Simple Pleasures - Homework, Really?

A couple of weeks ago, Ben came home with a baggie of soil, a styrofoam cup, and a couple of seeds. The instructions were to simply plant the seed, watch the seed sprout, document its growth, and bring it in to class  to present the plant at a "coffee house" for parents.

Well...let's just say that Ben has inherited his mother's brown thumb.

Houston, we have no germination.

Instead we have an empty, sad, styrofoam cup.

I realized this a few days ago, too late to do anything about it.  After thinking on it for a few days, that old adage came to me - the one that says something like the only time failure is a failure is if you don't learn something from it.  (This was after I considered digging up a plant sprout from our weed bed back yard and transplanting it into the cup, but that just didn't feel right.) So, I suggested to Ben that since he didn't have a plant to show off at the coffee house, maybe he could research and present some reasons why his seed may not have grown.

He was all over it.

I would even go so far as to say he was delighted to do it.  He set up a station at the kitchen table and while I went to scrounge up some flower stickers, he had already gotten as far as #4 before I could tell him how to correctly spell "enough".  (Side note:  I remember not knowing how to spell this exact word in 3rd grade.  I raised my hand and asked my teacher.  She said, "Just sound it out."  I was furious.  I knew that didn't work with "enough".  I spelled it "enuf", and I was mad as fire until I found out the correct spelling.  Type A much?)  It was almost exciting for me to watch him make his little presentation.

After he made his poster about why seeds don't grow, he moved on to researching various types of seeds, including acorns and pine cones, which we were able to find in our yard and at church.  (Thanks to procrastinating, these were our only seed collections.)  We wiki'd and googled and found out some fun facts about these two types of seeds.  Then, he wanted to research bees, but it was already late and I didn't want him monopolizing show-n-tell time.

Maybe we'll research bees later today.

Because hanging out with my boy, doing schoolwork, and seeing the twinkle in his eye as he soaked it all up is my simple pleasure this week.

Although, for the life of me, I have no idea why he referred to me as "mother".  This is a first - and I hope not a common thing.  I much prefer Mommy at this stage of life...

And while we're on the subject of homework, I'm throwing in a bonus simple pleasure - because my four year old, Abby, who emulates her big brother so much, takes it upon herself to do her own "homework" and adorn our fridge with it.  Seeing them have a passion for learning (and coloring in the lines) is just priceless.

 

Join us at Dayle's Simple Pleasures Party on A Collection of This and That.