Homework Without the Home

Once in a while routine gets boring and home gets hectic. Homework is sometimes a struggle, times runs out, chicken fingers out of a bag for dinner gets old. And especially for you moms like me, who work from home, sometimes ya just gotta BOUNCE.

I feel bad sometimes doing homework at home with Deondre because there's a million and one things pulling my attention away. I'm an incessant multitasker. I'm never walking one way to do only ONE thing. It's gotta be 2 or 3. And it's not fair to D to try to squeeze in a load of laundry (or ONE more email or cat litter scooping) in the midst of a word problem.

Every now and then I grab him from school and we go off on a homework adventure. It's unexpected and fun for him and a break for me. Yesterday we shot over to Barnes & Noble, got a couple overpriced snacky snacks, a chai and a tall vanilla bean frappuccino no (!) whip and headed to the kids section. (Deondre used to be SUCH a cheap date until he discovered the vanilla bean frappuccino. Seriously).

We both put our undivided attention on 2 pages of homework and were done in record time. I really got to see that he was making crazy good strides in his reading. He had one sheet that was similar to his 2nd grade homework (he's now in 3rd) and he said something to the effect of "hey, mom - remember when I used to get sheets like this in 2nd grade and I sucked at this?" Self deprication runs in our family. I convinced him he never actually sucked... he was just struggling on his way to being awesome.

Grab a #2 pencil and get out of the house, moms. Because trust me, Barnes & Noble on a cold winter's afternoon with overpriced beverages and mini tables and benches that you can barely fit in, is wicked cool.

A Good Lesson on Recycling

Deondre's never really loathed doing homework. Nor totally loved it. He's been pretty diligent, knows he does it right after school or internet games and outdoor play ain't happening. But tonight as we were sifting through 12 pages of math word problems, something came up that gave him a new kinda gross outlet on it.

First let me rewind and say he's in this special after school program called "Please Stand Up" where he learns leadership skills, how to set a good example, etc. Today they were evidently talking about recycling and overnight he turned into the "Circle of Arrows Police" in the house. The math word problems he was working on took up like 1/2 page each needlessly, while leaving the other half BLANK. The graphic designer in me rolled my eyes at the terrible typography and waste of good space and noted to Deondre that it was, in fact, a ginormous waste.

Mr. Circle of Arrows holds it up and says "Oh, don't worry mom, we can RECYCLE it in school after we check through it". Can't argue with that.

Now I got to thinking about one of my clients who is in the paper recycling and confidential document shredding business - they always told me that schools were gigantic waste paper makers. I asked a while ago what the paper they take in eventually gets reused as and a lot of it ends up in more coarse paper towels (think Thruway rest stops) and toilet paper. I thought I'd share that knowledge with Deondre. Good fact on recycling, right?

So I say, "Your homework could end up as toilet paper, you know."

And he looks at me and says "So I'd be wiping my butt with my homework????"

I gotta go with that one. Hell yeah - in a sense you totally could one day be doing that. No comeback.

But now I think that homework will look a little different to him for the rest of his school days. As long as he's up for taking the recycling and garbage out for me, I'm good with it.