check minus

Today my child scolded me for my lack of attention during homework time.

It started with her pulling her homework sheet from her folder and inquiring "Why is there red writing on here and no sticker?"

I looked it over. One red comment mentioned that she hadn't written her practice words over enough times. The next comment was a similar one about the letters. Then there was the matter of my forgetting to initial for every day's read aloud portion. I listened to her read it all those times, I just forgot to sign. Finally in the number section she'd written all three number sixes between eleven and forty backward. I was watching from across the table when she did it so I missed that mistake due to upside-down-ness.

The back side of her page was perfect. I was paying attention during that part.

I explained to her why she got each red mark and said the problem was we just didn't pay as much attention to home work this week as usual and she said "You mean you didn't pay as much attention as usual," I took the criticism nobly because it was true.

Last week I sat watching her perfectly form each letter just as the instructions on the page guided me to do and I thought "This is lame. She knows how to do it right already I can probably quit watching," So this week I only sort of watched and now I have the blood of a missed sticker on my hands.