Do your kids use pencils at school K-2?

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and kids in K-2 definitely use pencils. So do grades 3-8 in my school. We had an administrator who wanted us to move away from all pencils, paper, scissors, coloring, etc. but ultimately he lost his job and we returned to a more balanced approach. It makes sense to have students practice math, for example, by writing or drawing out problems but also to play some engaging math games. Both are necessary and beneficial today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools Are Banning Phones. What About Laptops?

Computers in class might actually hurt students.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/03/25/schools-are-banning-phones-what-about-laptops/

The article was mentioning their kid was online all day. That’s not typical. Kids use it inappropriately to play games (boys) but that’s not a reason to stop using computers.

What do parents hope to gain by not integrating computers into the school day?

I would ban all computers from elementary school. I can't believe they give Ipads to kindergartners. They ruin kids' attention spans. They present too many tempting distractions (and seem like a complete nightmare for kids with ADHD). I think they're generally associated with lower academic performance. It's all the same reasons why schools ban phones. I want my kids doing everything by hand. They can learn about computers later. There's plenty of time for that.

More often than not, their attention spans have already been ruined by the time they arrive in kindergarten. It’s rare to have students who don’t have their own devices at age 5.

- a kindergarten teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher and kids in K-2 definitely use pencils. So do grades 3-8 in my school. We had an administrator who wanted us to move away from all pencils, paper, scissors, coloring, etc. but ultimately he lost his job and we returned to a more balanced approach. It makes sense to have students practice math, for example, by writing or drawing out problems but also to play some engaging math games. Both are necessary and beneficial today.

We understand you as teachers have a tough job when parents shove iPads at their young toddlers or babies to keep them entertained if there is even a minute break in life. The kids you see in class have no attention spans.

But I promise you digital math games are either boring or far less useful than paper worksheets. I have let my kids play Prodigy for fun. They had to do XtraMath for math fact practice and ST Math for various schools. Prodigy didn't teach them much, XtraMath was merely tolerated, and they despised ST Math with all that was in them. The only one that remotely helped them with anything was XtraMath for math fact recall, and flashcards would have been possibly more effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools Are Banning Phones. What About Laptops?

Computers in class might actually hurt students.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/03/25/schools-are-banning-phones-what-about-laptops/

The article was mentioning their kid was online all day. That’s not typical. Kids use it inappropriately to play games (boys) but that’s not a reason to stop using computers.

What do parents hope to gain by not integrating computers into the school day?

I would ban all computers from elementary school. I can't believe they give Ipads to kindergartners. They ruin kids' attention spans. They present too many tempting distractions (and seem like a complete nightmare for kids with ADHD). I think they're generally associated with lower academic performance. It's all the same reasons why schools ban phones. I want my kids doing everything by hand. They can learn about computers later. There's plenty of time for that.

More often than not, their attention spans have already been ruined by the time they arrive in kindergarten. It’s rare to have students who don’t have their own devices at age 5.

- a kindergarten teacher

DP. This makes me so sad. My oldest's first device was the laptop she had to get for school in 7th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

I got tired of doing all of this. I can supplement one or two subjects, sure, but not everything! There’s no time for sports, music, family time, and we need flexibility in the early evenings. We switched to parochial and just supplement math.

This is my issue too- they are already in school all day! Plus i have a fulltime job myself and am not a teacher.

But they let anyone be a teacher so that means you can do it easily. It’s only your kids.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean that your kids who are using iPads and Chromebooks too much will not be able to compete with schools not using them or are using them appropriately?

[Anonymous]

But I promise you digital math games are either boring or far less useful than paper worksheets.

PP here. I understand it may be hard to keep up with the educational options out there now, and I don't think Prodigy is a good example. ReflexMath, for example, provides timed drills to master math facts fluently in a much more engaging way than flashcards. Many sites allow teachers to assign targeted practice and reinforce skills or content taught in class. This frees up class time to dig deeper.

[Anonymous]

Yes, our kids use pencils and then those erasable frixion pens. I am happy our school is also brining back cursive writing and our teacher is kind to encourage the top 5 best writers (by class and teacher’s votes {worth double points}) will get nice fountain pens as a gift from her own pocket.

It’s small but such gestures really encourages good penmanship which is lacking so much in today’s e-world

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

I got tired of doing all of this. I can supplement one or two subjects, sure, but not everything! There’s no time for sports, music, family time, and we need flexibility in the early evenings. We switched to parochial and just supplement math.

Same. There just wasn’t enough time in afternoons once you factor in sports, music, other kids, dinner, cleaning up. So I pulled and started homeschooling. Best decision ever and my child is far ahead of grade level. I was fed up having my child left to languish in school: doing a whole lot of nothing, playing dumb “educational” games, and waiting for the teacher to catch up the kids far behind or having behavioral challenges. Homeschooling 1-2 kids without any learning challenges, and excited to learn is actually fun and rewarding

[Anonymous]

There is basically no 1:1 attention to kids at school. If you want your kids to learn to spell properly, have neat handwriting, learn multiplication facts cold on time, you will have to DIY that at home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

I got tired of doing all of this. I can supplement one or two subjects, sure, but not everything! There’s no time for sports, music, family time, and we need flexibility in the early evenings. We switched to parochial and just supplement math.

Same. There just wasn’t enough time in afternoons once you factor in sports, music, other kids, dinner, cleaning up. So I pulled and started homeschooling. Best decision ever and my child is far ahead of grade level. I was fed up having my child left to languish in school: doing a whole lot of nothing, playing dumb “educational” games, and waiting for the teacher to catch up the kids far behind or having behavioral challenges. Homeschooling 1-2 kids without any learning challenges, and excited to learn is actually fun and rewarding

Not OP. I wish we could do this, but it is just not possible financially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

Sadly, this view of schools and this approach to instruction is increasingly common in families that value academics. I understand that it really is needed in many cases, but the decline in local public schools academic content (e.g, FCPS) since the 1990s is very sad. I know what I was taught. My kids are not being offered as much actual academic content as I was. Sigh.

And that has nothing to do with computers. I agree to not needing iPads in school. Wait until they can proficiently use Chromebooks, middle school would be ok with me.

We had textbooks back in my day and they were as dry as sand. So boring. I worked with my daughter and her 7th grade geography class on Chromebook. The material is vastly better because of the endless amount of sources for learning the subject. The graphics and videos are a helpful tool for students to retain and understand the content.

Japan for example. They learned the basic facts about Japan, the continent, the people, their government system, the usual. To add to the basics they had points of interest with all the countries studied. For Japan the video was about the fish market. Japan eats about 10% of the fish catch worldwide but are only 2% of the global population.

Japan has a bluefin tuna market that has auctions to buy these massive fish. One tuna was almost 600 lbs and was sold for $1.3 million US dollars. The video was interactive, there aren’t any passive watching like we used to do. At certain intervals the video would stop and ask questions about what they just watched. They couldn’t fast forward or skip any part in order to complete the assignment.

We were talking about Japan a few months later with someone and we both remembered the details of the lesson.

They read real books in English where they all get a copy. They use paper and pencil for math and science. The computer is a valuable tool if used correctly.

Studies show college is pretty much the first time using a computer for more than 10% of the day is remotely possibly helpful to learning.

Studies also show -repeatedly - that paper reading or taking notes from a lecture is better for memory retention. Yes, even those "dry as sand" textbooks. But ideally what Charlotte Mason called "living books," engaging print books that really bring concepts to life. Video...isn't it.

What studies would these be? Paper reading a book or electronically reading a book is a preference. One is not better than the other.

I’m not understanding the rest. Don’t college students take notes from a lecture? Computers would help students that can’t write that fast or it gets all jumbled up. Nobody said videos should take the place of books. With certain subjects like science or history video enhances the subjects. These allow the teachers to find the best quality material for teaching.

Those heavy textbooks that students used to take home to read were almost always poorly written and boring. Of course the old school people are going to yell and scream about pencils and how the old days were better. I don’t know any student entering high school that isn’t proficient in handwriting and typing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

Sadly, this view of schools and this approach to instruction is increasingly common in families that value academics. I understand that it really is needed in many cases, but the decline in local public schools academic content (e.g, FCPS) since the 1990s is very sad. I know what I was taught. My kids are not being offered as much actual academic content as I was. Sigh.

And that has nothing to do with computers. I agree to not needing iPads in school. Wait until they can proficiently use Chromebooks, middle school would be ok with me.

We had textbooks back in my day and they were as dry as sand. So boring. I worked with my daughter and her 7th grade geography class on Chromebook. The material is vastly better because of the endless amount of sources for learning the subject. The graphics and videos are a helpful tool for students to retain and understand the content.

Japan for example. They learned the basic facts about Japan, the continent, the people, their government system, the usual. To add to the basics they had points of interest with all the countries studied. For Japan the video was about the fish market. Japan eats about 10% of the fish catch worldwide but are only 2% of the global population.

Japan has a bluefin tuna market that has auctions to buy these massive fish. One tuna was almost 600 lbs and was sold for $1.3 million US dollars. The video was interactive, there aren’t any passive watching like we used to do. At certain intervals the video would stop and ask questions about what they just watched. They couldn’t fast forward or skip any part in order to complete the assignment.

We were talking about Japan a few months later with someone and we both remembered the details of the lesson.

They read real books in English where they all get a copy. They use paper and pencil for math and science. The computer is a valuable tool if used correctly.

Studies show college is pretty much the first time using a computer for more than 10% of the day is remotely possibly helpful to learning.

Studies also show -repeatedly - that paper reading or taking notes from a lecture is better for memory retention. Yes, even those "dry as sand" textbooks. But ideally what Charlotte Mason called "living books," engaging print books that really bring concepts to life. Video...isn't it.

What studies would these be? Paper reading a book or electronically reading a book is a preference. One is not better than the other.

I’m not understanding the rest. Don’t college students take notes from a lecture? Computers would help students that can’t write that fast or it gets all jumbled up. Nobody said videos should take the place of books. With certain subjects like science or history video enhances the subjects. These allow the teachers to find the best quality material for teaching.

Those heavy textbooks that students used to take home to read were almost always poorly written and boring. Of course the old school people are going to yell and scream about pencils and how the old days were better. I don’t know any student entering high school that isn’t proficient in handwriting and typing.

Reading actual books, and writing handwritten notes, dictating definitions, (vs dragging words from word boxes), diagramming sentences by hand, writing down actual math problems, and solving by hand…all of this activates WAY more areas of the brain and enhances learning and memory. Especially in younger children. All of the Ed tech elementary students are using is garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my kids do worksheets, spellings, writing practice, cursive, multiplication tables and elocution practice at home.

I cannot control what they do in public schools and I have low opinion of private schools in US. So, I use the public schools as a mainstream socializing tool, but, what I need my kids to really learn, it is all happening every single day at home.

Sadly, this view of schools and this approach to instruction is increasingly common in families that value academics. I understand that it really is needed in many cases, but the decline in local public schools academic content (e.g, FCPS) since the 1990s is very sad. I know what I was taught. My kids are not being offered as much actual academic content as I was. Sigh.

And that has nothing to do with computers. I agree to not needing iPads in school. Wait until they can proficiently use Chromebooks, middle school would be ok with me.

We had textbooks back in my day and they were as dry as sand. So boring. I worked with my daughter and her 7th grade geography class on Chromebook. The material is vastly better because of the endless amount of sources for learning the subject. The graphics and videos are a helpful tool for students to retain and understand the content.

Japan for example. They learned the basic facts about Japan, the continent, the people, their government system, the usual. To add to the basics they had points of interest with all the countries studied. For Japan the video was about the fish market. Japan eats about 10% of the fish catch worldwide but are only 2% of the global population.

Japan has a bluefin tuna market that has auctions to buy these massive fish. One tuna was almost 600 lbs and was sold for $1.3 million US dollars. The video was interactive, there aren’t any passive watching like we used to do. At certain intervals the video would stop and ask questions about what they just watched. They couldn’t fast forward or skip any part in order to complete the assignment.

We were talking about Japan a few months later with someone and we both remembered the details of the lesson.

They read real books in English where they all get a copy. They use paper and pencil for math and science. The computer is a valuable tool if used correctly.

Studies show college is pretty much the first time using a computer for more than 10% of the day is remotely possibly helpful to learning.

Studies also show -repeatedly - that paper reading or taking notes from a lecture is better for memory retention. Yes, even those "dry as sand" textbooks. But ideally what Charlotte Mason called "living books," engaging print books that really bring concepts to life. Video...isn't it.

What studies would these be? Paper reading a book or electronically reading a book is a preference. One is not better than the other.

I’m not understanding the rest. Don’t college students take notes from a lecture? Computers would help students that can’t write that fast or it gets all jumbled up. Nobody said videos should take the place of books. With certain subjects like science or history video enhances the subjects. These allow the teachers to find the best quality material for teaching.

Those heavy textbooks that students used to take home to read were almost always poorly written and boring. Of course the old school people are going to yell and scream about pencils and how the old days were better. I don’t know any student entering high school that isn’t proficient in handwriting and typing.

Reading actual books, and writing handwritten notes, dictating definitions, (vs dragging words from word boxes), diagramming sentences by hand, writing down actual math problems, and solving by hand…all of this activates WAY more areas of the brain and enhances learning and memory. Especially in younger children. All of the Ed tech elementary students are using is garbage.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/11/1250529661/handwriting-cursive-typing-schools-learning-brain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me if you think I am old fashioned, but I am starting to think my child is not doing enough writing and doing too much on the 1-1 iPad. He seems to be hitting milestones (like being able to print his name in kindergarten, reading by 1st grade), but I seem to remember from my school days at a crappy elementary stilldoing writing by hand, copying sentences, working on spelling lists, and doing little written projects. Nothing complicated, but maybe working on copying a little book of verse and then making matching art. Or filling out little questionnaires about family.

What are you seeing at your K-2? Are these little meaningless busy projects or are they important for learning? DS’ handwriting is horrible.

My child is in a NY PK-12 private and there are no screens in K-2 (I don’t know when screens are introduced). Handwriting is very important and is prioritized, especially in PK and K. I’m happy about that because studies suggest that you retain information much better when you write it down. And reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. Kids get too much screen time as it is.