Homework in Kindergarten is ridiculous!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to stick THIS thread, among others, so I can link to it whenever you people with options say with a straight face:

Private school in elementary is silly.

There is no appreciable difference between a JKLMxyz and an independent school for the early years - save your money.

Ross/Janney/Brent is just like getting a private school education for free!!!!!!!!!!!

???
What does this thread have to do with any of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to stick THIS thread, among others, so I can link to it whenever you people with options say with a straight face:

Private school in elementary is silly.

There is no appreciable difference between a JKLMxyz and an independent school for the early years - save your money.

Ross/Janney/Brent is just like getting a private school education for free!!!!!!!!!!!

You do that, so maybe the people who actually read it will see how unusual OP's school is among other public schools in this regard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- so why do it?

Agree with the Asian PP. Just because there's a weak/negligible association with academic outcomes doesn't mean it isn't useful for other purposes. We've found it helpful for knowing what our kid is actually working on, establishing a routine, and showing our kid that I'm interested in her work. It doesn't take long, and it's party of our pre-dinner routine.

Also, just because there isn't a strong association overall, doesn't mean there isn't a stronger association for some types of students--for example, I'd imagine it'd be helpful for kids having difficulty with a certain topic, or kids from low SES backgrounds, etc. I've found it helpful for my kid, although she doesn't fit these categories (although I'm sure that at some point, she'll have a little difficulty with a concept, and HW will allow needed practice).

Yes, we've had one teacher (PK4) that I felt assigned pretty unhelpful, "busy work" type HW assignments, but overall the HW has been worthwhile for the reasons above.

+1. I would also add that it makes kids responsible for doing their work, making sure it's correct, and turning it in on time. These are valuable lessons when children grow up and enter the workforce.

[Anonymous]

I’d take it as a good sign, OP. Hard work and discipline instilled at an early age is a good thing, and to have a school that actually encourages this is a positive. If you don’t like it, I’m sure there are loads of slacker publics pushing their race-to-the-bottom, feel-good mediocrity.

[Anonymous]

OP, that sounds like WAY too much for K! I would talk with the teacher about it, and decide if you're going to opt out of some or part of it. The problem is that even if you opt out, the child might still be stressed about it. So you'd have to make clear to her that it's OK that she doesn't do it. Yes, this is a bit obnoxious because ti makes it seem like she gets special treatment, but I don't think the alternative (stressed out kid & family) is good either.

By way of comparison, we got homework in our DCPS K, but nowhere near what you did. It was like 2-3 sheets a week, and it was all quite clearly focused on making sure the parents were able to understand the curriculum and see how their kids were progressing. So something like 1 math worksheet and 1 worksheet for drawing a letter, and maybe one book report. No logging on to a math app (WTF, really?) and no reading log other than writing down how many books we read that week on one of the worksheets (I always just made up a number).

Every so often there were time-consuming projects, but I sometimes just ignored them.

My guess is all told, it averaged 30 minutes A WEEK total, my kid enjoyed it, and it helped me understand his progress and the curriculum. I think that hits all the good reasons for K homework.

20/30 minutes a day is crazy. I would not accept that.

[Anonymous]

Serious question. For the parents who ignore the homework, what kind of example are you setting for your kids? When school starts to get serious in middle and high school, are you going to be OK with letting your kids not do the work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC’s kindergarten and 1st grade teachers both told us that the daily 20min of reading included parents reading to children. So if you already read with your kids nightly, logging it shouldn’t be a huge burden.

"Logging" as in scribbling down on a worksheet 1/week "we read 15 books this week" is fine.

If by "logging" they want you to write down title, author, and date -- that's nuts and I would not do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- so why do it?

Agree with the Asian PP. Just because there's a weak/negligible association with academic outcomes doesn't mean it isn't useful for other purposes. We've found it helpful for knowing what our kid is actually working on, establishing a routine, and showing our kid that I'm interested in her work. It doesn't take long, and it's party of our pre-dinner routine.

Also, just because there isn't a strong association overall, doesn't mean there isn't a stronger association for some types of students--for example, I'd imagine it'd be helpful for kids having difficulty with a certain topic, or kids from low SES backgrounds, etc. I've found it helpful for my kid, although she doesn't fit these categories (although I'm sure that at some point, she'll have a little difficulty with a concept, and HW will allow needed practice).

Yes, we've had one teacher (PK4) that I felt assigned pretty unhelpful, "busy work" type HW assignments, but overall the HW has been worthwhile for the reasons above.

PP here. Further, not ALL studies have found no relationship between HW and academic outcomes at the elementary level--some have found that a weak relationship exists, and that gets stronger in middle. Other studies have also found a significant relationship in elementary students for certain subjects. For example:

Our investigation revealed that there was an overall small and positive relationship between homework and academic achievement in math/science. Our investigation further revealed that the homework – achievement relationship in math/science was stronger for elementary and high school students than for middle school students.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X16300628

So it seems inappropriate to conclude that there are NO positives for HW practice when the studies are inconclusive in this regard. I agree that HW should be given in manageable amounts, if given at all, but I reject the notion that there are no benefits.

Do those studies really examine 20/mins a day for KINDERGARTENERS? I seriously doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- so why do it?

Agree with the Asian PP. Just because there's a weak/negligible association with academic outcomes doesn't mean it isn't useful for other purposes. We've found it helpful for knowing what our kid is actually working on, establishing a routine, and showing our kid that I'm interested in her work. It doesn't take long, and it's party of our pre-dinner routine.

Also, just because there isn't a strong association overall, doesn't mean there isn't a stronger association for some types of students--for example, I'd imagine it'd be helpful for kids having difficulty with a certain topic, or kids from low SES backgrounds, etc. I've found it helpful for my kid, although she doesn't fit these categories (although I'm sure that at some point, she'll have a little difficulty with a concept, and HW will allow needed practice).

Yes, we've had one teacher (PK4) that I felt assigned pretty unhelpful, "busy work" type HW assignments, but overall the HW has been worthwhile for the reasons above.

+1. I would also add that it makes kids responsible for doing their work, making sure it's correct, and turning it in on time. These are valuable lessons when children grow up and enter the workforce.

Yeah, no. The problem is that 5 and 6 year olds aren't truly developmentally ready to take full responsibility for homework. Parents have to remind and check and oversee. (Indeed - that's often one of the stated rationales for K homework: to involved the parents.) Thus the homeowork actually DOESN'T set up a scenario where the child learns to be truly responsible, because they're not developmentally ready for that. At some point parents will have to completely fade out of the picture, and that might be hard to know. My concern is that developmentally inappropriate homework in K might actually lead to the child taking LESS responsibility for homework, as well as less ownership of it (because it's framed as busywork that they do with parents; not something that actually extends and enriches learning, a time to reflect and work on skills -- which is developmentally the HS or late MS level.) I think if responsiblity were truly the aim, there would be no homework until kids are actually ready for it intellectually, which is MUCH later than 5. I'll be you anything there are dozens of people on this thread right now who went to top colleges & grad schools and never did homework until closer to 7th or 8th grade (raises hand).

[Anonymous]

If getting the homework done is a battle then don't do it. Plain and simple.

I always enjoyed reading to/with my own kids. It was a nice, expected part of our evening routine. I also didn't mind setting aside 10 minutes to oversee my kids doing a homework sheet. But my kids actually didn't mind doing their homework. If they had been crying and complaining about doing it I wouldn't have made them do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. For the parents who ignore the homework, what kind of example are you setting for your kids? When school starts to get serious in middle and high school, are you going to be OK with letting your kids not do the work?

The example you're setting is that one size doesn't fit all; you don't have to do everything people in authority tell you to do; parents set the rules for the household; and to be critical/analytical. For example, it's laughable to say that what you do in K will somehow make your child undisciplined in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- so why do it?

Agree with the Asian PP. Just because there's a weak/negligible association with academic outcomes doesn't mean it isn't useful for other purposes. We've found it helpful for knowing what our kid is actually working on, establishing a routine, and showing our kid that I'm interested in her work. It doesn't take long, and it's party of our pre-dinner routine.

Also, just because there isn't a strong association overall, doesn't mean there isn't a stronger association for some types of students--for example, I'd imagine it'd be helpful for kids having difficulty with a certain topic, or kids from low SES backgrounds, etc. I've found it helpful for my kid, although she doesn't fit these categories (although I'm sure that at some point, she'll have a little difficulty with a concept, and HW will allow needed practice).

Yes, we've had one teacher (PK4) that I felt assigned pretty unhelpful, "busy work" type HW assignments, but overall the HW has been worthwhile for the reasons above.

+1. I would also add that it makes kids responsible for doing their work, making sure it's correct, and turning it in on time. These are valuable lessons when children grow up and enter the workforce.

Yeah, no. The problem is that 5 and 6 year olds aren't truly developmentally ready to take full responsibility for homework. Parents have to remind and check and oversee. (Indeed - that's often one of the stated rationales for K homework: to involved the parents.) Thus the homeowork actually DOESN'T set up a scenario where the child learns to be truly responsible, because they're not developmentally ready for that. At some point parents will have to completely fade out of the picture, and that might be hard to know. My concern is that developmentally inappropriate homework in K might actually lead to the child taking LESS responsibility for homework, as well as less ownership of it (because it's framed as busywork that they do with parents; not something that actually extends and enriches learning, a time to reflect and work on skills -- which is developmentally the HS or late MS level.) I think if responsiblity were truly the aim, there would be no homework until kids are actually ready for it intellectually, which is MUCH later than 5. I'll be you anything there are dozens of people on this thread right now who went to top colleges & grad schools and never did homework until closer to 7th or 8th grade (raises hand).

THIS.

And I also raise hand here. I think I may have gotten some homework starting in around 4th grade, though, but I can't remember. No earlier than that though.

[Anonymous]

Some kids in K are 4 years old. No, they don't need homework in K. I'm almost 60, and we didn't have regular homework until we were in third grade. That was a fine model. It's ludicrous to say that you have to start homework in K to get them ready for middle school. A 5 year old is not the same as an 11 year old.

We did reading time at bedtime in K, and counted that on the damn reading logs. The indecipherable math homework of "real math" math word problems I threw in the trash. None of us understood it.


When you get to high school, you realize all that K stuff was hooey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- so why do it?

I think the studies sometimes reflect what they want to find.

A kid who knows their shapes, numbers, letters and sounds before they go into K is going to start reading and doing math sooner. The more practice they have with math facts and word recognition the easier it will be for them to learn other concepts in school.

Learning is cumulative. If they start off with a weak foundation they are going to have a harder time than a kid who has had daily practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Some kids in K are 4 years old. No, they don't need homework in K. I'm almost 60, and we didn't have regular homework until we were in third grade. That was a fine model. It's ludicrous to say that you have to start homework in K to get them ready for middle school. A 5 year old is not the same as an 11 year old.

We did reading time at bedtime in K, and counted that on the damn reading logs. The indecipherable math homework of "real math" math word problems I threw in the trash. None of us understood it.


When you get to high school, you realize all that K stuff was hooey.

This, people. This is why we're falling behind other countries in our math performance.