New this year is homework. From the first couple of weeks, it appears at least in the early months, the homework will be to practice spelling words. I sat with her for the first time last Sunday working on her five spelling words: at, cat, bat, sat, mat. Pretty simple instructions: write each word three times, then write a total of five sentences using one word per sentence. An example was also sent home so parents could review and correct the child's work as necessary. One would think that since the child was given very clear instructions, it would be a relatively simple project. Uhm, no. Almost an hour and several temper tantrums later, she finished the project. I vowed never to wait until Sunday evening again to have Cate complete her homework.
Unfortunately, with our packed weekend, she didn't sit down until Sunday evening again, but the same exercise with five new words took about half the time.
I am impressed with some of the more complex sentences she wants to construct and / or the sentences she can write by herself. Last week, she could've written, "I have a hat." Rather, she wanted to write, "My hat is green and red and purple." This evening she wrote two complete sentences without any help from me, which I thought was pretty cool.
It does concern me that, in first grade, she already doesn't like doing homework. I don't think I started to dislike doing homework until fifth grade.
This is going to be a long year.
2 comments:
Jennifer, You probably did not get homework until 5th grade.
I wish that was the case! Visitation was a homework-heavy institution. I remember going to conference with my mom in 3rd grade and discuss the issue of me not completing my homework in a timely fashion. I still remember that meeting--I think I was scarred from the memory--I had to "turn-a-new-leaf". Ugh.
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