SKL Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Surprise, surprise! Yesterday my kids' teacher sent home a "project" that we are required to do over break. It is going to be graded - 20 points in social studies. (That's about as much as a test.) It's due the day they go back. The project is to build a reindeer using materials gathered from whatever we do over break. Sort of an experience collage, and the kids have to also bring a list of what each piece is from so they can give an oral report about it. Problem is, we're not going to be around. The kids are going to the grandparents' house, then it's Christmas, then they have a couple of camps I signed them up for, then we going on a cruise to several countries etc. and finally to Disney World. So their collages could be interesting, except we're getting back at bedtime on the 2nd day of school. And no, I really don't want to do this during our trip. This is going to be interesting. I guess maybe I just have to get used to the idea. Maybe it would be fun to do it, but I'm worrying about packing it and keeping it nice with all the other stuff we have to do. Bah. I guess bringing some cardboard, scissors, and glue will not kill us. :/ What about your kids? Do they have homework? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 No homework here. My son is in 8th grade and they had finals this week, so the semester is over. I would not be happy about the homework you described. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Sounds like a pain in the neck. I would be miffed. If it were me in your place, and assuming I was making an attempt to actually do the project, I would print an outline of a reindeer and just have the girls pick up rocks or shells along the way and have the girls glue the stuff into the outline AFTER they are recovered from the trip. Possibly not until the first weekend since it sounds like they will be doing make up work from the first 2 days back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 I would very firmly tell the teacher and the principal that Chrismas is family time and your child will not be doing it. It would be different if you had got the project at few weeks ago so that you could have chosen to complete it before you left. Yes it will cost your girls but someone sometime has to say enough and follow through. It is disrespectful to the children, you and your family to expect them to do make work activities over Christmas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 She doesn't have any homework this year but she got homework over Christmas break last year in kindergarten. Her homework as a whole has been easier this year. Go figure. Those type of assignments that your girls got is really annoying to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Problem is, we're not going to be around. The kids are going to the grandparents' house, then it's Christmas, then they have a couple of camps I signed them up for, then we going on a cruise to several countries etc. and finally to Disney World. Wow! How long is their break? Sounds like you'll have an amazing time! The project sounds annoying to me. Maybe you could just find one hour to devote to it on the day before going back to school. Set the timer and whatever gets done in that time is what gets turned in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 None here, though DD8 brought home extra credit math project and will continue reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uff Da! Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Nothing here. The reindeer project sounds more like a method to "show and tell" about their vacations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 We got about a 10 page packet of math and a 10 page packet of handwriting, along with about a 10 page 8.5 x 11 story about a dog and comprehension questions. The teacher did put a note on our packet that said that we could do our own math (since DS is accelerated from his peers). Your DDs' project sounds pretty excessive. Maybe skip the reindeer aspect and just do a more traditional "what I did on my vacation" travel journal? Please don't worry about the 20 points in social studies. That's such BS. :\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uff Da! Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 What if you had them make accordion books and put a reindeer on the front and back covers. Heck, the front cover could have a reindeer head and the back a tail. The girls could scribble and paste in them all vacation long. ( maybe not all vacation long. Mine would fill the thing in one sitting and then forget about it. Isn't that the point of vacation- to let go of what needs to done for a little bit?) Just expanding on the above idea. Enjoy your vacation! http://www.juliegittus.com.au/julies%20pages/page4.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckles Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 I would e-mail the teacher and let her know it won't be done. You have family plans. Homework over break is ridiculous. The girls can give an oral report from their memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 The teacher says she is going to laminate all the reindeer and hang them on the bulletin board after the kids give their report. So doing something much different from her instructions is not really an option. I'm sure we will do the project because I'm too much of a wimp to say no. I wonder, though, whether my kids will even get a chance to present, since they are gong to miss the first two school days in January. I was actually hoping she would send a bit of homework so the kids would not go two weeks without any practice. (I have lots of materials at home, but sometimes it's nice to be able to say it's a school requirement.) But I was thinking worksheets. That would be a lot easier to manage on a trip. I should also note that I am not on vacation myself. I am working every day and I have a lot of year-end deadlines as well as two big projects of my own to complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Take some picture and make a reindeer out of combination of picture. It will be 5 mins project.... But.. I do hate those project has no learning involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Wow! How long is their break? Sounds like you'll have an amazing time! Today was the girls' last school day of 2013. The first day of 2014 school is January 6, but we're taking off the 6th and 7th. So they have 19 days before they return to school. They have horse camp (8am-noon) tomorrow, and then my sister, who lives near my parents, is going to take them to that neck of the woods until Tuesday. Tuesday evening we'll probably do church. We do Christmas on Wednesday morning, after which we drive to my parents' house to enjoy the holiday with my extended family. The girls will have horse camp again on Thursday and Friday. I was planning to let them spend the afternoons/evenings watching Christmas classics and enjoying their Christmas gifts, with a little piano and practice work mixed in. Saturday we are flying to wherever we're getting on the cruise ship. Then we are in a different place every day. When that's over we are going to Disney World to celebrate Miss E's birthday (which is the first day of school), and then flying home the next day. During the trip, we'll be working on reading, writing, grammar, and math, and completing some make-up work so they are not very behind when they return. So, they will have plenty of experiences to talk about when they get back. But they won't have much time to organize it into a reindeer collage. I think I'll get them each a notebook and have them write about their experiences, attaching some 2-D artifact to each page, and then in the final days we'll work on the collage and then make the list. They can turn in the notebook along with the assignment and hopefully the teacher will appreciate the effort and give them credit, whether or not their reindeer collages are what she expected. ;) I was going to have them do the writing anyway, so why not get credit for it? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Sounds like the trip of a lifetime! Have a great time. I would never have thought of doing a cruise around Christmas time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 This will be our second cruise - the first was when the kids were in KG. It turned out to be a very kid-friendly way to travel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Eldest does - he has exams in late January and has to start working towards them. Youngest doesn't. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftymama Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 What if you had them make accordion books and put a reindeer on the front and back covers. Heck, the front cover could have a reindeer head and the back a tail. The girls could scribble and paste in them all vacation long. ( maybe not all vacation long. Mine would fill the thing in one sitting and then forget about it. Isn't that the point of vacation- to let go of what needs to done for a little bit?) Just expanding on the above idea. Enjoy your vacation! http://www.juliegittus.com.au/julies%20pages/page4.html Not to change the subject, but this is a fantastic idea for so many things. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 My kids don't have homework. We just finished first semester. We are working on the portfolio for my youngest for admittance to the gifted program. But that is just gathering samples, etc. I think the reindeer collage sounds like a ton of fun. I also like the accordion book idea. We are leaving for the beach and then a family wedding in a couple of days. I think we'll do something like that. We can add it to the portfolio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nart Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 I am so excited my first grade son doesn't have any homework AND my husband, who is a 7th grade English teacher, didn't assign any homework. His school district moved up the start of the school year from after Labor Day to August 13 in order to have the semester end by winter break. In previous years he assigned a project over winter break and would check his work email everyday in case any students emailed him to ask questions. So now that the semester is over, he doesn't have to worry about grading papers, checking his email, putting grades into the computer, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 I am so excited my first grade son doesn't have any homework AND my husband, who is a 7th grade English teacher, didn't assign any homework. His school district moved up the start of the school year from after Labor Day to August 13 in order to have the semester end by winter break. In previous years he assigned a project over winter break and would check his work email everyday in case any students emailed him to ask questions. So now that the semester is over, he doesn't have to worry about grading papers, checking his email, putting grades into the computer, etc. I am a high school math teacher. Our grades were due before we left school Friday. I am free!! (Except planning for next semester:)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Our school starts August 20-ish. I think it would be great if we could start a little earlier and be done with the semester before Christmas break. I wonder why that isn't how we do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Our semester ended on the last day of school before the break. School starts here on the 21st of August except for kindergarten and 1st which starts on the 28th. We don't get grades until after the break is over though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 How about having the kids cut out parts of travel brochures, maps, ticket stubs etc from all the various places you visit on the trip and pieces of gift wrapping paper from christmas and glue them all together on a reindeer outline on a sheet of construction paper and let the kids talk about each piece on the collage during class presentation time? That way, you can do the project easily and you don't have to review with each child what to present in class because they already know what to say about their collage. My child has homework for his "extra curriculars" and piano over the holiday - we will be taking chess tactics worksheets, soroban math worksheets and piano theory worksheets to Disneyland and Tahoe. But, I try to find small breaks of 10 minutes in a day and get the homework done at that time - sort of like, finish one page of homework before we head out so that we can stay out longer in the evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Our school has a policy specifically against homework on holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Good grief. The only upside to that assignment is that it is going to be laminated; that means it doesn't have to be 3-D! Thank goodness for small favors. I like the idea using travel brochures, menus, tickets etc to make a flat collage. If you decide to do it, it will be easy enough to knock off in a very few minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 If you decide to do it, it will be easy enough to knock off in a very few minutes. If I do it or if my kids do it? :P On a ship / at a resort in the middle of 500 more exciting things to do? I don't do my kids' homework, so it will be them doing it, and it will take more than a few minutes. But I'm going to try to make the best of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 24, 2013 Author Share Posted December 24, 2013 Well, dang. I just went through Miss A's school folder, and there is a pile of 16 worksheets in there, with a discipline note that says she didn't finish this in school and needs to complete it over break. (Strange, because I had been told that she was keeping up with the class pretty well last week.) 15 of the pages are from a phonics workbook. I don't see how they could have even had that many pages of phonics during a week of gift making, Christmas partying, and early dismissal on top of everything else.... Gosh, I'm glad the teachers are there to make sure our kids don't slack off during their Christmas vacation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Phonics worksheets drive me crazy especially when you have kids who can read well and that is an awful lot of worksheets for one week during their Christmas celebrations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Honestly, I think I would make an exception for the not doing your student's homework rule for homework over break. I would probably do the collages while they watched and gave some input. And I would return the phonics worksheets with the comment, "I'm sorry; we didn't have time to get to these." If they get a bad grade, so what? It's second grade! What possible problem could a lousy social studies grade cause in the scheme of things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Well there you have the worksheets you were hoping got sent home so your kids wouldn't slack over break and you could blame it on the school. It's 2nd grade. It's not going to keep them out of Harvard. Well, dang. I just went through Miss A's school folder, and there is a pile of 16 worksheets in there, with a discipline note that says she didn't finish this in school and needs to complete it over break. (Strange, because I had been told that she was keeping up with the class pretty well last week.) 15 of the pages are from a phonics workbook. I don't see how they could have even had that many pages of phonics during a week of gift making, Christmas partying, and early dismissal on top of everything else.... Gosh, I'm glad the teachers are there to make sure our kids don't slack off during their Christmas vacation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 DS brought home optional work over the holidays. They will get a prize for bringing it back completed afterward. And we were encouraged to have them read everyday. I'm not sure we're making everyday. When the grandparents were here there was less time... but he got Magic Treehouse for Christmas and is ZOOMiNg through those now. As well as Marvin Redpost and the Roscoe Rileys we have out from the library. (They let them bring home books from the library to read over the break too) (And he brought home two "books" to color and read, if he wants.) The "Holiday Homework" is a set of 9 squares with different tasks in each. One was to estimate the number of doors in the house, then count them and figure out what the difference was between the two. Another was to write a number sentence about how you would figure out how many eyes were in your house Another (the hardest) was to find all the words you can in the combination of your first, middle, and last names. My son has 25 letters combined in his 3 names, 12 of them unique. Luckily, he's having fun with this and already has over a page worth of words. (one of them Chocolate! Yes his name has two Cs in it) I do NOT expect the teacher is expecting them to find ALL of the words. I'm glad we didn't get that Reindeer project! We've gone... NOWHERE except to the stores and a parking lot to play with our new scooters. So I have no idea what we'd put on it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yes, my kids were given assignments over the breaks, sometimes a lot, even during elementary school. I don't think it's helpful to give young students assignments -- especially busywork projects -- over the breaks. My youngest is a junior and is studying for six semester exams which will be given the third week of January. He's also been working on some USAMTS (math contest) problems. My biggest -- and pretty much only -- gripe with his high school is that the kids do not get much in the way of breaks. Next year should be easier and we are planning to go away over the break. Enjoy your cruise with your girls, SKL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Honestly, I think I would make an exception for the not doing your student's homework rule for homework over break. I would probably do the collages while they watched and gave some input. And I would return the phonics worksheets with the comment, "I'm sorry; we didn't have time to get to these." If they get a bad grade, so what? It's second grade! What possible problem could a lousy social studies grade cause in the scheme of things? kid can glue. The OP said the teacher is going to laminate them, so flat paper stuff-- nothing so big or complicated that is can't be easily laminated, kwim? I am thinking it's a language arts activity for when they get back to school (for sharing circle or something)? Collect the postcards, tickets, luggage tags, maps, menus in a large ziplock and bring them home. (My kids always found some items like this interesting for their memory boxes.) Glue stick the stuff during breakfast or dinner when you get back. I agree it's a pain; I was simply trying to figure out the least painful way to do this, if the OP decides the child will do it at all. I'm a guy that way. lol I like to fix stuff. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Our school has a policy specifically against homework on holidays. Ours does too, now. Thanks to last year's student government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cera Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 My kids don't do homework over breaks nor do they do homework I feel is excessive or busywork. I would let the teacher know the assignment won't work for us and if she insists I would throw something together myself and tell my kid exactly why I wasn't making her do it. I despise homework in all forms but especially that kind of worthless task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AprilMayJune75 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 DD didn't have anything mandatory assigned. She can log in to her online math program at home, though, so we have been keeping up with that at the math instructor's suggestion, and she has also been doing some reading and some handwriting. Other than that, I've just tried to let her enjoy down time and be a kid. Honestly, I would probably balk at an assignment like the one you describe. If we were home much, I would do it. If not, I wouldn't bother, and would send an e-mail over the break to the teacher telling her why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 We just got home tonight. We saved up little scraps of this and that over the trip. Today the girls spent hours cutting out the stencils, stenciling onto the cardboard, and cutting out the cardboard. Each reindeer has 8 body parts (not including the facial features). Who knew it would take 7-year-olds that long to do that much cutting? (Granted, they were distracted, as we were trying to dress and pack at the same time.) We also listed all our activities (as I typed them into an Excel sheet) and organized most of the scraps that will be glued on. Thankfully, before we got home, I learned that the kids don't have school tomorrow, so they can do the rest then. I wasn't sure what I would do with the half-finished project tonight; none of the alternatives sounded great. Miss A willingly wrote several journal entries about her experiences during the trip. She wants to give them to her teacher. :) Miss A finished all those phonics make-up pages on Christmas Eve and did one rather involved math make-up sheet during travel today. After this vacation, I am more convinced than ever that homework over breaks is obnoxious. I don't know what the teacher was thinking. She should have made it more open-ended so people traveling wouldn't have such a logistical nightmare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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