Homework

Katie continues to enjoy her improving health, and we had a great day yesterday. She played all day long and was reluctant to nap; she didn't want to miss anything. I am especially happy about Kate's enthusiasm for school. She wears a favorite backpack and pretends that she is catching the bus or that she has to go back to school for her lunchbox. (She is the mouse from If You Take a Mouse to School.) She is determined to finish her "projects" (whatever those are), and she wants homework. We may have created a monster, but the monster will be a very diligent student anyway.

Katie has also taken an interest in learning her letters. She recognizes very few letters at this point (o, s, k and sometimes t), but she is eager to learn, and she thinks it's funny to practice the sounds the letters make. The irony is that when Katie's health is good and I don't have to worry about her body, worries about her brain creep back in to fill the void. (I just really like to worry, I guess.) The real deal is that some of the drugs Katie has taken affect the brain. Many kids with cancer develop learning disabilities, and these are more common in girls who begin treatment when they are still very young. (Hmmm...) My gut feeling is that Katie will be fine, but it's probably too early to tell. When she takes an interest in learning preschool skills, I'm happy to get out the puzzles and the blocks, and we have been looking for letters we know in street signs. I figure every little bit should help...

On a funny note, Joshua came home with his first official homework assignment. Rick offered to help him with it at Lake Region this afternoon while I went to a meeting, but I volunteered for our first homework duty. I can picture us fighting about who has to help him with homework when he is ten, but it's fun, for now, to supervise my own child's math homework. It's hard to believe he is old enough that we have to have this conversation. He was good about sitting down with it, though, and he whined while he did it but took care of it pretty quickly. He used the eraser a lot. He had to practice spelling the words for numbers, and he wanted his work to be neat. I think it's a good sign that he really wanted to do a good job. He read with me before bed tonight, too, and I made him read to me from the Bob Books. Poor kid. There's nothing quite like getting more homework at home. If only my students knew how little homework they get in comparison!

Homework. Wow. If only I could keep up with the homework all my students have been turning in. Yikes...