I found out today that preschoolers get homework!

[katilac]

I just saw on Facebook that SWB posted about homework and how it has clearly been shown to NOT be useful in elementary school. She linked a Salon article.

[mom2scouts]

14 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

 

Yeah, half of all kids are below the 50th percentile, that's how percentiles freaking work.

 

The younger kiddo's first grade teacher used to expect worksheets, scads of worksheets, that didn't just have to be done but DECORATED. Yeah, that wasn't happening. Or she'd assign "optional" homework and then get snippy with me when I said we took the optional and left the homework.

Which is still nothing on the older kid's elementary. Every single day, starting in kindy, they were supposed to write a journal entry about their day at school. It's school! One day is very much like the next! And of course, the teacher would leave a little note if the kid wrote that, or wrote about anything that wasn't school, or wasn't interesting enough in the journal entries. "We want the kids to share their days with you!" Well, if my kid wants to TELL ME about school then I'm sure it'll happen more easily without that journal.

That stupid assignment was the source of so much angst and frustration to so many kids. And I asked around teacher friends and they all agreed there was no benefit to assigning the same writing assignment every day for six solid years of school.

 

13 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

Because of that stupid journal, the kid was so incredibly resistant to writing that we did NO WRITING when we homeschooled for grades 6-8. It took a long time for her to start writing just for herself.

We had a first grade teacher who thought my son took too long to write in his journal. She made him stay in from his ONE twenty minute recess per day to finish his journal writing. Making sure a little boy doesn't get any physical exercise for eight hours is really going to improve his academic work, right? I was NOT HAPPY and told her he *would* be getting recess and she was welcome to send his journal home to be completed. She did send the journal home one time. I noticed a journal entry where she had crossed out the entire paragraph he had written, including the illustration, and had written "Rewrite this!"  I was confused because it was a long, well written paragraph for a first grade boy. Apparently she had asked them to write about a job they would like and gave two options. My son wrote that he really wasn't interested in either of those options, but instead would enjoy doing this other thing and then he expanded on it. She made him completely rewrite the assignment.

This was just one of the issues we had with that teacher, but she was so bad that I finally got brave enough to pull him out of school and start homeschooling. He's never gone back and has never wanted to go back to public school. He was so writing resistant after I brought him home that we did little writing for a few years and I've had to introduce it back into our homeschool very slowly and carefully.

[MarieCurie]

Where I live homework in preschool seems to becoming common. It's a shame, all the play based preschools are going away. On the one hand it would be nice to put my daughter in preschool so she could socialize more but hard to find one that doesn't do a bunch of worksheets and sight words. There used to be a reasonably priced preschool through the city, but when I looked into signing up my son a few years ago it had gone from play based to work sheets and kindergarten prep.

[purpleowl]

My son was in VPK last year, at a private school that uses Abeka for that age. He never had homework. When he had been absent, the teacher would send home whatever worksheets he'd missed at school, but she was clear that they were only for if he wanted to do them. The only thing that came close to homework was near the start of the year when she commented to me that he was a little behind the other kids in scissors skills and asked if I could have him practice a bit more.

So, not all VPK programs give the kids homework. Not even those using Abeka.

[ktgrok]

Ok, so spoke with someone in a different part of the state from my friend and her kid did not have homework in pre-K last year, so it's not all of the VPK schools, which is good!

[73349]

My friend teaches in a PS, and the preschool teachers are going to be sending homework home. She's trying to get the parent latter phrased along the lines of "optional enrichment activities"--her own DD is in 1st and regularly falls asleep on the car ride home from school. But there's no way they could keep a kid in from recess (not enough staff) and you can't fail preschool (which is legally optional), so I don't see how they'd make kids do it anyway.

 

[Scarlett]

32 minutes ago, whitehawk said:

My friend teaches in a PS, and the preschool teachers are going to be sending homework home. She's trying to get the parent latter phrased along the lines of "optional enrichment activities"--her own DD is in 1st and regularly falls asleep on the car ride home from school. But there's no way they could keep a kid in from recess (not enough staff) and you can't fail preschool (which is legally optional), so I don't see how they'd make kids do it anyway.

 

Did I read somewhere they can kick them out of the program? Maybe I dreamed that. 

[MeaganS]

59 minutes ago, whitehawk said:

My friend teaches in a PS, and the preschool teachers are going to be sending homework home. She's trying to get the parent latter phrased along the lines of "optional enrichment activities"--her own DD is in 1st and regularly falls asleep on the car ride home from school. But there's no way they could keep a kid in from recess (not enough staff) and you can't fail preschool (which is legally optional), so I don't see how they'd make kids do it anyway.

 

 

They make kids do it anyway because so many parents don't realize that their kids will be fine without it and stress about whatever the teacher says they have to do.  We've homeschooled all along, but I feel like the paradigm shift provided by choosing a different option has ruined me forever for public school. They would hate me because I'd probably be anarchist in their eyes. I wouldn't make my kids do stupid assignments, or homework at all in elementary. I would probably have my kids absent the maxiumum number of days allowed because the school doesn't own us. 

I have a kid or two that would love to complete little worksheets and projects. I have another that would (and sometimes does, even with homeschooling) freak out some days over every little assignment and for whom homework would be a massive problem. Requiring it that young makes me sad and a little angry.

Edited August 21, 2019 by MeaganS

[MarieCurie]

4 minutes ago, MeaganS said:

 

They make kids do it anyway because so many parents don't realize that their kids will be fine without it and stress about whatever the teacher says they have to do.  We've homeschooled all along, but I feel like the paradigm shift provided by choosing a different option has ruined me forever for public school. They would hate me because I'd probably be anarchist in their eyes. I wouldn't make my kids do stupid assignments, or homework at all in elementary. I would probably have my kids absent the maxiumum number of days allowed because the school doesn't own us. 

I have a kid or two that would love to complete little worksheets and projects. I have another that would (and sometimes does, even with homeschooling) freak out some days over every little assignment and for whom homework would be a massive problem. Requiring it that young makes me sad and a little angry.

I know a few preschoolers that are in therapy for anxiety and depression it seems to be related to homework and school assignments. But the parents view homework as something the kids just have to get used to 🙄

[Junie]

I taught school for a few years before I became a SAHM.  When I taught high school English, homework was of course required.  But when I switched to elementary school, I got rid of homework.  It was a small class in a private school.  Most of the kids were in before AND after school care.  These kids were dropped off at school very early (6, IIRC) and picked up at 6 in the evening.  They had almost no time at all with their parents, other than on weekends.  I decided that homework was certainly not as important as the kids spending time with their families and I abolished all homework.

When people tell me that they don't know how I have time to homeschool, I tell them that it doesn't really take any more time than what I would have to spend helping kids with homework from school every night.

[73349]

2 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Did I read somewhere they can kick them out of the program? Maybe I dreamed that. 

At my friend's school I know they wouldn't: they need attendance to get funding & it's a high-ESL population that will just have to start from the beginning if they don't attend preK. However, parents there are inclined to comply with a teacher's directives, which is why friend really wants it phrased as suggestions rather than requirements.

When I taught middle school, we were allowed to assign up to 20 minutes per subject per day. I aimed for 5 minutes enough days to avoid questions about why I didn't assign homework. The last quarter of the year I increased it a bit with some flexibility in longer-term assignments.

I pulled DS from private preschool at the end of the year when he was in the 3s class rather than letting him go another year as planned because it was too structured and age-inappropriate. (E.g., I wanted Duck Duck Goose & they were giving him the Pledge of Allegiance; I wanted practice taking turns & they were wanting him to sit by himself and write his letters. This is an only child whose mama is a teacher, people--do what I can't!) I cannot imagine assigning written homework to people who need their free time to learn things like tying their shoes.

[ktgrok]

3 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Did I read somewhere they can kick them out of the program? Maybe I dreamed that. 

Yes, here there are more kids than slots, and since the school is a private school they could kick him out and no doubt have a waiting list of other kids to take his place. 

I also think there are funding issues where if the kid isn't there the right amount of hours they don't get their money from the state, so yeah. 

It's a mess. 

[MarieCurie]

2 hours ago, Junie said:

I taught school for a few years before I became a SAHM.  When I taught high school English, homework was of course required.  But when I switched to elementary school, I got rid of homework.  It was a small class in a private school.  Most of the kids were in before AND after school care.  These kids were dropped off at school very early (6, IIRC) and picked up at 6 in the evening.  They had almost no time at all with their parents, other than on weekends.  I decided that homework was certainly not as important as the kids spending time with their families and I abolished all homework.

When people tell me that they don't know how I have time to homeschool, I tell them that it doesn't really take any more time than what I would have to spend helping kids with homework from school every night.

This is one of the reasons we decided to homeschool. After a long commute home I want to enjoy time as a family not spend the evening doing homework battles.

[BooksandBoys]

54 minutes ago, MarieCurie said:

This is one of the reasons we decided to homeschool. After a long commute home I want to enjoy time as a family not spend the evening doing homework battles.

Every time I get desperate and start dreaming of sending my kids to school, I remind myself that I’ll still have to do the homework battles with them every night and I might as well homeschool. And we’d lose so much (like ABA...the waiting lists here for after school hours are years long). 

[katilac]

3 hours ago, Junie said:

 When people tell me that they don't know how I have time to homeschool, I tell them that it doesn't really take any more time than what I would have to spend helping kids with homework from school every night.

Right?! And there's so much less crying involved! 

[ktgrok]

19 minutes ago, katilac said:

Right?! And there's so much less crying involved! 

And you have the answer key!

[Chris in VA]

I am a preschool teacher (not at the moment, but it is who I am😁) and I am constantly appalled at the level of stupidity in my profession. 

[Mbelle]

It makes me sad that the overwhelming message is work and boring work and that this is their life for the next 14 years.  What are the preschools trying to prove by this? 

My older kids went to church parents morning out type preschool.  No homework, but they learned so much and it brought them joy.  Fastforward 10 years when caboose baby came along and I thought he might enjoy PMO.  They started talking to me about curriculum and disciplien policies so I just walked away.  

One of my friends has always done public school (and she's in a top school), but is switching her last child at home to private because his learning consist of pre test, study guide and test and this if for every subject in middle school.  There's almost no day that goes by without a test.  Every afternoon is filled with study guides and homework battles.  

 

[rebcoola]

Yep it’s crazy we only just got our first public preK and don’t anyone who used it yet.  The private ones are very heavy on seat work.  We sent oldest to the “gentle non academic preK” for a few months It was so many worksheets but they did get outdoor time and no homework it’s partly why homeschool.  We have half or full day kindergarten but no one chooses half day.  If you choose half day then your kid gets all the work and none of the fun stuff like art etc.  even the field trips!!