School Homework

But it isn't really a “golden week” holiday – school believes this time is best spent doing homework (our friends in an older class had to go to the aquarium). And so it was that we (and I say we because there was no way a 4.5 year old could do this all on their own) found ourselves at the english library seeking books on the history of building construction, suitable for a 4 year old, and discussing all manner of buildings. Alex seemed most taken by discussion of the slums and of the international space station – two extremes. There was also much comparison with the story of the three little pigs.

We had to take photos of Alex near different buildings. We photographed her near old houses, new houses and a one-room house where a little old lady lives - what you see is all there is and it's the same depth too.

We pass by it every time we come from the bus stop and she is often sitting in a plastic chair outside her door. One of her forearms is bent as though from a poorly healed break. Alex is almost as amazed with her house (the size of which is easily comparable to our kitchen) as the discussion of slum dwellers who build their homes out of what they can salvage from rubbish heaps “because they can't afford to buy a house”.

We also had to describe the history of house construction (ie first there were caves and now there is the international space station...or something like that) - in chinese. We had to look through magazines and online to get pictures of special houses/buildings.

Then we had to make a house out of whatever is lying around the house. Here we have our materials gathered (I should mention at this point that several toilet rolls had been cannibalised for their cores and it was some time before we were to enjoy a “roll” of toilet paper) for what Alex decided would be a castle. Here Mummy was envisaging a cereal box made into a traditional Aussie house...

Great concentration was needed to cut out those circles traced for the conical rooves/roofs of the turrets. Mummy did the fancy battlements cutting out as it was in thicker shoebox cardboard and required adult scissors. Although Mummy filled her in on the purpose of the windows in a castle, Alex decided slits were not de rigeur and made lots of lovely big ones to see out of. We even managed a drawbridge – Alex being sad that we ran out of time to make a moat.

Here is the finished product – Alex took it to school and we hope to see it when we go visit her classroom, sometime this semester. We aren't sure what her teachers were expecting her to bring, but we're pretty certain it wasn't a castle.