Rebecca at the Well

School project...the words are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I hate homework. I hated it as a kid and I hate it now that I have kids. But I want my kids to be good students. I want them to have the study skills that I was completely lacking when I got to college. Basically I don't want them to be like me. And unfortunately, my daughter Lexi is- just like me.

I have spent a lot of time judging the ridiculous parents in my older son's class for doing their kids' projects for them. This has been easy for me because he likes to do things his own way and I sure don't feel like doing anyone's schoolwork.

But here I am facing my brilliant, adorable, charming, LAZY little 8 year old daughter, and the research project she just will not start. We chose a topic, our beloved vacation spot Block Island...checked the required three books out of the library...and, well that's it. Occasionally I suggest "you should start your project." She moans, whines, and falls on the floor. I check facebook. We all move on. Apparently this isn't enough to get a project done.

So I have to go against my strict code of ethics and get involved in a school project. I start flipping thru a book and come across a familiar statue on Block Island...Rebecca at the Well. I discover a fun fact, apparently the statue was erected by the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, thinking it was depicting Rebecca from the Old Testament. It was discovered years later to be Hebe, cupbearer to the Greek Gods. No doubt they put a gal like Lex and I in charge of that research.

Tonight I made an outline for Lexi...but she will be finding the facts and doing the writing herself. I think between the two of us we can get thru this school thing...hopefully better than I did the first time. And really, that statue of Rebecca or Hebe or whoever is quite lovely, regardless.