Our school system has a policy that kindergarteners should not spend more than 30 minutes a night on homework. They have no homework Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Our city has full-day kindergarten.
A typical early-kindergarten homework assignment list would look like this:
Monday: Practice writing the letter Tt.
Tuesday: Draw 4 pictures that start with the letter T.
Wednesday: Practice writing the number 1.
Thursday: Practice writing your name.
As the year progressed, their homework assignments might include a math worksheet, writing their numbers from 1-30, and writing sentences using some of their sight words.
This sounds fairly reasonable, if there's going to be homework at all for kindergarten. I do agree with the other poster who mentioned getting notes from the teacher about "suggested" activities to further the learning at home... that sounds good too. Though, I can see having to make it mandatory because there are some parents out there who think it's the teacher's job to do 100% of the teaching, so why would they do anything remotely academic at home?
I am a former teacher (4th grade). I always gave homework on Monday for the whole week, and I never assigned work over the weekends. Even at that, some of my students would do all the week's homework the first night, and it would only take 1-2 hours... that's 30 min/night for a 4th grader... certainly doable!
The way the OP describes it, the homework sounds like overkill. Kindergarteners are still at an age where they are learning at incredible speeds through typical play... take away the play time, and it's too much forced learning. Learn a little, then go play... learn a little more, then go play some more... (but they're really learning all the time!)
My own son just completed kindergarten. He had about an hour of homework per day... but he was homeschooled.
That means that's
all the "work" he'd have each day. Now, sure, this is a pretty good student-teacher ratio, so that kinda lends itself to less time being needed... but still, he's accomplished a lot!
He has quite neat handwriting. From early on, he could write numbers 1-100. He has a desire to do math, so he's learned to tell time, count coins, add two-digit numbers, subtract, the concept behind multiplication (he can figure problems out, not that he's memorized the times tables), and he identifies fractions. He has to be pushed a bit to read, but we've been working on a strong phonics background, so he is able to read
some books now... and along with his phonics background, I've had him learn spelling patterns, so he's a great speller. I've looked up many examples of first grade spelling lists, and he'd be able to ace the first half of first grade in spelling for sure.
What I've noticed though is that my son has had lots of free time to explore things on his own... things of personal interest. (Given that he doesn't spend 6 hours at school, 2 hours on a bus, and another hour on homework each night!)
I've learned that he learns a lot through books, and loves non-fiction books at the library (with lots of pictures
). He's taken his own initiative to create books on what he's learned... like he has created a book on snakes, whales, weather, etc. He draws pictures, like he's seen them in the book, and he's practiced writing by labeling his pictures. This is all great educational activity, that should also qualify as "school work," but he does it on his own time, and thinks of it as something fun to do, certainly not school work!
He acts out stories and scenarios with his younger brother. They are working on communication skills, and problem solving skills constantly as they play! They build with blocks and legos... and learn a lot about experimenting, and trying new things to get their constructions to stand taller.
He also recalls incredible facts and details from programs on TV like Magic School Bus, and Sid the Science Kid,... plus special educational dvd's we rent for free from the library (on subjects of his choosing, of course). Watching TV sure beats doing an hour or more of written homework!
Simply put, I feel that today's children are losing their childhood for no good reason. They are naturally, in some way or another, motivated learners! We should allow them to explore there world and play as they feel led! We can guide the process a bit, offer suggestions and new opportunities, but telling a kindergartener to write a
whole bunch of sentences is like telling him that school/learning is not fun. Getting them excited about the fact that they
can write words and sentences is one thing, but really, that becomes old fast if they're going to be required to do it too much.
I'm sorry for anyone who is dealing with lots of homework for their kids. I hope things work out better in the near future. Give your kids lots of love and encouragement... that will be more beneficial than ABC's and 123's any day!
