Thanksgiving Homework

Over Thanksgiving break, my 6 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C both had Thanksgiving homework. It’s insane to me that at such a young age, they have to do homework, but things are different now! They are also both excited to do the homework because it was more of an art project this time.

C was particularly excited about the homework. He wanted to cut out his turkey and glue the feathers on. Over the break, he kept talking about it and we decided to do it one afternoon while my 1 year old son L was napping.

Immediately, C got out the homework and organized the supplies. My wife started to give some instructions and warnings about the directions, but he just wanted to do his own thing…so we let him. He cut his turkey out and then glued it on first. The instructions actually said kids should cut the feathers out and glue it to the paper first before the turkey is glued. Fun times.

Luckily, C came up with a plan to just lift each part of the turkey to slide the feathers in. He was still able to arrange the feathers and then glue those down when he was ready to. The assignment looked well done even though he didn’t follow the directions exactly. I think as a parent, it’s important to let kids explore boundaries and make mistakes (within reason). It tests their problem solving skills and helps them overcome age-appropriate problems. I knew C would have done fine on this assignment either way, even if his turkey ended up looking crazy. The kid just knows how to solve problems creatively.