Friday, July 31, 2009

Summer + Homework = ?

My kids get a Summer Homework packet from their school each year. I understand why--in the long, carefree weeks of summer, the 10 previous months of hard learning has a tendency to drip away like ice cream, slipping and sliding out of their brains. The assignments include some reading and writing tasks, which to my way of thinking encourages lying in a hammock under a tree with a good book. But then...there's Math. Math in the summertime should be something like: "calculate the number of hours until sunset. Divide by the amount of lemonade one must drink to remain hydrated while outside playing baseball until it is completely dark." Or "if wearing SPF 90+, how much longer can one stay in the pool?" (remember to subtract 'number of dunkings'). I always resign myself to some addition, some subtraction, maybe some measuring...but this year, I had to buy my older son a PROTRACTOR. Remember those little semi-circular pieces of plastic, used to measure angles in geometry? That's the one. I don't think they trusted us with those until Middle School, at least, but now apparently they just go ahead and spring them on 9-year olds. It's just not right, I'm telling you...unless of course they want us to measure the correct angle to be used when setting up the hammock...

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