Let's start with the fact that I don't push daily homework in our household. We don't do the math fact, spelling words, or required reading minutes. Which is not to say my kid doesn't read. He reads constantly. Two days ago at the movie theater I had to say, "Put down your book and watch the movie." I have a long list I'm anti-homework and Alfie Kohn says it quite well.

On the other hand, I support the weekly preparation for reading group discussions. The questions the teacher asks are complex and interesting and require inference. Like, "Mr. Zuckerman says that Wilbur is a solid pig. Was he talking about Wilbur’s body or his character? Tell 3 ways that Wilbur is solid."

And I support the monthly book projects. This month David had to do a book cover that included a summary of the book, description of the author, pictures for the cover, etc. Because he has Hebrew school on Tuesday, he basically only had two days to work on it if he was going to get it done before spring break. That did not go well. David and I sat down to work on the summary--me typing and him talking--and he gave me ten sentences of details just about the first chapter. We were in trouble. He whined and complained about the author description. He wanted to plagiarize the book blurbs. A lot of stress and not much action. I had him draw the pictures while I was out at dance class, but basically, it was not going to get done.

Luckily, the teacher had recognized this possibility and let students turn it in after spring break. I was not thrilled with this hanging over our heads, but David handled it well. About half-way through the week, he asked me to put homework time on our spring break schedule. At the appointed time, we got straight to work. This time I said, "Give me one sentence about the intro." He started to object, and I told him I was going into professional mode and being a writing tutor for him. So, he did it. He really did it. He did the same for the middle and end. Then, with a little prompting, he developed each into a succinct paragraph. I was so excited and proud of both of us.