Just last week I was thinking of doing a post on how much I enjoy Dallin's Homework Hour every afternoon. We've had a lot of nice, warm moments sitting at the kitchen table doing spelling words or math, and then at the piano bench tickling the ivories. Dallin thrives on one-on-one attention, and doing homework together fits the bill just fine. It's one of the things I actually look forward to about daily mothering.
But today wasn't one of those days.
The other week, we attended our first parent teacher conference with Dallin' teacher. We love Dallin's teacher! She really is great! Dallin has been doing very well in school, especially in math. Miss K suggested that since he's been doing so well, she would start sending home some extra, enrichment-type math homework. The idea, as far as I understood it, was that this homework would be a bit more difficult and would give him more of a challenge. We said that would be just fine.
Fast forward a few weeks, and we're not so sure it was such a great idea. The homework has basically just been extra worksheets of the same stuff. If it's supposed to be more challenging and more interesting, then I must be a dunce. It seems like plain-old busywork to me! Even Dallin has said a couple of times, "Mom, maybe we need to tell Miss K I don't want this extra homework after all."
Here's what he had to do today:
I read him the question at the top of the page, "How many children will sing and dance in all?" Even before I had the entire question verbalized, he spouted out the answer, "9!" and was so proud of himself. But then we realized that the ENTIRE worksheet consisted of making him walk through every little step to arrive at the answer.
What do I need to find out?
How can I find what I need?
How many children will sing?
How many will dance?
Should I add or subtract the numbers?
I will write an addition number sentence:
How will I check my answer?
This was insane! It took us forever to write all this out. This was supposed to be enrichment??? This was more like remedial! He knew the answer instantly, but he had to spend 10 minutes explaining how he knew it. Talk about a waste of time! He is doing fabulously in math, and he races through the regular homework each day. He usually has to explain briefly how he arrived at his answers. I know it's important for the kids to be able to understand why and how things work. But this today was above and beyond... Why does he need to do more of the same old stuff when he is aceing it to begin with? We've spent so much time on homework that we've had to forego piano several times this past week, and that hasn't sat well with this music teacher mom.
We may be having another chat with Miss K.
But today wasn't one of those days.
The other week, we attended our first parent teacher conference with Dallin' teacher. We love Dallin's teacher! She really is great! Dallin has been doing very well in school, especially in math. Miss K suggested that since he's been doing so well, she would start sending home some extra, enrichment-type math homework. The idea, as far as I understood it, was that this homework would be a bit more difficult and would give him more of a challenge. We said that would be just fine.
Fast forward a few weeks, and we're not so sure it was such a great idea. The homework has basically just been extra worksheets of the same stuff. If it's supposed to be more challenging and more interesting, then I must be a dunce. It seems like plain-old busywork to me! Even Dallin has said a couple of times, "Mom, maybe we need to tell Miss K I don't want this extra homework after all."
Here's what he had to do today:
I read him the question at the top of the page, "How many children will sing and dance in all?" Even before I had the entire question verbalized, he spouted out the answer, "9!" and was so proud of himself. But then we realized that the ENTIRE worksheet consisted of making him walk through every little step to arrive at the answer.
What do I need to find out?
How can I find what I need?
How many children will sing?
How many will dance?
Should I add or subtract the numbers?
I will write an addition number sentence:
How will I check my answer?
This was insane! It took us forever to write all this out. This was supposed to be enrichment??? This was more like remedial! He knew the answer instantly, but he had to spend 10 minutes explaining how he knew it. Talk about a waste of time! He is doing fabulously in math, and he races through the regular homework each day. He usually has to explain briefly how he arrived at his answers. I know it's important for the kids to be able to understand why and how things work. But this today was above and beyond... Why does he need to do more of the same old stuff when he is aceing it to begin with? We've spent so much time on homework that we've had to forego piano several times this past week, and that hasn't sat well with this music teacher mom.
We may be having another chat with Miss K.
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