Totally OT- homework in kindergarten

mommyrunning · September 2014

My daughter is in 1st grade this year and she still has sloppy handwriting. She still also switches some letters b/d, g/q which the teacher says is normal for this age. She loves to write and read but she just needs more time to get better at writing. Last year the school did a program where they had the kids have extra gym time doing things like basketball which studies suggest actually help with fine motor skills/hand eye coordination. Another teacher suggested letting kids play with playdough to strengthen their hands and fingers. So those things might help with the hand writing.

I think your son is being given a bit more than what is normal but I will tell you what my daughter does in comparison. Both in K and 1st my daughter was given weekly homework which we could spread out over the week to finish by Friday. In Kindergarten it was a couple of worksheets, nightly reading, and usually some sort of physical activity such as practice tying shoes. Going into Kindergarten my daughter could tie her shoes, count to at least 20 without errors, read and write her alphabet, recite her parent's phone #'s, and spell/read many 3 letter words which I thought was great. However, she was right on track & only a few weeks ahead of their schedule. In first grade, she has 4 pages of math each week and 10 spelling words. She must pick 3 activities involving her spelling words such as writing them and circling the vowels or writing a sentence with each. Then the following Monday they are tested on their spelling words and math and given a # grade (80,90,100 etc.).

I think you should express your concerns to the teacher and staff about the amount of homework. That being said they may not have a lot of flexibility depending on what your state requires. If they won't/cant adjust the amount of homework then maybe just try to think of it in a positive way and know he will probably be ahead of peers that attend other schools. Be careful not to let your frustration with all the homework show because he will follow your lead. I tell my daughter that when it is hard her brain is growing and that if it's easy her brain won't grow as much.

You can do some things to make it more fun such as using skittles or m&ms for counting out math problems then let him eat them when he finishes the work sheet. There are also lots of fun spelling and math games on amazon. We bought counting bears and a math game and use those to do math problems. For the spelling we have a spiral notebook and work at the kitchen table after dinner on the spelling words. When she is tired or bored we take a break and walk to the mail box and play for a bit. We started a start chart and add stars when she gets an A (90 or above) on assignments and after 5 stars she gets to go to the bookstore and pick out a new book. We also started doing a Saturday gymnastics class she's really been wanting to do and it works out as a kind of reward or treat at the end of the week. For the reading we have a pretty good collection of books and we let her pick 1-3 books (depending on their length) to read before bedtime. The great thing about the nightly reading is last year I was reading them to her and this year she wants to read them to me.

Counting bears link:
http://www.amazon.com/50-Counting-Bears-5-Cups/dp/B0006PKZBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410964209&sr=8-1&keywords=counting+bears

SunofaBeach14 · September 2014

I'm convinced. Definitely time to stop pushing kids in math and science.

Pirate_chick · September 2014

Get used to it. My kid is in all honors classes, the school work, homework, and projects are ridiculous. But she's highly intelligent. Start them young and don't become complacent.

Slacker16 · September 2014

I don't remember if I had homework in kindergarten but I do remember learning French and English...

In fact, the amount of homework I did was inversely proportional to my age. I don't think I did any homework ages 13-25... but that might just have been me.

This I can confirm and is a huge pet peeve of mine.

The same trend remains true in high school - teaching math as memorization of techniques - and it really handicaps American students in math classes beyond elementary calculus (and any classes which require it).

After a certain level, you need to be able to understand where those techniques come from and use them in unfamiliar problems. Many undergrads have no idea how to do that.

WinoGelato · September 2014

My son is in full day kindergarten at a gifted magnet school, so they teach an accelerated curriculum. His only regular homework is the recommendation that we spend at least 20 minutes/night reading with him, working toward him doing more of the reading than we are. They send home some work but usually things like "Collect 10 things from around your house that tell a story about you". Our school focuses on Project Based Learning but traditional techniques are used as well.

Granted we are only about 6 weeks into the school year so more traditional homework may be coming. I do think an hours worth of worksheets each night would be challenging, not because I don't think he could handle it, but just that as a working parent, our evenings are pretty short to begin with...

WinoGelato · September 2014

Also, this is not completely relevant to the topic of how much homework is appropriate for kindergartners, but I found this article very insightful recently and we have recently starting using this approach with my son. It makes him much more willing to be persistent with his reading, no longer giving up as easily when he gets to a word he doesn't recognize.

https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/95208400815/the-learning-myth-why-ill-never-tell-my-son-hes

gypsy_spirit · September 2014

It's never about exclusion and I don't think anyone is saying that. It's about inclusion. In the early development stages, a well rounded child will master skills faster than a child who has to sit and "work" through all his free time at home. I'm not talking about tv/video game time - I'm talking about having time each day to decompress - be a kid. Run outside, ride your bike, use imaginative play with friends, dig in the dirt, collect bugs, watch clouds, catch lightning bugs, All the things that make a child well rounded and - happy.

Shalaurise · September 2014

Everyone's life is different. I am glad that you or your wife have time to sit down with your kids and do that much homework every evening. I wish I did.

my daughter's schedule is a little packed.
8-10 hours of sleeping (depending on how pissy she was/is)
1 hour to get ready for school
15 min to get to school
7 hours at school
3 hours at after school program
15 min to get home
1 hour bothering me for food while I try to cook dinner
1 hour to eat dinner and talk about our days
30 min griping to me while I try to clean up from dinner
1 hour to do hair... because yes, it really takes me that long to brush it out and braid it.

On a good day, if she can survive with only 8 hours sleep and be able to behave at all like that we have a little bit of time to sit down and read together. We have time to play in the bath, not just scrub up super quick before hair time. Having the school send home another hour worth of school work after she has spent 10 hours there each day is kind of excessive. I rarely feel there is a moment to just spend time with her. I am too busy making dinner, feeding the cats, doing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping, vacuuming, being at work, and the time I get with her is full of her being angry and resentful at me for making her do even more work. She is 6, not an adult. She should have a childhood. She should remember playing and having friends and fun. Book learning should be a part of her life, not her WHOLE life.

I used to dream of being able to get my kids into dance, karate, gymnastics... whatever it was they are interested in. We just don't have time. She begs me for dance classes and I want to take her with all my heart, but there is no time.

(Side note: My MFP time is during work hours, aka, while she is at school. I rarely post or surf it outside of my work days. Facebook only gets looked at on my lunch break and I can't remember the last time logged into Fetlife.)

SunofaBeach14 · September 2014

That must suck. I'm truly sorry

Kaelakcr · September 2014

That seems like a bit much, time-wise. But the amount of days seems right; it's to get the kids used to the habit of working on school work every single night.

Lesleycali · September 2014

yes, this echoes how I feel. As an immigrant from rural Turkey, my father pushed us hard to do well in school. which we did. Still the homework and pressure didn't start at age 5. My brother and sister took more "traditional" routes, one is a Dr. who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, the other a college professor of political science. I went my direction. Those early years of free play let me pursue my strengths, and it obviously did not harm my siblings in becoming successful.

I'm all for helping children reach their full potential, we watch hardly any TV, (although yes, I'm obviously on the interwebz , maybe more than I should be). We have always spent lots of time reading to them daily. About 1/2 hour at night and 20 minutes after school (not school stuff, just their favorite books to get some cuddles in after school). And yes,I believe inclusion of different types of exploration and free play, as well as academics, is important for this particular age.

Lesleycali · September 2014

phew! about time- it only took 4 pages! So...uh.... do you want to buy a painting? kidding kidding

mommyrunning · September 2014

This response assumes a lot. Not all kids get hours a day to play and do nothing. My daughter is dropped off at 715 and attends school until 245 then goes to an after school program until 6 when we pick her up on our way home from work. She needs to be to bed by about 830 to get enough sleep which leaves about 2-2 1/2 hrs to have dinner, do homework, have family time/wind down, bath time, reading stories etc. She rarely watches much TV. On a good night she gets about 20 minutes of tv in with her dad while I get her younger sister to sleep. So dedicating 1 hr a night to homework would be a challenge. I agree it's important to reinforce what's taught at school with some practice but studies have shown that free play in young children has educational benefit and too much work like what the OP mentioned can inhibit learning.

SunofaBeach14 · September 2014

We are talking 1 lousy hour here. That's hardly going to rob a 5 year old of her childhood. I absolutely agree that kids need to be active and catch bugs, and I agree that there is a tipping point, but the OP was about 1 hour for a 5 year old. I just don't see that as excessive.

SunofaBeach14 · September 2014

Watcha got? Any artsy newds? I'm all for supporting the arts.

Guns_N_Buns · September 2014

TL/DR

Put your kid in Kindergarten in China for a day....

How is civilization every going to evolve if you want your kid to do/know exactly what you did at that age?

Knowledge is power, not poison.

jlchandl17 · September 2014

My daughter is also 5 and in Kindergarten this year, but they are doing everything she learned last year in K4, so what work she does bring home takes her about 5 seconds because she already knows it all.

I'm disappointed since she's not doing anything new, but she likes it because "school is easy"..hmmpph

Why didn't you have your kid in Preschool? The things you described are basic skills he should have going into school, and if he needs more work to get there, you should help him and bring him up to the level he needs to be, not let it go and bring everyone else down.

Lesleycali · September 2014

Sorry man, I mostly do architectural subjects...sometimes a landscape sneaks in... maybe my next project will be a series of nudes... of MFP members :bigsmile:

neandermagnon · September 2014

I agree that there's nothing wrong with parents helping kids at home - that wasn't my point. My point was that teachers should not rely on this, they should teach what they're supposed to teach at school. If parents supplement education at home then that's up to them, but they shouldn't need to be teaching what teachers are supposed to be teaching in schools. Also, you must agree that there's no point in taking several hours to do something that could be achieved in half an hour if it was done properly... that's my point. Bad teaching methods waste everyone's time and sending kids home with tons of homework as a sticky plaster fix is inefficient and doesn't actually fix the problem in a lot of cases. I'm all in favour of doing more work... but efficiency of work is important too. Putting in lots of hours for the sake of it when you could achieve a lot more if you worked more efficiently is pointless.

re phonics studies:
The Rose Report and another major study in Scotland - I can't remember the name of it, it was a major study comparing different schools in Scotland. The two are usually cited together, so if you find the Rose Report you may find references to the other one alongside it. The British national curriculum switched over to synthetic phonics a few years after the results of these studies were published (I knew about the studies before the government made the decision to do that).

Phonics isn't about teaching kids "wrong" and then fixing it. At no point are kids being taught to read or write anything incorrectly (if it's done properly). Your own experience was with one particular school and your own children, so maybe that was a particular problem with the way phonics was being taught in that case. Phonics is a lot more difficult to teach correctly (although with a properly written scheme of work it shouldn't take any more effort for the class teacher to actually deliver in the classroom, but whoever writes the schemes of work needs a lot more expertise) - a bad phonics scheme will confuse both teachers and kids, as will teachers not being trained well in delivering it.

Asian writing systems are not relevant here because they're not phonetic systems.

Phonics requires memorising how to write individual sounds in words, rather than memorising every word as a separate entity and how to put them together to make words. Of course phonics requires less memorisation because there's much less to remember. Even with irregular words, you only have to memorise the one sound that's irregular, not the whole entire word. Phonics works both for spelling and reading (if it's taught correctly you learn both together), while sight words only teaches reading, the whole lot then has to be memorised again as spellings (which doubles the amount of memorising). For people with strong visual memories, this comes very easily so they don't commonly realise just how difficult it is for people who don't have a strong visual memory. The more intelligent of these people also manage to infer the phonics system, i.e. that sounds are represented by letters and groups of letters, and that spelling follows a set of mostly logical rules (albeit with some oddities in English).... However the logic behind the writing system is not obvious to everyone and not everyone has the visual memory to remember many words by sight, or the ability to infer the logic behind the writing system without being taught it explicitly. The difference between sight words and synthetic phonics is that in the latter, the logic behind the writing system - i.e. that sounds are represented by letters/groups of letters that can be sounded out and blended into words - is taught explicitly, rather than giving kids a lot of lists of words to remember by what they look like alone and expect them to figure it out by themselves as they go along or memorise everything without ever understanding the connection between letters and sounds... which 40% of kids can't do, hence 40% of kids in British schools taught with sight words getting to secondary school without enough reading ability to understand secondary school textbooks, compared to 0% of kids in schools that taught synthetic phonics (that's the figures from the Rose Report and the other study I can't remember the name of).

Anyway, I get you that a lot of these kinds of studies are not very good and are just banging their own drum - but the two studies I mentioned were long term studies following the progress of thousands of children, comparing schools that taught synthetic phonics with schools that taught sight words methods, and the results are pretty striking.

Also, this is what a good phonics scheme looks like: http://www.piperbooks.co.uk/ - I can't see anywhere where kids are being taught anything wrong and then having it "fixed". It's just teaching reading and spelling in a very systematic way, where unfamiliar words are read by sounding out and blending them and new sounds and new irregular words are introduced bit by bit as they go along. It's the scheme I've been using to teach my kids and all the struggling readers I tutored while living in Bahrain (one of my three jobs there), it's great and I'd recommend it to anyone who's teaching struggling readers of any age (although there's a separate scheme aimed at older children and adults who are struggling to learn to read which has more age-appropriate books, but the method is identical)

SunofaBeach14 · September 2014

Just say "newds" in a thread and they'll show up in your in inbox. It's like magic. Oh, wait.

Totally OT- homework in kindergarten

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