7th Grade

At some point this week, I realized I would be experiencing seventh grade science and social studies again through Colin.  I also realized how little I recall from seventh grade science and social studies.  Up until now when Colin looked to me for homework assistance, I would nod sagely and point him in the right direction.  Homework last week and this week has gone more like this --

Colin: Do you think this is right?


Me:  I have no idea.  Can you look it up?

Now I know that this is the way a parent should help her child with homework.  She should be encouraging him to figure out the answer on his own, and I think I've done a pretty good job with that.  Now, though, it's because I don't know the answer either, and I am finding that way more humbling.

Colin's social studies class, World Geography, is going to be especially challenging because when I took world geography in sixth grade, it was a whole different ballgame.  A large part of Europe/Asia was taken up with the USSR.  Now it's all those little countries that end in "thia" or "stan."  Are you like me?  Do you listen to the news sometimes and hear one of those little countries -- like Tajikistan -- and say, "That's not really a country! Is that really a country?!"

So this is good.  In future I will watch the news and say, "Kyrgyzstan!  Of course!"