I have really been trying to drive home the don’t-put-things-off-until-the-last-minute message with the kids.
Especially Number 2.
With the younger ones, there’s still not too much to spring on me at the last minute. Their teachers give plenty of notice.
But Number 2 is at that Oh yeah, I forgot, I need a piece of posterboard, a bag of doritos, black pants, and $374 by 5:30 tomorrow morning stage of school.
Well, he was.
About a year ago, we had a real problem with him not giving us ample notice.
It only took one or two times of me not dropping everything to rush out at the last minute to get him what he needed to successfully deliver that don’t-wait-til-the-last-minute message.
He’s actually pretty good about it now…
Number 5 has had this “All About Me” assignment due since the first or second week of school.
It came home attached to the note the teacher sends home explaining what the kids did in school that day.
I never even saw it.
And consequently lost it.
So I had to ask the teacher for a new one.
I got the second one the Thursday before Columbus Day.
I had a long weekend to get it done.
It’s not that big of a deal, either. I just had to decorate a piece of paper with photos, drawings, pictures from magazines, etc, to describe Number 5 and the things she likes.
I put it off.
And put it off.
And then I totally forgot about it.
Then on Tuesday, when I dropped off Number 5 at school, her teacher was standing in the doorway. She was holding one of the other kid’s completed “All About Me” papers in her hand.
She raised her eyebrows and looked at me. I was the only one not to have done it.
“I promise you’ll have it on Thursday,” I said to her.
She smiled and told me she was going to charge me $5 a day for every day I didn’t have it in. She was joking.
Sort of.
So last night at 8:00 I remembered the fucking All About Me paper.
Shit.
I couldn’t find the paper.
Again.
I ran to the office to dig through the piles.
I told Number 4 to find something to draw with.
I handed Number 5 a bunch of magazines.
“Number 3! Find some scissors!”
I sent Number 2 on a hunt for a glue stick.
“Hurry up, Guys! It’s late!”
And as Number 2 begrudgingly searched through the drawer in the kitchen for a glue stick, I heard him mumble under his breath,
“Why did you leave this until the last minute?”
Sigh.
Touche, Number 2.
Touche.
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I know my 4-year-old will get there soon enough, and until then I love the stories you share! Hopefully they’ll help me prepare . . . or procrastinate! 🙂
The All about me assignment was the last straw for me. I had to go back to homeschooling. What was the learning objective in this assignment? I spent 2 hours taking and developing photos, and my kid already knows all about himself. All he did was glue pictures on poster board. He knows where he lives, and what he likes, about his dogs and sibs. 2 hours for me of work, and no real learning objective for him. He already knew how to glue.
My son had the same assignment when he was in kindergarten. The point is to tell OTHER PEOPLE about himself (with help from me). So the “learning value” was for the other kids (and the teacher) in the classroom…..
It’s like you & I share a brain sometimes! 8th grade balloon car…2am…lots of cursing. Before that. Robot made of household materials & a totem pole. Need I say more?? Since then, my daughter doesn’t even ask for help anymore!