Anonymous wrote:OP -- is your teacher a new teacher?

That's a lot of stuff and it's busy work. The reading should be a priority, but the other stuff? Let it go.

We found there were certain teachers in school who seemed to think they should give us, the family, assignments -- as if we aren't already doing things as a family and having quality time.

+1 After going through the massive amounts of tedious homework with our oldest and taking it way too seriously, we now realize it was mostly fluff and now focus on reading, spelling, and any math homework. Anything that involves printing pictures out, a special last-minute mid-week trip to the store, or anything assigned over a holiday gets set aside and we get to it when we get to it.

Our oldest was in parochial school when we had a ton of family assignments so I assumed it was because of the private school aspect. I now realize that some teachers just think it's a good idea to make the parents participate and don't realize that family projects take away from quality time, not contribute to it.

Anonymous wrote:The “bring in pictures” assignments are such a pain and assume we all have color printers at home or stacks of glossy (but kid appropriate) magazines.

This x 1,000

We're in Fairfax county. My first grader had some homework last year in kindergarten (not too burdensome) but has not had any so far in first grade. I agree that if it's too much, don't do it. The stress to you and your child far outweighs the benefits of what amounts to busy work and the homework is probably not as beneficial as other things that you and your child might do with that time, even if it's only relaxing and spending quality time together.

Anonymous wrote:OP, when you say hours and hours, is that hyperbole? Because that's how much time I spent when I transitioned from a public school in North America from first grade to a public school in Hong Kong during the second grade, without knowing how to write (can speak) a word of Chinese. What's worse is that the academic environment is hyper competitive over there where students do substantive written homework and take tests and exams just like the ones that upper middle school and high school students take here. At the end of the semester, students are ranked based on their overall scores and the rank is listed publicly. Heck, I didn't even have a concept (nor did I even know the Chinese word for it) of what is a test when I took the first one.

Of course, now, I'm really comparing apples to oranges, but are we really talking about hours and hours here?

So, tell me again,

Oh my god, I also went to a public school in 2nd grade in HK! That was some super traumatic stuff, when English is your first language and suddenly you have to study in hard-as-f*ck Chinese and you are 7 years old! Man, your post brought back some traumatic memories.

But back to OP. Our school does not assign homework (at least for K-2. 3rd starts to have some small projects.) and all research seems to support this move. But from what I've seen from homework from other schools is that so much of it is a waste of time (draw this and color this and paste this). I would have no problem with my kids doing some homework to reinforce what they've learned, but all that busywork is ridiculous. OP, you have to contact your teacher and tell her it's taking you X hours to complete homework and your child hates it and it is doing no service. Otherwise, they won't know. And also, once your child is starting to melt down, just stop for the day. (I say this, but personally, my kid would FREAK OUT if something they thought was due was not done.)

We had homework like this at AppleTree preschool. AS if a three-year-old can draw picture of a deciduous tree. Turns out, it was basically forcing the parents to do homework with their children, but I hated how time-consuming it was.

OP -- is your teacher a new teacher?

That's a lot of stuff and it's busy work. The reading should be a priority, but the other stuff? Let it go.

We found there were certain teachers in school who seemed to think they should give us, the family, assignments -- as if we aren't already doing things as a family and having quality time.

Ugh OP, that sucks. As everyone else has said, it sounds way out of the ordinary. I could see my first grader getting those assignments, but it would be only one of them for the week. On Monday, she'd get the assignment to find/cut out pictures, and need to bring it back by Thursday.
Then the next week would be the tree walk.

In addition to reading, one week so far we had an "all about me bag" and another week we had some extra math worksheets that were super simple.
That's it.

Just don’t do it.
Act baffled at the parent teacher conference.
Continue to not do it.
Reply with baffled response to any emails re:homework.

Rinse/repeat

Anonymous wrote:Ar Wolftrap Elementary, we get a bingo sheet of assignments. Kids pick and do 15 in the WHOLE month! Plus 20 minutes of bedtime reading. It's great!

That's funny. Parents were complaining that they loved the once a week assignments they used to give which had more reading and writing involved. They said some of the activities on the bingo sheets were dumb.

OP, the school year's assignments change from year to year depending on the teaching group and teacher. There is no consistency in FCPS even within a school or grade. You probably just got a teacher who gives more homework. Ask for a teacher who doesn't give homework next year.

Ar Wolftrap Elementary, we get a bingo sheet of assignments. Kids pick and do 15 in the WHOLE month! Plus 20 minutes of bedtime reading. It's great!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny when parents think they know how to do a teacher's job better than the teacher. What would really be funny is if the teacher showed at your workplace and instructed you on better ways to do your work.

Constructive criticism is actually good for everyone so I wouldn't mind if it meant I learned a new way of doing something. Also, a teacher spending 5 mins to write an email to parents explaining what they are doing that week and what should parents expect to come home, etc. would go a long way to making many parents comfortable with what is actually happening in the classroom.

The truth is everyone wants to know what their kids are actually doing from 8:30-3:30 everyday, (I know that I'd be pleased if they can do just 1-2 hours of real learning, even if they socialize the rest of the time...) The problem is I don't have a good idea if they are even doing that much right now in 1st grade.. certainly very little completed work comes home in DC's folder, much less than what I was getting back last year in his kindergarten).

Criticism is only constructive if you know WTF you are talking about. Not random parents giving their input.

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny when parents think they know how to do a teacher's job better than the teacher. What would really be funny is if the teacher showed at your workplace and instructed you on better ways to do your work.

Constructive criticism is actually good for everyone so I wouldn't mind if it meant I learned a new way of doing something. Also, a teacher spending 5 mins to write an email to parents explaining what they are doing that week and what should parents expect to come home, etc. would go a long way to making many parents comfortable with what is actually happening in the classroom.

The truth is everyone wants to know what their kids are actually doing from 8:30-3:30 everyday, (I know that I'd be pleased if they can do just 1-2 hours of real learning, even if they socialize the rest of the time...) The problem is I don't have a good idea if they are even doing that much right now in 1st grade.. certainly very little completed work comes home in DC's folder, much less than what I was getting back last year in his kindergarten).

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny when parents think they know how to do a teacher's job better than the teacher. What would really be funny is if the teacher showed at your workplace and instructed you on better ways to do your work.

Reading some of the threads from teachers...I actually welcome their input on this thread. DCUM teachers. Care to share?

The “bring in pictures” assignments are such a pain and assume we all have color printers at home or stacks of glossy (but kid appropriate) magazines.

It's kind of funny when parents think they know how to do a teacher's job better than the teacher. What would really be funny is if the teacher showed at your workplace and instructed you on better ways to do your work.