Okay.
So Madeleine celebrated her 8th birthday with an...IPOD SHUFFLE. I got it free by opening a Citibank Visa card last December. That's the only reason she got such an expensive gift. Her father immediately loaded the Mary Poppins soundtrack on it, fearing a repeat of the terrifying "Shit Is Bananas Hollaback Girl" episode earlier this year, so you can rest assured that Madeleine is enjoying wholesome, G-rated music.
She also begged to download some love song from High School Musical, so after she put away one week of family laundry I let her. It was a good deal for me.
And so it's time to cut out the orgy of materialism and turn our attention to the education of our fine young citizens. Which brings us to homework.
Last week Meredith's 1st grade homework consisted of the following:
Monday-Put 10 words in alphabetical order and write each word 3 times. Some of the words: like, sick, alone, time, tree.
Tuesday-Write definitions for each word.
Wednesday-Write sentences for 5 words.
Thursday-Study for spelling test on Friday.
She struggled mightily with all this and sadly confessed that she missed 7 out of 10 spelling words on Friday.
Now I had an interesting academic career. I attended the creme de la creme of schools for 1st and 2nd grade, Durham Academy. My dad was pursuing his PhD from the University of North Carolina at the time. (He got a job as a professor at VPI for 3rd grade and I never set foot in a private school again).
Durham Academy bound our work in hardback for us, so I have two black books filled with the dewy promise of a brilliant young mind (cough) (moi). Same brilliant mind that rocketed to fame as a community college instructor in the state that is ranked 51th in education, but, ANYWAY.
So I pulled out my work for the first semester of 1st grade.
The first week I copied this off of the board:
I see.
I see.
I see.
I see.
I see.
I see.
The next week: I see a (drawing of some animal, 3x)
The next week: I see Jim. (3x)
The next week: I see Sue. (3x)
I saw people for two TWO FREAKING MONTHS. I saw everything but dead people. I didn't take my first spelling test until the second semester.
I see one thing here.
I won't be freaking out if Meredith doesn't see a 100 on a spelling test. That is a lot for a little girl who won't even be 6 for 2 weeks.
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13 comments:
They BOUND your first grade schoolwork? Hahaha! But I reckon it came in handy.
Her classmates most likely did about the same on those tests. Especially the 5 year olds. Now, that really sets them all up for a good score in "improvement" later on, which may reinforce a work ethic AND give a boost for the ego later on. At least I hope thats the plan.
When I was in first grade, our town did not have a kindergarten, much less a prescshool, so most of the kids were learning the alphabet for the first couple months.
[Grrrr, lost comments because of the Beta mismatch]
I wonder if kids have to start earlier with more complicated stuff because there's much more technology/knowledge they have to "catch up to" than in "our day"? I never saw a calculator until I was in 7th grade.
Now, kids have iPods and know how to use computers by the time they're 3!
My "iPod" was piano lessons. :(
Johnny
I am an special ed teacher but I work in a gen. ed first and second grade class. First graders at this time of the year are just big kinders!! I do have to say the homework lacks some imagination! Buy some magnetic letter and a cookie sheet and have her practice her spelling words that way. It might make spelling a little less boring. Happy school year....how many days to Thanksgiving break!!??
maryellen
way too hard and too much homework i think. connor has 1 page of homework m - th. it is math 2 nights and english 2 nights. i doubt they are putting anything in alphabetic order and if he has had spelling tests they have never sent them home.
Sounds more like what I used to give my SECOND grade students for homework. Yikes!
My son is in kindergarten, and doesn't have homework yet, but I'm still astounded by the amount expected of kids in pre-K and kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten, it was all about not eating the paste. Now its all about simple addition/subtraction, writing stories, etc. Ugh!
Wow! Your daughter's homework is much more challenging than my first grade son's. He's only being asked to write letters and read VERY simple words. Math includes coloring in the correct number of pictures and being able to identify basic shapes!
I'm not sure which is better in this case - to be overwhelmed or underwhelmed!
Nancy
There was an interesting article in Newsweek just last week about this trend. That amount and level of homework is CRAZY for a first grader, and the only thing this will foster is parents doing the homework. I know kids who can't even read until mid-1st grade. What are they supposed to do? Get an F at age 6? Total bullshit.
No kidding. I skipped first grade because I could read already. Last year my daughter qualified for a federally funded assistance program because she couldn't read when she entered kindergarten. (One assessment for my daughter noted that "English is her second language" -- we adopted her from China at 12 months of age and I can assure you that she was not conversing in Chinese. Ha.)
My son is adopted also. It sometimes amazes me how alike we are. Really makes you think about that whole nature vs. nurture thing.
Apparently I have nurtured my snarky, sarcastic humor into him because people sometimes make comments about him being "his mother's son"
I still see Dick and Jane and Spot. No wonder I'm repressed.
Wow - I keep reading stuff and being so amazed at the things in common!
Hayley has a shuffle too - backed with Shark Tales and HS Musical tunes after a disaster with the Shit is Bananas song too!
I'm from Chapel Hill, lived there almost all my life. I live over in Cary now.
DA was a very nice school but what always cracked us up is the CH schools outperformed it quite regularly. So my parents just kept us in the CH schools. My mother went to the same schools I did, which was so rare over in CH.
And my husband's dad was a professor at VT so he was raised in Bburg.
I don't smoke but I sure enjoy cursing.
Kids are so much more advanced then we are and we are so much more advanced then our parents.
Keep smilin!
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