Picket Fence Post

Okay, I know, I know, I’ve been woefully negligent when it’s come to updating The Paper Project numbers.

The Paper Project, for those of you who may have forgotten, is my attempt to quantify the amount of paper that my three kiddos (a boy in third grade and boy-girl twin fifth graders) bring home during a school year.

Given that I oftentimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of requests, projects and paper that come home from school, sometimes without warning – The Youngest Boy just brought home a plastic jug which we’re supposed to fill with items so he can bring it back to school for his class to estimate the number of items inside — I figured that by putting a number on the paper blizzard I could at least place that overwhelming-ness into a context.

I just poured through the paper that was brought home during the second and fourth weeks of February — minus the winter vacation week and a snow day — plus the first week of March. Among the papers were: Four announcements for a fundraising event at my older kids’ school, a flyer telling us about a day when we’re supposed to be “unscheduled,” 35 math work sheets/word problems, 44 papers worksheets/assignments involving spelling/grammar/reading and a beautiful landscape art project my 8-year-old created. (It’s quite lovely.)

The total number of pieces of paper that came home during that time was: 147.

That brings the grand total of pieces of paper brought home this school year to: 1,407.

Two weeks have elapsed since I last updated my Picket Fence Post audience on the number of papers my three kiddos (grades 3, 5 and 5) brought home from school.

During those weeks – when we had two kids home sick (each were home from school one day) and they all missed a day of school due to a family situation – a total of 115 pieces of paper were dumped onto the kitchen counter.

Among the items in the array of papers were: 18 pages (worksheets, info sheets, etc.) on rocks and minerals, several flyers about a school read-a-thon, two red flyers about a school fundraising event, the agenda for an upcoming school committee meeting, a short story written by The Eldest Boy entitled “A Man in Black” (about a teacher leading a double life) and a dozen pieces of paper which served as study guides about the colonial era.

The grand total of the pieces of paper sent home from school since the beginning of the school year: 1,260.

Papers, we’ve got papers . . . In the past two weeks — which included a four-day MLK Day weekend — the three Picket Fence Post kids have brought home from school a total of 78 pieces of paper.

Included among the papers were: Four (count ‘em four) copies of the same solicitation for donations to Haiti earthquake relief, two invitations to a Noodle Night fundraiser, two solicitations for a notepad fundraiser, a newsletter from one of the school principals, a classroom newsletter from one of the teachers, 10 pages of worksheets and information about electric currents and circuits, copies of two Robert Frost poems (A Late Walk and Good Hours) that the fifth graders had to read aloud to me 12 times a piece for fluency homework and a notice about an event which is a “non-event” where families are encouraged to “unschedule” themselves and enjoy family time. . . that’s once they’ve unearthed themselves from the piles of paperwork.

The total number of papers brought home by the three kiddos (grades 3, 5 and 5) since The Paper Project began at the beginning of the school year: 1,145. (For background on The Paper Project, go here.)

First full week of 2010. The kiddos brought home a total of 89 pieces of paper from school, including several holiday-themed items they’d, for some reason, not brought home from school during the previous week.

The Youngest Boy brought home a gingerbread house he’d made, along with a sweet winter painting of the boy and me (*awww*) outside along with two fundraising flyers from the parent-teacher association. The Girl brought home a four-page creative writing project and The Eldest Boy brought home 17, count ‘em, 17 pages of math worksheets, seven pages on magnets and seven pages of holiday fun puzzles.

This brings the grand total of papers sent home during this school year to: 1,067.

The Christmas/New Year’s holiday break caused a bit of a backlog here at the Picket Fence Post’s Paper Project, where I’ve been attempting to tally the pieces of paper my three kids bring home from school in a single school year.

During weeks 16-17 (week 17 was only a half week due to the Christmas holiday) the children brought home a total of 96 pieces of paper.

Among the items that came home were: Three copies of a flyer about local ice skaking events, a six-page worksheet about electromagnets, a fifth grade muscle test, several spelling tests and pretests, a six-page third grade Colonial days booklet and a last-minute notice telling parents of kids who play in the fifth grade band that there was a winter concert. (The Eldest Boy is in the percussion section.)

That brings the total number of papers to a grand total of: 978.

During the fifteenth week of school — when, get this, all three of the Picket Fence Post children went to school and didn’t stay home sick, although there was a snow day — I saw lots of papers come my way.

Included among the 78 papers that came home during the week were: A hilarious 2-page cartoon drawn by The Youngest Boy where a character named Little Bug defeated a masked robber who was trying to steal televisions and included a depiction of a battle atop a skyscraper; a Bingo game where info about explorers was used to fill in the boxes; tons of fact sheets about explorers, the moon and the solar system; a two-page worksheet for my third grader’s “holiday family traditions” homework and a beautiful, large colorful nutcracker that The Eldest Son made in class before he and his fellow fifth graders went to see The Nutcracker.

That brings the total amount of papers sent home from school this school year to a total of 882. Anyone want to take bets on whether we’ll crack 1,000 by the end of the month?

Letters written in the voice of sailors from centuries past. Ten flashcards with facts and illustrations about the moon. Order forms to purchase gift cards as a PTA fundraiser. A food pantry solicitation flyer and a paper where my third grader wrote about the experiences of the Pilgrims, as well as a paper of “Pilgrim comics” and school lunch menus.

All of those, plus many other papers, were brought home from school during the past week by my three kiddos. The number of pieces of dead trees (including those moon flashcards) brought home in the past week was 53.

That brings the grand total of the pieces of paper sent home since the first day of school to: 804.

(For background on The Paper Project, go here.)

The past two weeks of school — Weeks 12-13 for those keeping track at home — saw The Girl miss three days of school due to illness (AGAIN! We just got over the swine flu here!) was abbreviated by the Thanksgiving holiday and yet, the kids managed to bring home a total of 88 pieces of paper.

The Youngest Boy brought home 34 math papers in one day (math tests of fast facts he’s supposed to master), The Girl’s 12-page moon book and The Eldest Boy’s seven pages of grammar worksheets.

This brings the tally of the pieces of paper sent home with my children since the first day of school to: 751.

(For the backstory on The Paper Project, go here.)

Even though the Picket Fence Post kids didn’t have school last Wednesday — in honor of Veteran’s Day — and The Youngest Boy went on a field trip to Plimoth Plantation all day Thursday (I chaperoned and had to repeatedly prevent third graders from killing the chickens that were running loose on the 17th century inspired village), the kids still brought home from school a grand total of 79 pieces of paper last week.

Among the paper items were: Projects on Mayan life, papers and worksheets about the moon and Plimoth Plantation, as well as fliers about an ice cream social/fund raiser and a bunch of handmade flashcards.

This brings the grand total of the number of pieces of paper brought home by the three Picket Fence Post kids this school year to: 663.

The swine flu and other insanities delayed the posting of my weekly tallies of the number of pieces of paper brought home from school by the three Picket Fence Post kids. (For the background on this project, go here.)

Here’s the latest update:

Week 9: This was a week in which The Youngest Boy brought home a voluminous package of information about selling cookie dough to finance “parent awareness programs,” an announcement of and solicitation for volunteers for an ice cream social/fundraiser at one of the schools and two progress reports. The total number of papers sent home: 59.

Week 10: The Girl also brought home her own informational packets on selling cookie dough, as well as a number of Halloween/autumn-themed art projects, grammar and cursive writing worksheets. Total number of papers sent home: 72. (Note: The Eldest Boy was not in school during this week due to illness.)

When I add the tallies from weeks 9-10 with the school-year-to-date numbers, the grand total is: 584.