Homework Homework Homework

My daughter is in first grade, and even in Kindergarten she had homework. The first week of school, the homework averaged about 70 minutes a night. I mark part of that up to not being in a routine for doing homework. But it was quite excessive. Now it averages about 30-35 minutes a night (not including the 15 minutes of daily reading required).

The school my daughter goes to sends homework folders home on a weekly basis. The folder comes home on Monday (or Tuesday if they have Monday off) and is due on Friday. The teacher assigns what she wants done each day. Our routine has been to get the week's homework (except for the reading, of course) done in two days rather than four. I know I am pushing it with my daughter's attention span, but the homework is work for me too, and there are other things, i.e. dance, play dates, etc. that I want to do after school.

My daughter is really doing well in school. She is keeping up (she is one of the youngest kids in the class - so sometimes her focus wanders). She is respectful and works hard. I am really proud of her.

Last year, when my daughter was enrolled in Kindergarten, she was put in the late Kindergarten group (the more advanced children) because she was already reading. Toward the end of the school year, her teacher wanted her to move down to the early group because she was not keeping up with the worksheets given in class. I dug my heels in and did not allow her to be moved down. I think her teacher had several names on the list of kids to ask to be moved down, and not one of them moved. I heard from another parent that she had asked to have their child moved down as well. How I handled it was I upped my volunteer hours in the classroom, and requested that the work that my daughter did not finish in class be sent home and worked on at home.

Her teacher this year, is not worried about the volume of work she gets done, as long as she knows the material. I am so grateful that my daughter got her as a teacher. This teacher is requiring the children to write sentences for each of the words of the week. This is an area that I have been working with my daughter on. I am glad for the assigned homework that addresses this for her. I am noticing that since the sentences have been assigned, she is finding it much easier to come up with ideas to write about. That was an issue last year, especially during journal time.

My daughter is still very compliant about doing her homework, thank the gods. She is resistant about other things, but the homework, she is happy to do when asked.