Homework has always been easy for Henry. He does it first thing when he gets home from school, it takes less than five minutes (sometimes more like two minutes), and he's done. But here we are, at the end of 2nd grade, and he finally came home with something that required some effort. A research project with a poster!
Each student chose an animal to research and Henry chose poisonous snakes - they're actually "venomous" snakes, but that's a whole other thing we didn't get in to. Last week, I tried to steer him to the conclusion that the topic of poisonous snakes is much too large to tackle. Me: "Henry, how about rattlesnakes? How about poisonous snakes found only in North America? How about poisonous snakes which only kill other snakes?" Henry: "Nahhh... I'm gonna do the report on all poisonous snakes." So, I went along with the big topic and helped him do some research, hoping he'd come to his own conclusion on the merits of focusing in on a more specific topic. Nahhh... that didn't happen last week.
Then yesterday afternoon I finally got him to focus. Cobras! And even better, King Cobras! Thank goodness.
We did some research on google (Wow! What parents must have gone through in the old days to help their kids research a topic. An encyclopedia at home or a trip to the library. I guess those were the only choices? Three cheers for the internet and google!!). Henry chose the facts he thought were the coolest, and he put together this poster (with just a little bit of guidance). I think he did pretty good.
Each student chose an animal to research and Henry chose poisonous snakes - they're actually "venomous" snakes, but that's a whole other thing we didn't get in to. Last week, I tried to steer him to the conclusion that the topic of poisonous snakes is much too large to tackle. Me: "Henry, how about rattlesnakes? How about poisonous snakes found only in North America? How about poisonous snakes which only kill other snakes?" Henry: "Nahhh... I'm gonna do the report on all poisonous snakes." So, I went along with the big topic and helped him do some research, hoping he'd come to his own conclusion on the merits of focusing in on a more specific topic. Nahhh... that didn't happen last week.
Then yesterday afternoon I finally got him to focus. Cobras! And even better, King Cobras! Thank goodness.
We did some research on google (Wow! What parents must have gone through in the old days to help their kids research a topic. An encyclopedia at home or a trip to the library. I guess those were the only choices? Three cheers for the internet and google!!). Henry chose the facts he thought were the coolest, and he put together this poster (with just a little bit of guidance). I think he did pretty good.
As Henry was drawing his fine depiction of a King Cobra, it dawned on me that his homework is going to get more and more complicated and time-consuming. In other words, my evenings are going to get more and more complicated and time-consuming. That's okay though - I'm sure he'll teach me something along the way. I already learned that King Cobras kill several people every year and they've even been known to kill elephants. Henry and I had a lively discussion about the fact that a Cobra couldn't eat an elephant though - no teeth and swallowing prey whole kind of renders that impossible.
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