With the rush of the school year, both for Jeremy and I and for the kids, I was really looking forward to the kids' fall break - a 4-day weekend. I envisioned unhurried time to just enjoy the kids. Sure, I still had to work. But in between, no time spent driving kids to school; no after-school activities; just calm. I know many families at this school use the weekend for a mini-family vacation. Obviously we won't do that, since we can't get out of work for ourselves. But, I certainly wasn't picturing what happened.
First, a few hours before picking the kids up from thei last day at school, I received an email from James's teacher. It was short and cheery - just "I have attached a few files that James was working on at school that he will need to finish up at home. Clue number One. Then, James came home with a piece of poster board. Clue number Two. Then, James informed me later that evening that he needed to get started on his homework. Clue number Three. (He is never eager to do homework and certainly not in the habit of telling me when he has it, or starting it on the first of a 4-day break.)
I pretty much ignored all of this for the first 24 hours, but then James was busy working on it and asking me for assistance. I could proofread individual writings that he put before me, but I couldn't get from him a coherent description of what he was trying to do. I didn't know the purpose of each short writing piece, or the assignment. I couldn't even get a consistent answer from him about the total amount of work that he had to do. I honestly don't believe he was being evasive; I think he just didn't have a very good idea of the whole project himself. Or, maybe I could better say, he couldn't quite hold the whole project in his mind at one time to be able to explain it to me.
Unfortunately, the project morphed many times, and grew like a cancer. First it was "just a little while" that James thought he would work on Thursday afternoon. That turned into several hours. Friday also required multiple hours of work. Saturday was an even longer stretch of work. Sunday as James sat down to finish, he assured me he could wrap it up in an hour or so. He then took over 7 hours. To his credit, he stayed in good spirits. He seemed to be enjoying the project, if not all of the time. He wanted to do a good job.
When I contacted his teacher on Monday, she assured me that James wrote aa much greater length than she had expected, but did a fine job. Still, what he did write shouldn't have taken him that much time, in my opinion.
It was hard to sit by and watch him struggle so much to get this done, but I tried really hard to be supportive without hovering or interfering. I proofread (his spelling always needs help). I offered editorial advice when he asked for it. I typed for him as he dictated, after he lost a computer file for the 2nd time and had to rewrite yet again. (Surprisingly, this file loss didn't seem to phase him much - he could repeat his work nearly without pause from memory. Aah, to have a memory like that again!)
In the end, I don't know why he had such a struggle to get the whole thing finished, but I was pleased with his work. His grade just completed a month-long reading unit on survival themes, culminating in an overnight survival campout which James loved (and Jeremy tolerated). This project turned out to be a variety of writings for the unit - both about the books the read (James focused on 1987-Newberry winner Hatchet by Gary Paulsen) and the camp experience. (Other books that they read included My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George and Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell).
I will post some of his writings separately.
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