Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cottage Industry

Laura brought home a flyer from school announcing an impending Mexican Market Day. It seems that all month, the kids are earning pesos for making "positive behavior choices." Laura told me she earned 13 pesos yesterday "for being quiet." Hmmm. It's true that sometimes the most positive behavior choice you can make is to do nothing at all.

So at the end of the month, they will all get the chance to spend their pesos at a Mexican market. Here's the killer: the flyer informs us, "At home, each student needs to produce 25-30 items to sell at the market." Yes, you read that correctly, 25-30 items. The flyer promises that this activity will be the "culmination of the students' study of Mexico, economics, and the desert habitat." Well! If it's going to do all that then what am I grumbling about?

The teacher has provided suggestions. They include: foam desert animal bookmarks, jewelry, desert key chains, themed pencil toppers, clothespin magnets, desert animal puppets, Mexican themed placemats (can I steal these from Chipotle?), suncatchers, and pet rocks (!).

Laura wants to make sombreros. Sure, 25-30 sombreros, I'm sure there's a way to do that, perhaps by purchasing a share in a factory in Juarez.

We are so, so open to suggestions.

5 comments:

Bren said...

I can suggest a few things for you to take that will put an end to them ever asking kids to bring things from home...

Amy said...

That is craziness!! 25-30 items? Maybe you can pick up a couple 12 packs of tacos from taco bell.

Bren said...

Okay. As I sat in the car pick-up line at school, I was thinking about this for some reason.
1. Air dry (or bake, but that's more expensive) clay. Roll into balls. Flatten. Press something mexican into the clay to make an impression. Poke a hole, and you have a necklace. WHAT exactly to make an impression of? Dunno. Has she gotten any mexican thingies from school? We have a mexican coin... Anyway, here's what it would look like: http://artfulparent.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jvphotos_04-2008_pic12361.jpg
You could even just do discs that you just paint in the colors of the mexican flag.

Rope bracelets in the colors of the mexican flag: http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson57.html

There.

Becky said...

Thanks! I am totally going to look into the clay necklace idea. Maybe with Fimo? I need to figure out what Mexican thingie to use though. I will post pics of our handicraft.

David said...

When I was eight or so, I went to a Mexican-themed birthday party in the dead of winter in Pittsburgh. As a party favor, I got a bag of 10 or so Mexican jumping beans. I loved them at the time. And I learned a lot about the life expectancy of moth larva that are born inside beans but never make it out. Very educational: entomology, botany, and grieving skills.

... You could also knit some ponchos that say "Treinta objetos es muy loco en la cabeza."