Misinterpreting Homework

I have to admit that Tyler’s homework assignment this week seemed a little complex. Using toothpicks or Q-Tips and glue, he had to make a square, a triangle, a rectangle and a diamond. We tried the toothpicks first, but for some reason the glue was not sticking to them very well. In an attempt to avoid frustration (mine and his), I got the Q-Tips from the bathroom closet. However, once again, the glue wasn’t sticking well – Q-Tip to Q-Tip. There was plenty of glue on the table and on our placemats.

I told Tyler not to worry, because I had another idea. Why not reinforce our four shapes with scotch tape? This idea made Tyler smile once again until he asked his next question: “How am I going to get these four shape structures to school tomorrow? Feeling rather confident, I again told him not to worry, as I pulled a baggie out of the drawer. We attached the baggie to his homework journal, which went into his book bag and we headed upstairs to get him ready for bed.

Fast forward to this afternoon, when I told my colleagues about how much trouble Tyler and I had getting the glue to stick. My work friends couldn’t believe that the glue didn’t stick to the paper. My response was quite simple, “what paper?” It had never crossed my mind to have Tyler glue the Q-Tips to the paper in his homework journal. They laughed even harder when I said I used scotch tape to reinforce our structures before placing them in a baggie. Okay, so if my friends were laughing at me, Mrs. Anderson (Tyler’s kindergarten teacher) must really be laughing.

So I sent Mrs. Anderson a quick question via email: “How were you expecting the kids to display their shapes?” Her response was priceless: “Ha, ha, ha! I was thinking you would glue the Q-Tips to the paper. But what you did was great!”

How would you have interpreted the assignment?

True confession of the day: I think it is time to let daddy help with homework for a while.