extra homework at home?
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Anonymous
Same. Two teachers, lower and upper elementary. |
Anonymous
| They don’t even have time to finish their required homework, they are getting so much. No time for extra homework. |
Anonymous
This is what I do, We read a lot. I do make DD keep a journal in the summer where she writes a couple of sentences a day about her day ( 1st grade now) but no extra stuff during the school year except reading. |
Anonymous
Dp here That is what the competition is doing and we plan our kids to go to school at some point back in my spouse's home country. They will be way behind if we don't. Math here is a joke. |
Anonymous
Agree with the comment that education level (at least in elementary school) here is way behind several other countries. I never understand when parents say kindergarten is too academic. My sister and her kids visited us last summer and her 5 & 7 year old were way more advanced and doing much more than the same grade here. |
Anonymous
| PP here - I do supplement and give kids extra work in areas where needed. I find that younger DC does only what’s needed at school but if pushed can do a lot more so needs the extra work. |
Anonymous
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My kids are now grown, but when they were younger we supplemented a lot. We are in MCPS which had a terrible curriculum (they're
finally acknowledging that it was deficient and are replacing it.) If I felt there was a gap in their education, I would make sure we worked on that area so they had the foundation they needed. I tried to make it as fun as possible. Additionally, we supplemented a lot according to their interests to enrich their education. There were very few workbooks involved. Moreover, aside from the two cases of teaching children how to read and assigned reading of specific material, I don't think reading should be mandated. I hate the common practice today of requiring kids to read for a set period of time daily. I can think of no faster way to make somebody hate an intrinsically enjoyable activity than to force them to do it. Some of the things we did to supplement generally: Hoagies is a website that has links for enrichment for any subject a child might be interested in https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm LANGUAGE ARTS Frequent trips to the library Reading together (into high school) Mad-libs Word Games (Rhyming, Alphabet) Schoolhouse Rock (I remembered it fondly from my childhood, but they weren't impressed) PBS shows (Between the Lions and Ghostwriter - I think these may be off the air now) Shakespeare's Birthday Celebration at the Folger theater https://www.folger.edu/events/shakespeares-birthday-2019 Library Programs MATH Games of all types (Sleeping Queens is great for simple addition, Set is good for patterns), but just about every game is good in some way for math (keeping score, counting moves, geometrical and logical thinking, etc.) Playing with coins (in our house once they learned to count money, they got a weekly allowance of $1.00 - in change, which they had to count before they could keep it.) Cooking Cyberchase on PBS Measuring things (tape measure, ruler, balance scale) Got an analog wall clock and wristwatch that clearly indicated minutes https://www.amazon.com/s?k=educational+wall+clocks+for+kids&crid=C0A727M1WLH8&sprefix=educational+wall+clock&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_22 Buzz (a word game where you set a math rule and then count buzzing out the appropriate numbers - ex. numbers with 2 and multiples of 3 - 1, buzz, buzz, 4, 5, buzz, 7, . . . , 17, buzz, 19, (20) buzz, buzz, . . . , (29) buzz, (30) buzz, 31, buzz) This game can be adjusted for mathematical ability from very easy to very complex). Zoombinis computer game (outstanding logic puzzles) Math enrichment books like the Sir Cumference series, Sideways Math by Louis Sachar, and Theoni Pappas books. These books cover a broad range and some are more advanced than others.) Computer games to practice math facts (lots of these, don't know that one is intrinsically better than the others) Origami and crafts in general National Library of Virtual Manipulatives http://nlvm.usu.edu There's a math festival (I never went because I didn't find out about it until my kids were too busy - I think it's every other year, including 2019) http://www.nationalmathfestival.org SOCIAL STUDIES Smithsonian Folklife Festival Museums Williamsburg Mount Vernon Monticello Montgomery County Heritage Days https://www.heritagemontgomery.org/events/heritage-days/ PBS shows like Postcards from Buster and Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman (these may have gone off the air) Maryland Renaissance Festival (great fun, but be aware that they only have portapotties) https://www.rennfest.com Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festival http://www.sakuramatsuri.org Great Falls (Maryland side - canal boats, nice visitor center, beware of Billy Goat Trail) SCIENCE Museums/zoo/aquarium Butterflies at Brookside Gardens https://www.montgomeryparks.org/parks-and-trails/brookside-gardens/wings-fancy-live-butterfly-caterpillar-exhibit/ Magic School Bus (picture books, chapter books, TV show) Hands on Science (a school based extracurricular class) PBS shows (animal shows, Design Squad - off the air, NOVA) The Incredible Machine computer game Great Falls (see above) Nature Centers There's are annual science festivals (I never made it to these). Here are 2: https://usasciencefestival.org http://rockvillesciencecenter.org/rockville-science-day/ COMPUTERS a typing tutor program (again, I don't know that the specific one matters) Scratch programming language MISCELLANEOUS Brainpop - primarily a paid website, but they have some free topics. We just did the free topics. https://www.brainpop.com Free Rice http://freerice.com/category Artscape http://www.artscape.org |
Anonymous
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Nope. We encourage reading for pleasure. We do science experiments, visit museums, play games, watch documentaries, etc., but not homework. It's much more fun to do math enrichment by having a kid help you measure things or double a recipe or help with grocery shopping, etc.
ES homework has not been shown to be beneficial, and may be counterproductive. We do extra if a kid is struggling with something, but otherwise we just focus on making sure that they're understanding what's being taught in school. Free time is for exploring things like history, science, different cultures, art, music, etc. |
Anonymous
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No. My kids had plenty of library books, legos, puzzles and non-electronic toys. I believed in keeping the TV off, not giving them electronics and having school aged kids entertain themselves with books, toys or outside play during downtime. We also did a lot of educational sightseeing— museums, Wolftrap concerts, and things in my kids areas of interest. And science type camps— space camp and robotic camp and testing water in the stream. By MS, the kids had very little downtime anyway.
Both kids ended up at TJ BTW. |
Anonymous
Plus another teacher Limiting electronics is far more important than forcing extra workbooks imo. When electronics are not available they reach for a crossword, a book, a rubik's cube, a coloring book, a puzzle, a game, a ball... |
Anonymous
PP here. I was only talking about math. It’s about 2 years behind the rest of the world. It would be a waste of my children’s life to follow the curriculum in schools. |
Anonymous
The rest of the world learns calculus in 10th grade? Or 9th? As a math major, that makes me sad to hear. |
Anonymous
| Not only DON'T I buy workbooks, but I also don't have my kids do homework until 6th grade. I want my kids to play. |
Anonymous
And because your professional educators are against homework, chances are you don’t have a solid foundation in math. Get a teaching position in a college and be prepared you will be scorned and corrected 20 times per lecture by international students. Or go and teach in public schools and hopefully you will help reverse the dumb down of this country. |