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Our only homework for now is reading 30 minutes. But honestly the kids come home so tired there is no way I could get them to sit down for more work. 🤷‍♀️

@Mrs. Yoyo: FWIW last year our homework was the same as yours- math, reading and a response plus vocabulary. The teacher and I constantly butted heads about it because I could never get him to do everything; it was just too much and took way too long with younger siblings at home and no real motivation on his part to do it.

@Mrs. Yoyo: I feel you. Good luck! And definitely make the teacher aware of how long it’s taking...that was the only way I sort of got through to ours.

Thanks for the Greg Tang recommendation. Do you have Fall break where you live? DD is doing a nature camp this fall and we are super excited. It will be a pain in my husband’s schedule to drive her that far but we are willing to sacrifice for a week. How are your activities going? DD doesn’t really care for gymnastics and wants out but it has helped her with her motor skills so much. Genes wise, she has very petite body structure (wrists/ankles) etc. I hate to pull her out but it has been an ongoing conversation for two months so we finally agreed to reduce her to one hour a week. I told her we would make an effort to do more family biking/hiking/swimming etc. in place of gymnastics. It just feels weird to pull out of a structured team atmosphere (and very highly quality staff) but nothing is sticking. We don’t want to do soccer because of injuries. Again, she is usually one of the smallest (but bravest) kids. So for now, she is still in Japanese. Well, we are on 2 week break and then she can join the next session if we decide to. She really likes it. But part of me thinks, how useful is this at this point? I mean the culture stuff is good and I think kids more easily learn language at this age but I’m not sure. Plus DH and I aren’t actively learning right now so it really is because of her interest level. Did your child find their passions yet...that you pay for?? How do you decide on activities if they are only lukewarm? Do you feel pressure to ‘do something’ paid? I liked it when I took a year off and we just traveled and did an occasional camp once in awhile. Part of me wonders if I’ll regret it though. Haha....mommy doubts.

My rule is just one thing outside of school, and one school club (they are fairly low-key) if he desires. He has a boys' gymnastics class and opted out of school clubs this time around, partly because I think he realizes that homework is more intense.

DH wants our preschooler to do extracurriculars too and I've held off so far. I do not want to be shuttling them around every day, and a full day of school is more than enough at age 4.

Thanks for your responses. DD also does a weekly church event which will end in May so we have that too. I think we will stick with Japanese for one more 10 week session and see how that goes with gymnastics.

@lamariniere: I am so envious of your kids' language abilities! My mother is fully trilingual in three very different languages and i wish she had worked harder with us when my sis and i were kids.

@looch: i wish my kids had the frequent exposure to other languages. Do you use any apps to supplement the weekend classes?

@808love: My daughter is the same when it comes to swimming. She loves recreational swimming but finds lessons too hard. The only problem is we have no time to take her to the pool outside of lessons so i feel like it's a bit of a waste.

@lamariniere: Yes still reading aloud at night! I've wondered about Harry Potter but was holding off since I feel like some of the themes might be too scary for LO.

@808love: We also have language school on the weekends, and this year we are doing swimming lessons until they are strong swimmers. I have them scheduled for the same day so we have one free day to do family stuff or nothing.

@808love: that’s so neat that your DD was interested in Japanese on her own. I always wondered if it was a language you spoke at home or had family ties to. Good for her!

@gestalt: I can relate! My dad is also trilingual, but never spoke anything but English to me. In an odd twist of fate, I’m now living in his home country (something I never thought would happen!) and I feel like a dope because I don’t understand! I took one set of lessons when we first arrived, but have just been too busy to continue. Fortunately (or unfortunately) it’s fairy easy to get around with English.

@Baby Boy Mom: I was worried too since DS is super sensitive to scary things. But he has been very brave and is really enjoying the series. He has zero interest in watching the films though.

@looch: I’ve been thinking about the cultural aspect of our family for awhile. Right now, my LOs identify much more as French, especially since they go to a French school. When I tell my daughter to speak English because she’s also American, she looks at me with these big eyes and says “quoi”? I’ve realized I don’t do much to foster their Americanness and I’m more in touch with the French community here than the American one. We also go to France much more often than the US — we haven’t been in over 3 years! I have a feeling that they will come to view America as a distant second culture, especially since we plan to settle in Europe at some point.

Anyone have any suggestions for helping with a reading slump in 2nd grade? My daughter has always loved stories and wasn’t an early reader but always been on track. But.....she seems to be falling behind now.

I think she may have picked up some bad habits from reading stories that were harder but more interesting. When her teacher tests her for a reading level she’s very precise about whether you add the ‘s’ at the end of plurals and say ‘in’ instead of ‘on’. My daughter can read those words but just gets careless and I [before now] didn’t bother to correct her unless it affected the meaning. But it’s affected what level group she’s at by a lot, which means she’s being sent home with easy books she has no interest in and is just going through the motions of reading without paying attention to the story, which then affects her comprehension. But even sounding out words that I wouldn’t expect her to know but I would expect her to be able to sound out and figure out in context has been more of a struggle. And I’m not sure if that’s because she’s not as engaged of a reader, or if she started reading too hard of books in her head before where she might not know the meaning of the word so just started a habit of skipping the words, or making up a nonsense word, when she didn’t know. I’m not sure but just know reading has become much more of a struggle than it was last year even though at this point her teacher is having her read easier texts than she was last year.

Any thoughts?

@Mamaof2: I just had parent-teacher conferences, which is where her teacher said she felt she was a little behind where she should be but tested her to see if she needed intervention and she was OK without it.

Her teacher had been sending her home with easy books so sometimes I had her read the ones she was sent home with and sometimes let her choose. I had always just let her choose before though. But her teacher is pretty adamant that she’s choosing books that are too hard for her.

Every week they do a passage they read for a minute at home to measure word count per minute. She does fine on that and pays attention for the minute, though I’m not sure if I’ve been as strict as her teacher about not enunciating plurals. But even if I were she reads anywhere between 60 and 100 wpm depending if it’s her first or second time with the passage, so she’s fine on fluency.

She does need help on being careful and accurate, but it also ruins her paying attention to the story. And I do think she just makes words up when she doesn’t know. Her teacher sent her home with a book about baseball but she’s never played and we don’t watch it but words like “umpire” and “fielded” - words that aren’t all that hard, she couldn’t figure out by sounding them out (or even knowing the word field). And that’s I think where there’s a been a big regression is sounding out words she doesn’t know.

First, get her reading environmental print that applies and appropriate to her interest. Flyers, signs etc. I would go to library more often to find books she likes. Compromise and definitely let her pick out several books to your one book choice. Have a set family reading time if possible and talk about your books. Engagement, enjoyment and interest is the most important.

Did they say comprehension is the main problem or fluency? For fluency, listen closely and write errors. Then study patterns. It really depends what she is guessing. Also, is she typically missing the middle or the end? That is where you encourage her to slow down. Also if you are up to it, teach letter combinations/patterns. For example IF she said it this way....*you have to check the real way she is saying it* write down umpire/umpeer unfielded/unfiled. So in this example, she would be having a hard time with the ire and replacing the i with the e sound. Write similar words with that pattern. Fire, tire, wire. For unfielded, she is is preferring the wrong vowel in a double vowel combinations. Again, encourage breaking off prefix and suffix and look at field. Pronounce with i sound- not right. Pronounce with the second vowel sound. Which makes the most sense? Field is pretty irregular....I can only think of yield and wield which aren’t really age appropriate. Really have to word attack the errors and you will unlock the mysteries! I wouldn’t stop her during her reading. Also you may want to show the prefix un with several examples and suffix ed with several examples.

Let her know you will be checking for this while she reads a page or two before she starts. Wait until she is finished reading the page, don’t interrupt. Then go through the errors. Keep it in a notebook as she is reading so you can spot patterns.

Comprehension is another story...

@looch: it def makes a difference for her and after talking to her teacher and seeing it in action I def think it’s something we need to work on. For her reading time today I had her read that baseball book her teacher gave her, which she’s not interested in, and then one she picked out. She flew threw the one she picked out (did forget some s’s and and silly mistakes like saying ‘and’ instead of ‘the’ but that was less than once per page). For the baseball book she was making like 3-5 mistakes per page. Both books were at DRA level 24. Isn’t that an appropriate reading level for 2nd grade or am I misunderstanding how the levels work? But that’s the book her teacher handed me saying we needed to simplify her reading bc she wasn’t at a second grade level yet. I guess I’m a bit confused now what to do. That was about the level we had her reading at home at first grade but she’s picked up harder books now. I can see reverting back to that level since books she’s not interested in she has more stumbles. But it seems counterproductive to go back to a first grade level.

For careless mistakes you can still address with a quick reading tip. Don't take away from the reading and wait so you don't interrupt understanding the content. So like for 'in' and 'on' mistake I would be make it clearer. Do you put a hat on your head or in your head? Do you put your hand on the dog or in the dog? Bring awareness to the mistake with silliness can sometimes help kids beyond saying 'slow down' and read it carefully. You want them to get that they are reading for meaning...not letters in the page.... I mean on the page. Hehe. Also don't worry if your child is placed in a 'lower' group. Perhaps the other readers need other kinds of support. Maybe the group is for the kids who are not reading accurately and need the extra tips. Again, don't worry about which group....just that there is appropriate placement for the needs shown and that you are able to encourage progress.