Thursday, January 14, 2010

I Thought I Had More Time

There is a time in childrens' lives that every parent dreads. Ok, so to be honest, there are lots of moments that parents dread. We just continue to think they'll never come.

I reached a milestone this week that I thought I had years to reach. Years. Lots of them.

I had no idea that I'd be stumped by kindergarten homework.

Yes, that's right. I was unable to help my kindergartener with his homework. I couldn't figure it out, and even my husband is struggling.

This does not bode well for his grades in high school. *sigh* But I have to give myself a little bit of a reprieve. Space has never been my best subject. There are certain things that I just don't like and therefore never learned anything about -- Mister Man's obsession of dinosaurs is my other big disinterest.

This week, the kindergarteners are charged with watching the night skies. Thank you, teacher, who decided to do the space unit in January when it's freezing (literally) outside instead of waiting until ohhh I don't know, May!

Not only do they need to watch the night sky, but they need to identify it.

Moon? Check.

Big Dipper? Check. (Whoo, go me!)

Little Dipper? Uhhhh, yeah.

Casseopeia? Oh, please.

Orion? Are you kidding me?!

I've never figured out constellations. They just don't make sense to me. They are stars in the sky, and they're pretty. That's about as far as my stargazing knowledge goes.

But this week, I'm spending my time staring at a constellation map and comparing it to the sky. Then I turn my map around and squint to see if that helps. I turn it a bit further and then sigh in frustration.

Did I also mention that we're in a new moon phase, which means there isn't much of a moon to see? At least that makes drawing the moon easy. And thankfully, we don't have to draw the other constellations, just say if we could see them or not.

Tonight I was exceedingly grateful that it was cloudy. We walked outside, saw no stars, turned around, and I know we got the answers right for once!

What was the first homework that stumped you?

14 comments:

Mrs4444 January 14, 2010 at 9:06 PM  

Oh, that's funny. I'm more of a "Let's just admire them, not study them" type, too :)

Laura January 15, 2010 at 2:54 AM  

Oh I love Orions belt so easy to sea! Hmmmm I would say stumped by the oldest son's homework at 12 or so the younger 2 are waldorf so it's art, movement and music for a while yet. We do stars and such for fun, er my hubby does too damn cold for me!

WeaselMomma January 15, 2010 at 4:41 AM  

That seems pretty heavy duty for Kindergarten homework. I can usually make it until about 6th grade before the math gets me.
But I am awesome in history to make up for it!

septembermom January 15, 2010 at 8:13 AM  

I would've been stumped too. That's a pretty challenging homework assignment for kindergarten. At our school, they love those kind of assignments that make parents and kids work together. If I got the identifying star assignment, you know I would have run to the laptop for help.

They are teaching my 4th grader a new way to learn multiplication and division. They play some kind of mind games. I'm totally lost.

Hyacynth January 15, 2010 at 8:30 AM  

Uh oh! Already? And Google couldn't help with any star maps? Maybe it was just a fluke? You're a smart woman; I bet it was just a fluke.

Tara R. January 15, 2010 at 9:55 AM  

Maybe you could call the teacher in the middle of the night to ask for help in finding these elusive constellations. This does seem a little much for a kindergarten assignment.

Cookie January 15, 2010 at 11:10 AM  

Oh, that is funny! I don't know the constellations very well either. But at least here it's cloudy all the time, which would make that kind of homework easy!
My son did get some homework in kindergarten that stumped me. I think it said soemthing like, "write the number partners." partners for what???

Connie January 15, 2010 at 3:21 PM  

Your kindergartener is going to be a rocket scientist! And he'll have you to thank! I hope you don't get pneumonia trying to do this project!

Claudya Martinez January 15, 2010 at 3:38 PM  

Since my mom's English has always been less than stellar, she was never able to help me with my homework. At one point I noticed that the only questions I got wrong were the ones she helped me with.

Debbie January 15, 2010 at 7:55 PM  

Homework is the bane of my existence. I feel for you!

Karen January 15, 2010 at 8:30 PM  

I've always been fascinated by the constellations, but was never good at finding them. Orion is easy, but the dippers aren't so much for me. See? You're not alone.

Angie's Spot January 17, 2010 at 4:15 PM  

Oh, I'm so not looking forward to homework when my oldest hits Kindergarten next year. Right now, I'm handling the letter practice worksheets with ease. Well, except for the trouble that I'm having with my letter "G's". :-)

Unknown January 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM  

I'm with you on the constellations, oh pretty, who cares what their names are.

One of my biggest homework stumps? My son's senior year in HS, calculus or trig or one of those other math classes that I never took. He was struggling with his homework and asked for my help, I read and read and it made no sense to me. He put his arm around me and said it's ok mom, I was only joking, I'm done with my homework.

Enjoy the kindergarten stuff while you can :)

Michelle January 24, 2010 at 8:14 PM  

Mrs4444 - Absolutely. This is when I'm glad to live in a GPS kind of world!

Laura - Showoff ;) That or I think your living in Alaska makes it more evident. Or something.

WeaselMomma - I thought so, too, but he loves it. They do some really in depth work at his school.

Kelly - I actually had the star map in my hands showing me where the constellations were supposed to be. That didn't help.

Hyacynth - Ummm yeah. And again, I had the star map. I just couldn't figure it out.

Tara - Hee hee. Then again, that might be why we don't get the teachers' home numbers!

Dawn - That's actually been a huge problem here. We haven't been able to sn during the day they haven't been able to chart the sun's progress at school.

Connie - Ummm I hope not, on both counts! I want my children (selfishly) to do something I understand ;) But he is bright enough -- no pun intended -- to do it.

Unknown Mami - That or she did that on purpose so she wouldn't have to help you with homework anymore!

Debbie - And sadly, we have hardly any homework yet. I'm afraid for high school!

Karen - It sounds like we should pair up for this assignment and at least get most of the constellations found!

Angie - Letter practice worksheets in preschool? Wow. Then again, Little Miss MAKES UP homework because she wants to do some. Weird kid.

Megryansmom - Actually, the high school math I'm not worried about. I loved it, and I'm married to a math teacher, so we should be set there. It's the weird random stuff like this (and now, Mister Man is supposed to memorize "Glory Be" and I don't even know what that is!).

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