I’m not exactly blaming the Bean and her homework for the gray hairs on my head, but I am saying they may be related.  It’s not that her homework is hard- thankfully in 1st grade, I more or less know how to help her (unless it’s math, then we’re both screwed). Nope, these gray hairs are there because she refuses to ask for help and when you do help her (so, you know, she doesn’t get the whole thing wrong) she is Not Happy.

Tonight in honor of Earth Day, she had to make something from materials we got out of our recycling bin. She chose to make a snowman out of an empty OJ bottle, an empty tomato pint, paper towels and straws. She then had to write down what this item could be used for. In this case, she wanted it to be a Christmas decoration.

The Bean asked for help in spelling Christmas but she was convinced she knew how to spell “decoration.” Now, I know she doesn’t know. I don’t expect my 6 year old to know how to spell that nor do I expect her to get it right when sounding it out, but I did ask her to try. So she wrote: deck or a shun.  Honestly, not bad for sounding it out! The issue came when she refused to believe me when I told her it was 1) one word and 2) spelled the way it was. Around and around we went with me trying to convince my 6 year old that I was not an idiot.

Do you know how I got her to believe me? By asking Siri how to spell “decoration.”