Hellobee Boards

We had homework Monday-Thursday in kinder. It was usually just a couple worksheets that took about 20 minutes and reading for 15 minutes.

We are now in first grade and got our first homework packet. There are 8 pages. It was sent home Friday and is due back on Thursday. Plus we are supposed to read for 15 minutes every night.

In K, our “homework” was a set of 3 books sent home Monday that the kids were to practice reading til Friday, plus one book for reading group that came home midweek with a small, simple (like, 5-10 min) assignment related to the book. We had maybe three larger projects (one was drawing a map of the student’s bedroom) throughout the year.

In first grade, we will have weekly spelling homework and a reading log, all assigned Monday and due Friday. I’ve heard the spelling is kind of intense for parents bc students choose what they want to do from a list and some of it is kind of....involved. Like writing the words in glue and glitter, or sprinkles, or other messy things, haha.

Our teachers distribute packets on the printing/handwriting methods, phonetic sound cues, and math methods the school uses (and also makes these available online). I found these massively helpful in K - Without them I feel like I was telling her phonetic cues for sounding out words that were not accurate to what she was learning in school, which was probably very confusing for her!

I also really worry about common core math - I’ve done a little reading and it just feels so counterintuitive to how I learned math. I memorize easily, as does my daughter, so she does well with single digit “math facts” - ie she just “knows” that 5+1 is 6. But I am afraid she’ll struggle to demonstrate that she’s come to solutions the “right” way as she moves on to double digit adding/subtracting according to common core.

My son is in 2nd and the school has moved away from homework. In K, it was a homework packet and I estimate it took about 10 minutes per day for 4 days to complete. We found doing the homework in the morning was a lot easier, since it needed to be turned in on Friday.

In first grade, we had a reading log. I put it completely up to my son to manage, and most weeks, nothing was handed in. My view on it shocked a lot of the parents in my circle, because I didn't want to make it into a battle and I was satisfied with my son's reading progress. Had he shown signs that he was struggling, I would have made it mandatory.

The main thing for me is that my son needs to learn how to set himself up to do the homework. He needs to understand he needs a space to work, materials and time. At this point in time, it's not about the work that is produced, it's about preparing the ground IMO.

@2littlepumpkins: It was important to me that my son felt the repercussions from the teacher for not doing the reading log (it turned out there weren't any). I talked to the teacher about it during the conference and I specifically told her this is what was happening and if she had concerns, we should discuss it with my son and she agreed to do this if the need arose.