What homework is your second grader doing?

[Anonymous]

My second grader is supposed to read for 20 minutes each night. In addition there is a packet handed out on Monday and due Friday. There's a math page for each day (currently, they are working on place values). There is also a list of spelling words that is handed out on Monday and lasts for two weeks. Each night the kids are supposed to do various "sorting" activities with the words (some require actually spelling and writing them, others involve remembering definitions, looking for spelling patterns amongst the words, etc.). There will be a spelling test every two weeks with these words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't apologize. This is the sort of feedback I was looking for. How can this possibly be helpful to the kids or the county? The class is going to be mutinous from sheer boredom

We have the same problem every year. My DS is in 3rd now. It takes 4-6 weeks for the class to do all the preliminary testing to figure out where the kids are and what small groups they should be in etc. Meanwhile my kid grows SUPER-bored and I start to despair. My husband has taken to reminding me that it's like this "every year" and remember "last year he did the same thing" and last year was his "best year yet" - according to the kid at the end of the year. So I just cross my fingers and hope he's right. Check back in in three weeks, it should start getting more challenging.

Caveat - it's NEVER been super-challenging for my kid (not a brag, just a fact) - and we will be applying to HGC for that reason and crossing our fingers that he gets in. I know this sounds contradictory to the above, but the reading groups and the science projects kept him engaged, if not challenged. At the beginning of the year, he's not even engaged due to the ease of the material. That doesn't really start until October when they can break up in small groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't apologize. This is the sort of feedback I was looking for. How can this possibly be helpful to the kids or the county? The class is going to be mutinous from sheer boredom

We have the same problem every year. My DS is in 3rd now. It takes 4-6 weeks for the class to do all the preliminary testing to figure out where the kids are and what small groups they should be in etc. Meanwhile my kid grows SUPER-bored and I start to despair. My husband has taken to reminding me that it's like this "every year" and remember "last year he did the same thing" and last year was his "best year yet" - according to the kid at the end of the year. So I just cross my fingers and hope he's right. Check back in in three weeks, it should start getting more challenging.

Caveat - it's NEVER been super-challenging for my kid (not a brag, just a fact) - and we will be applying to HGC for that reason and crossing our fingers that he gets in. I know this sounds contradictory to the above, but the reading groups and the science projects kept him engaged, if not challenged. At the beginning of the year, he's not even engaged due to the ease of the material. That doesn't really start until October when they can break up in small groups.

One of the things we need to keep in mind is that the kids have been off all summer.
Therefore, I do believe the first few weeks are a good time for review and to get them back into "school" mode.
My kid is bright, but she has not been doing math review EVERYDAY over the summer, so to start out the first week with something brand new and super challenging would not work for her.
We need a little review, practice, then move on and up.

[Anonymous]

Mine has to write an essay every week. She is struggling with it even though she is in the highest reading/writing group.