star of the week

In addition to the play date invitation that Carolyn retrieved from her backpack on Friday, there was a note to Carolyn's parents, from her teacher, indicating that all of next week, Carolyn was going to be "Star of the Week."

Star of the Week, I've learned, is a relatively common thing in Kindergarten. Each child has a turn, and when it's their turn, they are given special classroom responsibilities, such as helping the teacher, or being the line leader. Most importantly, the "Star" gets to create a poster telling all about themself. To prepare for this great event, which is set to commence tomorrow, Carolyn needs to pull together a poster that includes information about her hobbies, where she was born and any pictures of her family.

Charlie was the one that actually found the letter from her teacher announcing Carolyn would be Star of the Week and he was so excited. When I was out running errands yesterday, I had to make a special stop by Office Depot in order to pick up a laundry list of supplies Charlie said we needed to create the poster. Note, the supplies *WE* needed to create the poster.

We spent more than eight hours today creating this masterpiece.



Carolyn helped select at least one of the pictures that were used.



The rest was done by me.



It was only AFTER I finished, that I went on to her teacher's website to check out what was in store for our children's class this next week, and noticed that all the previous Star of the Week posters had been published. As I was scrolling through, it was obvious that all of the other posters had been largely completed by the students and while Carolyn is handy with scissors, this poster definitely wasn't crafted by my six-year-old.

I'm sure the teacher will notice.

Charlie suspects that I'll get a note that reads, "Dear Mrs. Carolyn's Mom. Please remember that school is an opportunity for your CHILD to learn. As such, in the future, it's prudent that she complete her own work. Sincerely. The Teacher That Kicks Children and Sits at the Front of the Classroom Drinking Beer."

Now, I've always sworn up and down and around in circles that I'd never be one of those parents who would do their child's homework. LET THE CHILD DO THEIR OWN WORK, I say. And yet, here we are completing her very first homework assignment, ever. In our case, we really did need to help our daughter pull together her poster, but now I'm wondering... what is the motivation behind parents who do their children's homework?

Are they trying to impress the teacher, on their child's behalf?



Or, do they just really enjoy working with a glue stick?



As for me, it's certainly the latter of the two.

But I promise not to do it again.

The tricky thing is, once you do something like this for one, you need to do it for ALL of them. So, it's unlikely I'll get away with dropping only a few photos on a poster when it's William & Elizabeth's turn. I definitely came out of the gate way too fast.

Maybe Charlie will help out by hiding my pinking shears.