- purchase as much as I could to go on the doll after asking the 6 year old how big the doll was, we needed hair, a shirt, pants, shoes, and a culture...

Cowboy!

True or not that is what we picked. Luckily the assignment was not due until today (Tuesday). So Monday I picked Jack up from school, just to be sure that the doll came home without going missing AGAIN. As soon as we were home we were working to create the cutest little paper doll cowboy I have ever seen. And amazingly, Jack did most of the work!!! With a few creative tips from his mother. :)

Jack insisted that he have a cactus if his doll was not going to say "WHOLA" or be Chinese (I don't know why he thought those would be his cultures he just did). I added the belt buckle, the lasso, and the Jessica Simpson lips (Ooops!).

We even had time before bed to write the first draft of a very demanding letter to Santa. We are working on draft #2 being more gracious and less self-centered (a "Hi. How are you doing?"-maybe).