Re: first day of kindergarten and homework!


frank megaweege wrote:
Caledonia wrote:
frank megaweege wrote:
toypup wrote:
DS finished the first day of kindergarten yesterday. For his homework, he
had to write his name, color a house, write his address, draw a picture of
someone he wants to talk on the phone with, write his phone number. It took
about half an hour and he was exhausted. Afterward, we were supposed to
read, but I wasn't going there.

I was expecting homework, I thought maybe write one letter of the alphabet,
but this is ridiculous. I told DH and he agreed, saying there many kids
coming into kindergarten not even reading much less writing addresses. We
happen to have a very long address, so it wasn't easy. Anyway, just
venting. Today, there is more homework, but I tried to get some of it out
of the way this morning before school so he is not overwhelmed after school.

I'm surprised so many agree and sympathize with you.
30 minutes worth of writing his name, address and phone number and
coloring a couple of pictures doesn't sound 'exhausting',
'overwhelming' or 'ridiculous'. Maybe you don't think it's the best
use of time if you had other productive activities planned instead, but
many kids would otherwise be plopped in front of the tv if there
weren't some structured assignments.

I think you'd probably consider me to be a slacker, then. Instead of
having my five-year-old in K copying out her name, address, and phone
number, she'd write up stories with her wacky phonetic spelling, or
create strange scenarios involving her stuffed animals, creatures that
she'd color, and tiny plastic animals all battling
whatever-Norse-God-story-we'd-just-read for control of under the dining
room table.

I came up with none of these scenarios, nor the idea of creating odd
'magic' doors in our hallways out of masking tape and butcher paper,
nor the strange ballads she'd sing to our dogs -- they're not big-P
Productive, but in my estimation, they're what kindergarteners should
be doing with their time. Not the rote copying out for 30 minutes --
given my daughter, though, this would end up being 10 minutes of
copying, then a break, then 10 minutes of copying -- so instead of
dedicating 2 1/2 hours a week to this stuff, it'd be closer to 4 1/2
hours.


It wasn't rote copying for 30 minutes. It was writing name address and
phone number (no way that takes 30 minutes) and coloring two pictures.
You should have plenty of time left over to play dress up.

This may be one of those YMMV experiences, but at five (this is K), DD1
hadn't learned 'chunking' terms to assist in memorization, so I would
have written out her name, address, and phone number as the address
itself was somewhat meaningless to her, and she would have copied it,
slooowly and painstakingly.

I haven't played 'dress up' since I left consulting.

I encourage my child to take
pride in completing a task to the best of his abilities (even if the
task itself is of questionable value- give the teacher some benefit of
the doubt). 30 minutes of school assignments outside of the classroom
just does not seem like too much to ask.

For me, rote copying for a five-year-old doesn't strike me as either
little-p productive or big-P Productive, but as a 'no-input-required'
activity calculated to fill up time -- unless, of course, the whole
point is to introduce five-year-olds to the concept of activities that
will just 'fill up' time.


I don't want much of my 6 year olds time to be filled with boring rote
activities, but a certain amount of that is necessary in learning to
write (physically that is, as opposed to creatively).

Physical writing, I've noticed in my very limited sample set of
volunteering in a first grade class (that's age 6 here) improves over
time with experience -- at the start of 1st grade, kids' handwriting
was all over the place and LARGE. By the end of the year, they were
using narrow-ruled paper, and I'd wager that 95% of the kids were
writing (letter formation and content) clearly. In K, some kids were
still used to using primarily upper-case letters most of the time...

This was accomplished, during the past year (1st grade), by having kids
keep journals and write stories -- it was neat to assemble these things
and notice the evolution of story structure, spelling, and letter
formation. There was none of the 'copy this sheet 10x' that I remember
from 1st (not K) grade.

Heck, back in K in my day, we still napped -- and it was only a
half-day K.

I guess at 30 minutes my limit isn't crossed. To me it's not too much
but to you and others it is. So how much wouldn't be too much?

For a 5 year old, an amount of 'required homework' that I feel
comfortable with is zip. A great optional weekly assignment would be to
describe something that happened -- either with a picture, words, or
combo thereof for the 'show and tell' part of class. And for a 5yo,
that amount, to me, wouldn't be 'too much.'

Conversely, what's your goal in having a 5 yo do 30 minutes of homework
a day?

Caledonia

.

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