Are You Smarter Than a 5th-Grader?

OK, you’ve probably seen the show by now. If not, I’m sure you know what I’m speaking of.

I will admit that I haven’t seen “Are you Smarter Than a 5th-Grader” for a while now.  Not because it’s not on TV anymore, but because—well, because I like to think of myself as smart. And those kids—OYE VEY!!

I went to the kitchen table to assist my kindergartener with his homework. After all, I am smarter than a 5th-grader, right? So I should be able to handle this.

I proudly reviewed my son’s homework. The first page (yes, there was more than one page) said, “Find the vertices.” Nope, that’s not a typo, my friends. It’s not verticals— VERTICES.

Yes, my eyeballs popped out as my brain processed “VERTICES.” I began to strain my brain when my KINDERGARTENER said, “Angles, Mommy. I have to find the angles.”

“Why yes it is!” I replied, as I wiped the sweat from my brow.

Page 2: There were three shapes on the page labeled geometry. My face looked like this :-/. My son said, “Mommy, it’s a pattern. I have to draw the shape that comes next.”  Ahhh, a pattern. RIGHT!

Page 3 (yes, this was the last page…whew!): Count how many cylinders and write the number. YES! I had this one. The excitement was written all over my face, and I was doing a happy dance in the dining room. 

After this experience, I found that the more we learn, the more we forget. And sometimes, we just miss the obvious.

I also learned that our children are little sponges, able to process so much more than we can imagine.

In our household, we now look at homework as a game show. And I’m proud to say that overall, I AM smarter than a kindergartener.