Does your kindergartener have homework?

[CandCMommy]

OK my boys are 3 and 4 so no school for thim, but your child knows how to write? and he has only been in school for 3 weeks?

OP here, thanks for all the replies. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that thinks this amount of homework is alot for a kindergartner. Hopefully this is the max amount he will have this year and it doesn't increase as the year goes along, that I will not like for sure! You know I'm curious to see what the other K class has for homework assignments to see how they compare. Hmmm, wonder how I can super sleuth that one?

And yes, write in their journal. At the beginning of the year it can be one or two words with a picture but by the end of the year it should be full blown sentences about their weekend.

 

[teresajoy]

My DS has been in school for three weeks now and I am amazed at the amount of homework he has on a daily basis. I'm just wondering if this is normal for all kindergartners. He is in a public school and goes for a half day. I know I never had homework in kindergarten but maybe I am just out of touch with things these days. Here's an example of a daily homework assignment for him:

Practice writing letter K and k 5 times each. Look for words that begin with this letter. Look for shapes around your neighborhood that have three corners and 3 sides, draw a picture of the shape and then label the shape. Read for 20 minutes. Practice writing your first name using a capital at the beginning then lowercase letters.

On the weekends he has to write in his journal about what he did over the weekend and also has to read for 20 minutes everyday.

I was prepared for a little homework but this amount takes up at least an hour EVERY night. So please share your kindergarten homework stories.

My girls both had homework in kindergarten, it was given as a packet to finish by the end of the week. I don't believe homework is necessary for kids, so I didn't make them do it. I would try to have fun games for them to play that would incorporate whatever it was they were suppose to be doing with the worksheets, but I think Lydia turned in maybe 4 of the packets during the entire year last year. And, she did great in school.

Lydia LOVES school, but she HATED homework. We have all day every day kindergarten here, and when she got home she was very tired and to me playing is way more important at her age than homework. (to be honest I think playing is more important at every age!) I explained this to her teacher, and she was very understanding. (I love their kindergarten teacher!) Lydia and Arminda both did very well in kindergarten (they had the same kindergarten teacher). I imagine if they had been struggling in school, I would have done the homework with them, but they both did great.

 

[teresajoy]

I agree with you about the learning aspect. I agree about them being like spnges. But this is about homework. I just think that the OP wrote about it, and that is way too much. If your child is in school for 8 hours.....there is plenty of sponge time then. I want the nights to be just us...as a family. And really, with so many schools cutting out recess and physical education and music, and the overwhelming amount of childhood obesity, I wish the teachers would assign, "Healthy exercise" as homework. "Go take a walk for 15 minutes" might make more of an impact long term on the child physically and mentally as sitting and writing or reading for 15 minutes. I will be involved in either as a parent, but I think the homework issue is out of control.

I agree Maureen! I don't send chores to school for the kids to do, don't send home school work for them to do at home. When my kids are home, I want to be able to have family time.

I wanted to add too that I didn't send any of my kids to preschool. But, when Lydia started this past year, her teacher thought Lydia must have been mistaken that she hadn't been, since she knew so much. I have to say that made me really proud!

 

[wickywinn]

Yep, he had homework and I was initially shocked at the amount. We got into a good routine with it every night so, after a few weeks, it was easy-peasy to get through. Well, he did struggle with some but it was a good addition to our nightly rituals.

 

[taitai]

Our kindergarten (full day) gives out homework three days a week (mon,tues and thurs). In addition, we need to do reading for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week. On top of that, they get special books on Mondays and Fridays that they need to read three times before returning.

The only thing that I find hard is the reading. My kindergartener is an excellent reader but I have three kids and finding 90 minutes each evening on top of the homework and the activities and dinner and bedtime to read is an ongoing challenge. We manage, but it is my big scheduling struggle each day.

 

[jodifla]

Our kindergarten (full day) gives out homework three days a week (mon,tues and thurs). In addition, we need to do reading for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week. On top of that, they get special books on Mondays and Fridays that they need to read three times before returning.

The only thing that I find hard is the reading. My kindergartener is an excellent reader but I have three kids and finding 90 minutes each evening on top of the homework and the activities and dinner and bedtime to read is an ongoing challenge. We manage, but it is my big scheduling struggle each day.

There are plenty of kids with working parents who probably can't keep up with a homework schedule like this.

It's very non-flexible and discriminatory to working parents.

 

[JamesMom]

Wow! My DS was in half-day kindergarten program and had homework maybe 5 times for the WHOLE YEAR!

Three were art projects, one for thanksgiving, 100 day and something else. And the others were simply to make up for what he didn't finished in class. If my kid got 1 hour worth of homework in K I would boycott it! Leave the kids be.

I am scared of 1st grade. The kids are in school for 7 hours (a ungodly amount of time , if you ask me) so if there is more than 30 minutes of homework most nights, I'll freak.

Reading doesn't count. We have 'story time' every night during the school year, but for like 15-20 mintues or 2-3 short stories.

I don't think he got enough reading work in, though his teacher passed him, so we worked through the Hooked on Phonics program this summer. He finished it and only needed about 30 minutes to an hour a day to do so and he spent 4 weeks at camp/VBS (break).

My mom saved my kindy report card. to pass I had to 1) know my full name, 2) tie my shoes, 3) recite my address and phone number. No reading required.

I think kids are worked way too hard these days.

 

[traveljunkie2]

My DS finished half-day Kindergarten last June. His teacher gave out a homework packet every Thursday, due back on Monday. It took about an hour to complete and consisted of the same types of exercises focusing on a different letter each week:

Trace the letter (lower case and capital) numerous times, find 3 pictures in magazines that start with letter, put pictures from a story in the proper order, connect lines between pictures that go together, identify object that doesn't belong, etc. This packet took about an hour every week. In addition, they had a reading log and parents were asked to read 20 each night to their child.

I volunteered in my son's class and was AMAZED by how much actual WORK they do in class. They were writing their own stories, illustrating them, editing them using punctuation, editing their classmates' work, etc. Each week they had several sight words and they worked on sounds that letter combinations make. By the end of the year 90% were reading at a 1st grade level. By the spring the teacher was asking the parents to have the children read to them every night.

All I remember from kindergarten is playing house, recess, and nap time. It sure has changed!

 

[bigbabyblues]

My DS starts tomorrow, but he's our second in this particular school. He will have a Bible verse to learn each week (assigned on Monday, due on Friday, and they also work on it in class), and litle reading booklet things to do for us to sign off on.

If he struggles, the teacher may send home a worksheet with that particular thing (writing the letter G, for example), but that's about it.

This is (obviously) a private Christian school, with full-day kindergarten.

 

[princessmom29]

I agree Maureen! I don't send chores to school for the kids to do, don't send home school work for them to do at home. When my kids are home, I want to be able to have family time.

I wanted to add too that I didn't send any of my kids to preschool. But, when Lydia started this past year, her teacher thought Lydia must have been mistaken that she hadn't been, since she knew so much. I have to say that made me really proud!

Really? Never,ever is homework ok to send home?? I don't know that my high school AP students could get anything near what they need without homework. There are concepts at work there that I feel simply need to be drilled more than once a day in order for them to really be proficent, and it needs to be done several hours apart so that things re not being stored in short term memory and then forgotten. I don't know how I would do that without assigning them as homework, as they are in my classroon for 98 min. and then move on.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

I think children who are of the age and intelligence level to do AP work are in a special category. Of course homework to "reinforce" a lesson is good. However homework where the child is doing "busy work" or teaching themselves, or having the parent teach them, is ridiculous EVERY time. My oldest is a Junior...he is in 2 AP classes, 1 "honors" class. His "easy" classes are Chemistry and Spanish III. He has some study halls during the day where he can try to time manage assignments. He does have about an hour of homework every night...sometimes more. But he is also 17. We are talking about Kindergarteners on this thread for the most part. I'm not worried about my 17 year old getting to bed by 8:00pm either.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My daughter didn't, but she was in a private kindergarten. My son did have homework. It was a pain in the butt because he had to do stuff like cut the alphabet out of dough, or find different shapes in the house, or find twenty different types of leaves. It seemed like more work than the homework he had this year in 3rd grade.

 

[princessmom29]

I think children who are of the age and intelligence level to do AP work are in a special category. Of course homework to "reinforce" a lesson is good. However homework where the child is doing "busy work" or teaching themselves, or having the parent teach them, is ridiculous EVERY time. My oldest is a Junior...he is in 2 AP classes, 1 "honors" class. His "easy" classes are Chemistry and Spanish III. He has some study halls during the day where he can try to time manage assignments. He does have about an hour of homework every night...sometimes more. But he is also 17. We are talking about Kindergarteners on this thread for the most part. I'm not worried about my 17 year old getting to bed by 8:00pm either.

I got that this was about K and not high school, and I would hope that every high school parentwould have this attitude. At one point that potser said she didn't believe in homework. I just wondered if that applied to everyone.

 

[jodifla]

I got that this was about K and not high school, and I would hope that every high school parentwould have this attitude. At one point that potser said she didn't believe in homework. I just wondered if that applied to everyone.

I don't believe in homework...at least the way it's doled out in school.

Now I believe in reading, book reports, SOME projects, maybe some math homework.

But read chapter 5 and answer the questions....no, it's busy work.

 

[stephie1012]

reading this im a lil concerned about sending my dd to k next year...she's in a private preschool program last year she was 3, some of that homework was what she had as homework. And mojority of what everyone has listed is what her preschool covers this yr in the 4yr old program...i hope shes not to bored relearning all these things, she gets bored very easily.

 

[princessmom29]

I don't believe in homework...at least the way it's doled out in school.

Now I believe in reading, book reports, SOME projects, maybe some math homework.

But read chapter 5 and answer the questions....no, it's busy work.

That's totally not what I assign. That kind of assignment is really pointless, claswork or homework. Chemistry is math based, especially in AP, so the students really need to do lots of problems of different types to really gain proficency with a concept. I find that if I don't assign enough practice, when they get a problem on a test that is not similar to one they have already seen, they tend to have real trouble. If they had done enough problems with different presentations then they are better prepared. There just isn't time to do enough of them in class, so they have to practice at home.

 

[teresajoy]

Really? Never,ever is homework ok to send home?? I don't know that my high school AP students could get anything near what they need without homework. There are concepts at work there that I feel simply need to be drilled more than once a day in order for them to really be proficent, and it needs to be done several hours apart so that things re not being stored in short term memory and then forgotten. I don't know how I would do that without assigning them as homework, as they are in my classroon for 98 min. and then move on.

Corey's teachers didn't believe in homework last year, and it was so wonderful. They told me that if they didn't learn it in class, it was going to help to have them work on it at home, and if they got it in class, they didn't need to work on it at home. He actually learned everything very well this way. I wish I had his schedule from last year in front of me, but I know he was taking physics, trigonometry, chemisty and several other math type classes. Concepts that were way beyond anything I know or ever care to know! He loves it though.

Obviously, we both have different opinions on this, and that's ok. I suspect Corey will be getting more homework this year. He will be a senior this year. He is taking a class that sent home a list of books that he should read before school starts.

 

[princessmom29]

Corey's teachers didn't believe in homework last year, and it was so wonderful. They told me that if they didn't learn it in class, it was going to help to have them work on it at home, and if they got it in class, they didn't need to work on it at home. He actually learned everything very well this way. I wish I had his schedule from last year in front of me, but I know he was taking physics, trigonometry, chemisty and several other math type classes. Concepts that were way beyond anything I know or ever care to know! He loves it though.

Obviously, we both have different opinions on this, and that's ok. I suspect Corey will be getting more homework this year. He will be a senior this year. He is taking a class that sent home a list of books that he should read before school starts.

That's great if it works for them. Our schedule just doesn't allow for enough time to do it all and I hate that. I was just wondering what your perspective on it was. Wow, physics and chemistry at the same time!! That is impressive!

 

[iheartdisney]

Last yeaar when my oldest started Kindergarten, we ended up at 4 different Kindergartens, so I've seen the entire spectrum of Kindergarten homework.
Virginia- they sent home a calendar every month with one activity for each day. Fun stuff, like write your name 5 times, go for a walk with your family and find 5 red things, etc. It was pretty much honor system of doing it.]
In florida, Kindergarten was closer to 1st grade in what was expected of the children. They were supposed to be writing in complete sentances by the end of the first month of school! We had a few pages each night, in several subjects.
In Northern California, we had a packet given on Monday, due by friday. About one page a day.
Here in Socal, it she sent home a weekly list of things to do, again pretty much honor system. (monday- read a book. Tuesday, color a page, etc.)
But we do popcorn words and flash cards pretty much every night with them also, and reading as well. Public school is a tool in the education of my children, not the whole program, KWIM?

 

[laceemouse]

reading this im a lil concerned about sending my dd to k next year...she's in a private preschool program last year she was 3, some of that homework was what she had as homework. And mojority of what everyone has listed is what her preschool covers this yr in the 4yr old program...i hope shes not to bored relearning all these things, she gets bored very easily.

This is exactly why I, and so many people I know, homeschool.
When kids start kindergarten they are all over the place. Some have never been away from mommy before and don't know anything, others can read and write. The teacher has a HARD job trying to please them all. Some kids will be reviewing for most of the year, others will have a hard time catching on to new concepts and not be READY to move on. It doesn't stop in kindergarten, it goes all through school until they can pick their own classes. Even in gifted classes in great schools our oldest was ALWAYS bored! We pulled everyone out to homeschool when she was starting high school. She is 18 now and will have 2 years of college completed in a couple of months. The other three all get to work at their own speed. AND, when I say school in done for the day it is DONE!