Our kids attend a Waldorf school. One of the many things we like about it is that there isn’t any homework assigned until the fourth grade. However, third grade does have one big project as part of the curriculum: the kids have to chose, design and build a model shelter, then make a presentation to the class. Our daughter has had about two months to get this done, and, much to our surprise (and contrary to any parental example she has been given) she did not wait until the last minute to get started. She made her choice (a Pueblo-style adobe house) early, and we checked out books from the library weeks ago. (Yes, the library still has books with which to do research! But even my media-deprived child thought the computer was the only place to go at first. Sad.) She read the books, drew many drafts of her design, and all seemed on track to finish in a stress-free way.
Yesterday was the last full day she would have before her project was due, and I was determined to have her first homework assignment NOT be an 11th hour freak-out. We gathered clay and soil from our neighbor’s recently excavated yard (amazingly, our deep soil is full of clay, and perfect for this) helped set up her workspace on our porch. Once the brick cutting began, she hit the wall. She looked at the bricks, saw how much time it would take to actualize her design vision, and lost it. We had to ride her for two hours–coaching her absolutely against her will to get moving. J did most of the heavily lifting on that front admittedly; I escaped. The mother/daughter dynamic was insurmountably counter-productive.
Somewhere, about three hours in, she turned a corner. I think she could see that she would finish, and her desire to do well for her teacher and her classmates kicked in. By dinnertime, it was done. When I came home, she practically leapt into my arms, gleefully shouting, “Mom I’m done!” She was so friggin proud of herself–a complete 180 from who she was in the morning. It was another of those moments when I totally get what the curriculum is trying to do and see how effective it is. If they can help her not be the procrastinator that her parents are, it will be worth every penny.
