Homework in Kindergarten is ridiculous!!

[Anonymous]

OP-- not sure why all the vitriol here. I completely agree with you that HW in K is absurd and ridiculous and makes no sense. Kids will have years and years and years of HW and will have plenty of time to develop good HW habits. My kid is in 5th grade and I think she had way too much HW (takes her an hour -- and she is quick and disciplined and loves school and schoolwork).They spend 6 hours at school which is a lot already, not clear why they also need to spend another hour of 1/2 hour or a minute doing more work at home.

Our NW DCPS thankfully didn't have HW until maybe 2nd grade (and just a bit) and for real until 4th grade, and I am grateful for that. As others said, just toss it out. Tell the teacher it doesn't work for your family.

[Anonymous]

Marylander here--checking out the dialogue. My kid just finished K and was assigned monthly homework charts daily starting in October, although the teacher didn't check to make sure it was done. Although it was difficult to get the homework done some days (like the OP, my spouse and I work FT), I appreciated having it, as it was more educational to me than my kid because I could understand what he was doing in the classroom (it was typically pretty short assignments like "find 5 objects shaped like a triangle in your house,"
"read for 15 minutes with your child" or "write down 3 numbers that sum to 10"). Since the teacher didn't check it, often I'd plow through 3 days of homework on the weekend when I had more time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's get some perspective people. We're talking about 20 minutes a day of HM. The universe is not going to explode. I question whether it's even 20 minutes a day. My DC had kindergarten homework and it took about 10 minutes to complete, if that.

Have your child do the homework or not. I don't care. But all this handwringing is a bit much.

For a kid that's resistant to homework, and a 2-parent working family where you have approximately 2 hrs/night with your kids anyway, 20 minutes is actually a lot. That time and energy could be much better spent.

The entitlement never cease to amaze here. You guys have more excuses than an inmate on death row.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP-- not sure why all the vitriol here. I completely agree with you that HW in K is absurd and ridiculous and makes no sense. Kids will have years and years and years of HW and will have plenty of time to develop good HW habits. My kid is in 5th grade and I think she had way too much HW (takes her an hour -- and she is quick and disciplined and loves school and schoolwork).They spend 6 hours at school which is a lot already, not clear why they also need to spend another hour of 1/2 hour or a minute doing more work at home.

Our NW DCPS thankfully didn't have HW until maybe 2nd grade (and just a bit) and for real until 4th grade, and I am grateful for that. As others said, just toss it out. Tell the teacher it doesn't work for your family.

+1

[Anonymous]

My kid finished K last year (DC Title I school), and we had the same homework as you described (weekly packets, daily reading logs). I didn't mind at all and actually enjoyed getting to be a part of her learning. Most of the work was done in aftercare -- perhaps you can raise this with your aftercare provider -- and at home, we mostly just did the reading. In the beginning of the year, I read, and towards the end of the year, she read and completed the log. Now, in first grade, more than 2/3 of the class have pre-tested above starting expectations for first grade, which is really a feat in a low-income school like ours. Our daughter tested at the second grade level, which is great, because now she gets to read way more interesting books that we can talk about. We didn't supplement at home -- we just did the homework. If you really don't like it, don't do it -- it's not part of your child's grade. If your kid likes doing it, why not let them? Just don't ruin it for the rest of us, who are appreciative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid finished K last year (DC Title I school), and we had the same homework as you described (weekly packets, daily reading logs). I didn't mind at all and actually enjoyed getting to be a part of her learning. Most of the work was done in aftercare -- perhaps you can raise this with your aftercare provider -- and at home, we mostly just did the reading. In the beginning of the year, I read, and towards the end of the year, she read and completed the log. Now, in first grade, more than 2/3 of the class have pre-tested above starting expectations for first grade, which is really a feat in a low-income school like ours. Our daughter tested at the second grade level, which is great, because now she gets to read way more interesting books that we can talk about. We didn't supplement at home -- we just did the homework. If you really don't like it, don't do it -- it's not part of your child's grade. If your kid likes doing it, why not let them? Just don't ruin it for the rest of us, who are appreciative.

+1 Exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mom who did hw with kids all alone- dad did not help. We made it work. It taught them discipline. I expected the h.w. neat or I made them do it over. They could read fluently by pk-4. Snack, hw then t.v. or playtime. By 1st, they were independent and I only checked it. The teachers praised in class work as well as hw They were upset if they thought they wouldn't get to finish it on time. I find it a white vs. non white issue.

Similar experience here, except (immigrant) dad is in charge of HW most days, while I'm in charge of musical instrument practice. HW must be done properly, not rushed through. He'll come up with HW if none assigned. Agree about the cultural aspects--refusing to do HW is more of a white affluent American thing--not all in this group, but definitely a few.

Not just Americans. We are immigrants from Germany and I agree with OP that homework in K is ridiculous. In Germany, kids don't even go to school until first grade. Our "Kindergarten" (all daycare prior to first grade) is purely play-based. And still Germany is doing pretty well, and German high schoolers (last I checked) do well compared to Americans. So I certainly believe the studies that say that homework in Kindergarten will not make a difference with regard to long-term achievement. But more power to you if you feel that you are improving your kids' lives by imposing homework discipline early on.

To cite a pro-hw cultural example. My family members in India definitely have homework at age 5 abd are doing rigorous math at a much earlier age -- school is more challenging. And as a result the country produces millions of mathematically proficient engineers, some of whom end up here on HIB visas, which are specifically intended to fill jobs in the case qhere the company cant find an American to fill it. So i tend to think this trend towards more rigor may be a good thing.

Er, companies use H1B visas because the foreigners will work for lower salaries, not because Americans can’t do the jobs.

As fruitless as it is to argue with anon on the internet, here is the law for H-1Bs:

"The employer must, prior to filing the H-1B petition, take good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the position for which the H-1B worker is sought, offering a wage at least as high as what the law requires for the H-1B worker. The employer must also attest that, in connection with this recruitment, it has offered the job to any U.S. worker who applies who is equally or better qualified for the position."

[Anonymous]

Funny, most in this thread that mentions HW in K are in agreement that it sets the tone for good study skills later on--so different from those who are adamantly against even 10 minutes of HW here.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/752181.page

[Anonymous]

Just write a note and tell the teacher your child will not be completing the assignments. Read to your child daily and continue informal learning at home. Spend your time cooking together, doing science projects, taking family walks. Work packets in K are ridiculous. If you feel you must, limit homework time to 5-10 minutes and call it a day. Homework is not developmentally appropriate in Kindergarten.

I wish we had said no to homework in K. Monday through Thursday evenings were always awful. And when my child moved up to first grade, there was no homework assigned! Different teacher, different perspective.

[Anonymous]

I assume we will have home work in K. We have had it prk3 and 4 so far. Typically not much a 1 page work sheet per day. Maybe 5-10 minutes. Some days we get it done others we have to skip or modify the way we work on the skill. There are sometimes on going lessons like working writing your frist name this month or read books about a certain topic they are learning about.
We do generally skip the break and holiday vacation packets though.

[Anonymous]

Homework is a predatory measure to gets ready in later years. It’s just like early elementary discussions of how to treat friends. The goal is not so much to solve issues today, but more to prevent problems in middle schools like beefing over a girl or arguments over a stolen binder or vape pen.

[Anonymous]

Not you again. Really, get a hobby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not you again. Really, get a hobby.

Count me as a fan of the Beefer. His or her posts have been evolving to reference vaping in addition to the standard beefing mention. Keeps things current.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not you again. Really, get a hobby.

Count me as a fan of the Beefer. His or her posts have been evolving to reference vaping in addition to the standard beefing mention. Keeps things current.

lol. I hope beefing changes fully over to vaping. Keep us on our toes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else agree that it's ridiculous for kindergartners to have daily homework? That this puts unreasonable stress on kids and families - ultimately being detrimental to both.

We go to a school in NWDC and KINDERGARTENERS are suppose to do daily worksheets (packets due weekly not daily), ST Math, and keep a reading log. At back to school night the teacher tried to assure us that it was just "20 minutes a day". Even if it doesn't take up more than 20 mins a day, that 20 minutes a day is

1) Taking away from the already vary short amount of family time that we get together.
(With work, we get from 6-8 with our children each day. That's important time to bond and to work with our children on their emotional needs and unique interests. Please don't take that away from us.)

2) Creating family discord
(Kindergartners are not at their best from 6-8 PM. "20 minutes" of work will require 20 minutes of nagging, reminders, encouragement, frustration, threats, tears)

3) Increasing mental load for parents with little ROI for kids
(The mental load for parents overseeing this is substantial. And there's no ROI. No study says that homework in Kindergarten improves overall education)

4) Creating unnecessary and detrimental competitiveness and labels among kids
(The teacher noted that kids know how far everyone gets in ST Math and that their identities start to form about being "good" or "bad" students)

Our friends who went through Kindergarten last year confirmed that it was a big issue for them for all the reasons noted above. I know there are educators who think this is ridiculous. I could tell our kindergarten teacher was unsure/uneasy about it. The hostility from parents in the room when this came up was palpable - our guts know it is wrong. This is HARMFUL not helpful to kids and to families.

Shame on DCPS. It's a detriment to DCPS reputation and trust among stakeholders.

I'm very tempted to just refuse to participate but my kid is a rule follower and that will devastate him. What to do? Get a petition going to make homework optional? How much support is out there for this?

You probably have some support, but there are always two sides to the story. Some parents want their children to have homework and academic success. Your rant about how unfair life is will only escalate as your child gets older. Remember one thing, who is the education professional? Would you do the same when listening to a doctor, lawyer, plumber, or anyone else who is an expert in their field? Just like in every case, you can either take it or leave it. If you decide not to do it, then there are also consequences.