Hellobee Boards

@Becky: that does seem really young for math homework. Have you had a chance to talk to the teacher about it? Like, is this something extra you CAN do if your kid wants to, or is like a required thing? I really can’t see a barely five year old coming home from an entire day at school and still having an interest in doing that. BUT on the other side, in my town some kids still do half day K. In those cases, I could see working on worksheets like that in the afternoon.

But, I am by no means a seasoned parent in this. My oldest turned 5 at the end of the summer and we waited an extra year for K because she just really wasn’t ready. And thinking about doing this with her seems challenging. She *knows* the pattern you mentioned but getting her to sit and do that for 20 minutes after a long day would be really hard.

I think it isn't best practice or following what the research says is developmentally appropriate for getting kids on track. I have some great resources in process that I can share on this next month.

For now, talk to her teacher. Ask why she sddigbs homework and talk about your concerns

Fellow Kindergarten mom here. Disclaimer that my kid attends Catholic school. I know the local public school has a no-homework policy for Kinder. I think they just encourage daily reading. Our catholic school started homework after about 1-2 months into Kinder. It’s usually 1 writing worksheet and 1 math worksheet Monday through Thursday. Plus we have weekly sight words and weekly beginner reading books to practice. It is a lot. I admit, I don’t like the nightly worksheets and mostly wish we didn’t have them. Since it is required though, I try to see the positive - it gives me a chance to both be aware of what they’re learning in school and allows me to have a direct window into how he’s doing as I see him complete it and give him some one-on-one teaching when needed. Honestly the worksheets take less than 10 minutes, too, so we deal. So yeah, I kinda wish we only had to work on sight words and reading, but since it’s required I try to see the positive.

Do both. Home math stuff and school math stuff. Life is like that. Jobs are like that. Some things you do bc you want to and some things you do because you have to. It is not uncommon for a kindergartener to go through adjustments. You can give the teacher, school and child support by not second guessing school procedures in front of your young child. When they get older and can advocate, that is a different story. You need to help build a child’s trust in the place they are at without you. You can meet with teacher and question them to their face, privately and tactfully, if you feel the need. So yes,put your energy toward helping your child adjust. If you know it is wrong, you will know. But don’t just act on fear and temporary difficulty. Build resilience and try to see the logic. I don’t give much math homework but a lot of research says to encourage bringing up knowledge in brain repeatedly for retention. That is what homework is for, to help reinforce what is learned. Rule of thumb is 10 mins of HW plus 20 mins of reading per day for kinder.

When my daughter started Kindergarten, she was still taking naps so the adjustment was pretty big for her. She wasn’t getting enough running around time at school so she was a mix of exhausted and wild. Then they had lots of homework. The one good thing about her homework was that they usually just had a chunk that was due by Friday so we could work on it when we wanted. We had a lot going on her K year so occasionally if they sent a worksheet home they wanted the next day, we wouldn’t get to it. Usually it came back until she did it, but teacher said she was fine with that arrangement.

We had a bunch of K on our street that year, one mom was super anti-homework and just let her kid pick and choose if and how he did his work (meaning it often wasn’t done), one mom HELPS (meaning she often did the work for her kid), some are super type A and everything is by the book. None of that has seemed to matter much from what I’ve seen, all the kids are at a fairly similar level and where they differ has been apparent since they were in pre-school. But all the parents are involved and concerned about their kids education and they go to a good public school, so when the kids are falling behind on something it’s quickly picked up on by either parents or teachers, and that’s what seems to matter. No 5 year old is learning anything of substance for 10 hours a day by sitting in a classroom.

I’m a HS teacher in a family of elementary teachers. My son is in L and they have no HW. Worksheets are not good for learning and it bugs me whenever I see them sent home. If I was in your situation I would talk about it during the conferences. My entire goal of schooling for my son is for him to not start to dislike any aspect of school. Forced worksheet he for really young children does not inspire a love of learning. We often do silly math problems with the lights out right before bed...because he wants to...much more beneficial (and sounds like what you’re already doing).

@Becky: I'm going to sidestep your larger homework question (because I have some gripes/complaints about my own kindergarten daughter's homework, and still we've been doing it, so I don't have any great solutions for you there)--but just curious, where is your child while you are at work? Who has her after school on a night like last night when you got home at bedtime?

Whether or not I think homework for K is okay/not okay, I realize that you obviously can't supervise homework when you work and get home late. I also don't think the last hour before bed is a good time for homework. But can't your partner/the babysitter/the aftercare program supervise the homework and make sure it's done before you are home?

I posted earlier about not liking the homework my K daughter is getting--I still don't like it. Sometimes it seems more like "mommy's homework" since I get home at 4:30 and I am typically the one supervising homework while I make dinner. Like last night was a craft activity that needed parental help and I imagined most of the parents doing this craft for their kids, and that just seems silly to me in this day and age when most families have two working parents. But, we did it--I squelched my perfectionist urge to get involved and let my daughter do it, messy glue and popsicle sticks and everything. Her final product looked like a hot mess, but I totally don't care.

One other thing--although I'm in the "no homework for under 3rd grade" camp, my husband is pro homework, which is why we've been doing the homework thus far. ONE small silver lining of the worksheet homework is that by supervising her work, I've caught some writing mistakes that I might not know about otherwise--she used to write her lowercase a's correctly, but the other day while I watched her do her homework, I noticed her writing it wrong every time (like not starting at the top of the letter), so that gave me an opportunity to correct that--I doubt her teacher has time at school to watch her write each letter. But I don't love ignoring my 3 year old while I cook dinner to supervise/help my 5 year old with worksheets almost every night.

@Becky: I think you can have a discussion with the teacher without telling her how to do her job. Saying "worksheets are not an effective tool for kindergarten" is your opinion, not a fact and closes off the opportunity for discussion on the topic. Ask her why she is assigning homework to the class, and what she hopes they will get from it. I see value in worksheets and also see how it's difficult to complete them with your schedule. I don't see value in sending home a coloring page. I would try to figure out what the teacher is hoping the kids will get from the homework, and present to her that it is difficult to fit it in and explain that your child is not getting those effects because it is rushed but that you are exposing her to these concepts in real life.

Another POV to consider is that while your family introduces these concepts in real life, that won't be the case for all families. Sometimes this homework is a tool to get parents to interact with their children's learning. The teacher has to take that into consideration when deciding a path forward for the class as a whole.

DS was in kindergarten last year, I don't remember we had math work sheets, but there were language arts work sheets and it was once a week, and we had the weekend to do it.

I'd talk to the teacher about it, I also always thought it is unnecessary to give out homework at kindergarten. People don't do homework until 2nd or 3rd grade in Europe, and all is well. Kids need to play, but that's just me.

In terms of time management, I do want to say there will be increased homework onwards... so next year or the year after, you will still get home after your child's bedtime and he/she may not be done with homework....etc. Something to start thinking about

I'm a kindergarten teacher! We are required to assign it and I try to be as flexible as possible. Four worksheets go home on Monday and are due Friday. Homework is what connects parents to school. It is how you can see daily if the concept/skill comes easily to your child or needs extra practice. Doing homework with your child reinforces the message that schoolwork is important. My 12 years of experience has taught me that when parents and teachers are both reinforcing the importance of following rules and trying your best makes the most successful students! If your child is struggling with number writing, you most definitely should be doing the number writing homework as assigned and probably more! Yes, the standard is much more than we were expected to do at that age but the standard is not going to change so extra practice is needed. Kids don't just develop into being able write numbers and letters correctly. The develop into being ready to be taught. The work you put into it now will pay off! I promise!

@Becky: I wanted to follow up on this thread to share a documentary that just came out that talks about why this type of learning really isn't ideal developmentally. You might want to share it with your teacher as a discussion point. She might not realize that there are other ways to hit her objectives.