My daughter's homework the other weekend was to create an A-Z of Europe, but without countries or capital cities. The instructions suggested composers, landmarks, rivers, etc. She asked me to go onto the computer to do it, but to be honest, I couldn't see how you even start such a task on the computer, apart from of course copying someone else's A-Z.
So, at 5pm on a Saturday, we were off to WH Smith down the village for a book on Europe. No such luck, so we came back with a school atlas, and a Dorling Kindersley Child's Encyclopedia. We wiped clean the whiteboard, and by six o'clock we only had 3 letters to go, K, Q, and Y.
What I had was a very strong memory of my own childhood, and flicking through Childcraft, Children's Britannica, and various children's encyclopedias of science and nature. My daughter was quickly skimming through the book, dismissing anything that wasn't about Europe, but with a few "cool"'s, a few "look at this Dad", and longer than she strictly needed to at the horses section. She had a good look through all of it, and has brought it into school for further reading.
It reminded me that the first instinct of the current generation to go to the internet for everything may not always be the best. That a large colourful book can hold it's own fascination, and add a few facts in along the way. And that you can complete a homework research task without a computer.
(And by the way, we used "Lakes of Killarney", "Quimper" in Britanny and "Yves Saint Laurent" to finish the list. Sibelius was our random composer, although she's more familiar with Swedish House Mafia.)
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