Assignment-Driven Park Visit

Mrs. Albert decided to take her kids to a nice park for the day. She got ready for the day by finding some park curriculum on the internet. She was really glad to find out she could get some for free, because she wanted to make sure that her children wouldn’t have any gaps in their park experience. She used the free park curriculum to prepare a series of assignments for their day. As she went over the curriculum, she saw some very interesting facts about park equipment that she didn’t know before. “This is good and thorough curriculum,” she thought.

She had heard that some parents let their kids just play and explore the park on their own, thinking that the kids would learn something and have a well-rounded park experience by doing so. Mrs. Albert was a much more organized person than that. She felt her kids needed more structure, and the discipline of learning how to go through the assignments would be good for them.

When they got to the park, her children didn’t really feel like getting out of the car. They’d been to other places like this. They knew they wouldn’t be allowed to play and explore the park, which made them prefer to stay in the car. The boys each played with their handheld electronic games, while Lila texted her friends and checked her facebook.

Mrs. Albert tried to be really enthusiastic. She assured them that the assignments she had were going to be fun! After all, they were in a PARK!  She tried to convince them that parks are fun. Finally, she had to threaten to take away their games and Lila’s phone to get them out of the car. She promised they could play their games for the rest of the day AFTER they got their park assignments done.

She gathered them around her to begin their time at the park with some devotions. Those weren’t in the park curriculum, but because she really wanted her children to know and love God, she started out with park devotions she modified from a devotional book. She talked a great deal about how God made nature, and about being thankful for the park. The children listened dutifully, wishing they could go play at the park, but knowing there wouldn’t be time for that once the assignments were done.

When park devotions were over, she gave them their first assignment. She gave Lila and Andrew a sheet of instructions for going down the slide, and told them to read it while she read Benny’s paper to him. She was really glad she had a color printer, because the pictures really added interest to the assignment. After their reading, she asked them a couple of discussion questions to make sure they had really read their paper. “What do you think is the purpose for going down the slide?” The kids had seen other kids going down the slide. Because the answer seemed so obvious, they thought maybe mom was trying to get them to say something else. They said nothing.

Mom was disappointed that they either hadn’t read the paper, or they forgot already.  She asked them to look at their papers again. Lila found where the paper said, “Going down a slide provides enjoyment from the thrill of elevated downward speeds.”  She read that sentence out loud to her mom who said, “That’s right!” She was excited that Lila was able to give the right answer. She felt like they were really going to learn a lot at the park that day.

She took the kids over to the slide and had them go down it one at a time. When they got done, she had them fill out a worksheet about slides in order to remember all they had learned from their experience. Since Lila knew how to write pretty well, Mrs. Albert made her write in a journal about the feelings she had during her slide experience.

Next, mom moved on to the assignment she’d planned for the tire swing. She had each one climb on the tire swing and then she pushed them in it. When it was Lila’s turn, she worked hard at making sure she appeared as though it was boring and dumb. She didn’t want her mom to think that she was enjoying being pushed by her. After a few swings back and forth, she made them get off so that the others could have a turn. After they all had a turn on the tire swing she took them to the bench to have a discussion. “What did you notice about the tire swing?

Andrew said “I noticed it smelled funny.”

“That’s right Andrew! That smell comes from the rubber of the tire.” She talked for a while about all the possible places that tire could have come from. “What about you Benny, what did you notice?”

Benny had noticed the smell too. He wanted to say that he noticed he didn’t get to swing as long as Andrew had, but he knew that wasn’t the sort of answer Mom was looking for. He said, “I don’t know.”  Mom thought this particular assignment was really good because it allowed the kids to make their own observations. It appeared as though Benny was really thinking, which made her feel like it was a successful exercise.

Lila said, “I think tire swings are dumb.” Mom didn’t know how to respond to Lila’s little outburst. She seemed to be having these bad attitudes more and more often. Mrs. Albert thought maybe it was because of the music Lila had started listening to. Maybe they needed more devotions about choosing God-honoring music.

“Lila, I think you can say something more positive than that. Didn’t you notice anything about the tire swing?”

“Yeah, it stinks too.” Mrs. Albert thought the best thing to do for now was press forward and get their assignments done. She thought maybe she’d better talk with her husband about the music issue. Perhaps they should take away Lila’s music to make her more serious about her assignments.

Next in the park curriculum was a section about merry-go-rounds. This park didn’t have a merry-go-round, but because Mrs. Albert knew the park test had questions about the merry-go-round, she went ahead and gave them the assignment. Besides, it would be beneficial because they would probably go to a park one day where there was one. She passed out their merry-go-round worksheets. There were pictures of different styles of merry-go-rounds and a history of their development along with some notes about safety. Since Lila’s was the middle school version, the history section was longer and more detailed.

Lila had played on a merry-go-round before she turned 5 and had to start assignments. She remembered what it was like to play on one and more about them than the boys did. She had vague memories of really enjoying the merry-go-round and enjoying being with Mom as they played, but now she thought it was probably childish. She had no desire to play on one. Her thoughts drifted toward co-op day, which was tomorrow. Even though she still had assignments at co-op, she didn’t have to do them with mom, and she got to visit with her friends in between assignments. Lila thought about what she would wear in order to fit in at co-op as she finished up the crossword puzzle with merry-go-round related words. The boys were coloring a picture of some kids playing on one.

Andrew and Benny couldn’t figure out why someone would want to stand on a merry-go-round as the kids in the pictures were. It looked boring. Andrew didn’t really want to color that picture, but he liked to color. He started drawing a cat face in the blank space beside the picture. He was glad mom was pre-occupied with getting ready for the next assignment so that he could enjoy his coloring for a while. Because he knew she would be unhappy when she saw that he wasn’t coloring what was assigned, he put some stray scribbles in it. When Mrs. Albert came to check on their progress, she was disappointed that Andrew wasn’t doing his best at the coloring. She gave him a sincere talk about doing all his work as unto the Lord. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him, but he tried to remember that next time he should put more stray scribbles in the picture, and draw his cat face on the back. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to sit through the talking to.

Mom pulled the kids through the rest of their park curriculum assignments as she began to secretly wish it would be over soon. She dreaded the fact that it was only Tuesday, and they had 3 more days after this for curriculum and assignments. At least tomorrow she wouldn’t have to drag them through on her own, and she would get to see her friends at co-op. Her thoughts drifted toward the week end and then even farther into the future when it would be summer time. Once again she willfully suppressed the rising thought that she might not be able to stand this for yet another year. But, she knew God had called her to it. She would keep doing it, even if she dreaded it and the kids didn’t really seem to like it. At least they liked going to co-op. That was good.

It troubled her slightly that all they wanted at home were their games and cell phone, and that they didn’t really seem to put their heart into their assignments, even their park assignments. She was pretty sure it would all turn out OK since all of her friend’s children were doing the same sorts of things. She comforted herself with knowing that her children would be able to pass the park test. She knew that’s what really mattered.

 

How is the assignment-driven education you’re providing for your children going? What is it causing in your relationship with your children?

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photo credits: slide/gb_packards, tire swing/ShearZones