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#41
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
Welches wrote:
20 minutes a day? Do you mean a week? I think getting a 5yo to read for 20 minutes each day is going to discourage an awful lot. If they want to then fine, but 20 minutes is a long time for a new reader to read. Certainly #1 finds reading very tiring, and she's a pretty good reader for her age. Debbie I'm assuming she means reading to the child at age 5? Hunter is 6 and in 1st grade and in reading recovery and they stress that his reading and sentence strip should not take more then 10-15 minutes at the most and if it ever takes longer then that it isn't good and I should contact them to discuss it. It never takes more then 15 minutes and it would only take 10 if he didn't goof off or try to put it off sometimes. -- Nikki Hunter 4/99 Luke 4/01 EDD 4/06 |
#42
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
Ericka Kammerer wrote: Mary Ann wrote: I think it depends on the child. If he is able to complete work himself and you are both happy with what he produces then he doesn't need to be helped. However, if he needs encouragement to sit down and focus on a single task then you'll need to sit with him while he learns to work independently. It also depends on his level of perfection. Some children may be keen to get apsolutely everything correct and beautiful. Some may be able to do this, while others may find it very frustrating and may need you to step in to point out that they've done well or worked on a task long enough. It also depends on the school policy. Do they expect perfect work, or at this stage are they more keen to see that the child has spent 30 minutes working on something independently? My son is 6. At this age I think learning homework practices is more important than the actual work he's doing. I want him to learn that it's important he sits somewhere quietly and spends some time focussing on the work. So, we decide when the homework will be done, sit together and read through the task then discuss how it will be done. Some work requires me to sit with him, while other tasks he can do himself. But I always ask him whether he'd like me to help. I don't want him to sit struggling while I'm cooking dinner, but want him to know that I'm there 100% if he needs me. When he's finished I praise him, then depending on what the task is I either ask him whether he'd like me to show where he's made a mistake or I tell him I'm going to go over it with him (say if it's a task I know he finds challenging). I make sure he knows that I think he's done a great job, but that his teacher will be even more pleased if she can see that he's worked that extra bit harder to get it right. I always note down when I've helped him so his teacher knows how much input I've given. And this is precisely why homework at this age is such a bad thing. On the one hand, he's only six and he probably does need substantial assistance to plan a time to do homework, get all the resources together, figure out what needs to be done, and do it (not to mention finding the energy to focus after a long day at school). On the other hand, you're setting yourself up for years and years of being that involved with homework, which can easily eat you alive with multiple school-aged children who each have more and more homework every year. It's not so much fun when you feel like you're in school all over again. And all for something that hasn't been shown to provide one jot of benefit. Best wishes, Ericka I'm not sure what you're imagining here for what a 5 or 6 year old does for homework. In the case of my kindergartener it's usually a couple of worksheets where he practices writing a certain letter or number or some type of picture matching game, etc. I don't consider the planning, materials, or time involved to be substantial. I enjoy the opportunity to see what's he's been learning and to provide a bit of one on one guidance if necessary. I look forward to 'years and years' of giving both of my kids the appropriate level of encouragement and assistance with their studies. As for the op's question I read the assignment to my son and let him work as independently as possible. If there's a mistake I try to point him in the right direction and let him figure out the details. |
#43
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
Caledonia wrote:
Ericka Kammerer wrote: Beth Kevles wrote: The other useful homework is 20 minutes/day of free reading. DO help your child on this one if your child needs help. Otherwise, just keep an eye on what your child likes to read. (It makes gift times so much easier if you know what they've already read!) Yet another unintended consequence of too much homework in the early grades. Kids don't read for pleasure when they've had a full day of school followed by wrestling through lots of homework. For many kids, their mental energy is *gone* by that time. Hmmm...Given that their mental energy is *gone*, though, does this also mean that having kids then take dancing/karate/soccer practice/cub scouts after school is also not a good idea? All of these require some mental focus, too. Not in my experience. Those things tend to be active, and the physical release and change of pace seems to help quite a bit. It's a different set of skills than sitting in a chair and writing and thinking about academic stuff. I think that 20 minutes of free reading -- or having a parent read to a kid for 20 minutes -- is not that onerous, IMO. Well, not for you, and not for me either, but it sure as heck *IS* for a lot of kids. If you're an active kid whose had to sit on his butt all day *and* make it through a bunch of homework, he's not going to voluntarily choose to sit some *more* so that he can read or be read to. The poor kid wants to get out side and run around! And he should! If you're a kid who struggles with reading, and you've held it together through a full day of school (with lots of reading), and through a full night of homework (with lots of reading), the last thing you have the energy to do is sit down and read some more. The only activity I can think of for someone whose mental energy is *gone* -- an entirely passive activity that requires zilch on the part of the participant -- is watching television, which I'm pretty sure isn't what you're suggesting. No, I think that physical activity is *great* under these circumstances, or even any sort of play where they can do what they feel like doing. Between the hours they spend in school and the time they spend doing homework, my kids put in more than a 40 hour work week. I think that's flat out ridiculous. Best wishes, Ericka |
#44
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
"Chookie" wrote in message ... In article .com, "Barbara" wrote: I don't understand the concept of getting ready for 3rd and 4th grade homework in kindy and 1st grade. But that's just me. (Or then it isn't since I've seen such articles on the 'net). My feeling is that kids need to practice what they've learned. I just don't think it's unreasonable to ask a kid to do ten math problems, @ 2 mins ea that's 20 mins.... write sentences using his spelling words, ... assuming 20 words that's probably another 20-30 mins... read a paragraph and answer a couple of questions about it, ...say another 10 mins... 50-60 mins of "reinforcement" seems to me a bit much for Grade 3-4 (here, that would be 8-9yos -- I think I was doing about 30 mins at that age), and that's assuming the child finds these things -- and the writing -- easy. I still remember sobbing over my 3* and 4* tables in 3rd grade, and other kids were probably sobbing over the word list at that time (I was a big reader and I don't remember ever seeing an unfamiliar word on a spelling list). For me it was the sheer frustration of jamming through another super easy stupid reiteration of something I had gotten days ago. Anyone ever thought that age based education is a wrong way to go? -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) "In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is nothing worth being eager or vigorous about." Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893. |
#45
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
In article .com, Caledonia
says... Ericka Kammerer wrote: Beth Kevles wrote: The other useful homework is 20 minutes/day of free reading. DO help your child on this one if your child needs help. Otherwise, just keep an eye on what your child likes to read. (It makes gift times so much easier if you know what they've already read!) Yet another unintended consequence of too much homework in the early grades. Kids don't read for pleasure when they've had a full day of school followed by wrestling through lots of homework. For many kids, their mental energy is *gone* by that time. Hmmm...Given that their mental energy is *gone*, though, does this also mean that having kids then take dancing/karate/soccer practice/cub scouts after school is also not a good idea? All of these require some mental focus, too. But these things are quite different and really don't call on the same kind of focus. They're a big change of pace from the schooling activities. I think that 20 minutes of free reading -- or having a parent read to a kid for 20 minutes -- is not that onerous, IMO. The only activity I can think of for someone whose mental energy is *gone* -- an entirely passive activity that requires zilch on the part of the participant -- is watching television, which I'm pretty sure isn't what you're suggesting. Well, I didnt' take her as meaning no mental energy at all, rather just that they can be wrung out from the kind of focus and concentration it takes to deal heavily with symbolic things. Banty |
#46
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
In article .com, lenny
fackler says... I'm not sure what you're imagining here for what a 5 or 6 year old does for homework. In the case of my kindergartener it's usually a couple of worksheets where he practices writing a certain letter or number or some type of picture matching game, etc. I don't consider the planning, materials, or time involved to be substantial. Past about first grade my son just couldn't settle down mentally long enough to do that sort of thing at a long enough stretch to get it done. (And, no, he doesn't have any issue with intelligence or ADD or anything like that.) So it would take half the evening. I enjoy the opportunity to see what's he's been learning and to provide a bit of one on one guidance if necessary. I look forward to 'years and years' of giving both of my kids the appropriate level of encouragement and assistance with their studies. If you have a kid that does that in 10 minutes (or you believe in standing there, giving him hte answers, making him scribe), maybe it works out that way. For my family, it was enough of a burden that we had much less time for any education other than getting those worksheets done. Banty |
#47
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
"dragonlady" wrote in message ... In article , Banty wrote: In article . com, Barbara says... Banty wrote: In article .com, Barbara says... SNIP I think homework for 5 yos is awful. So I'm not much help. Yeah - I think she should involve herself right to the school board. Banty A lot of 5 year olds are in first grade (school districts like NYC with a 12/31 cut-off; do any school districts still have a 1/31 cut-off?). No I'm referring to homework being given at such a young age. I admit I was being flippant.. Banty I knew that! It's just that when people refer to 5 year-olds, I think most people think kindergarten. But in school districts with later cut-off dates, that's not the case. NYC still has a 12/31 cut-off, so there's a lot of 5 year olds in first grade. When I was a kid in Philly, the cut-off was 1/31, so first grade was 1/2 over before I turned 6. While I don't advocate a lot of homework for first graders, I don't find it unreasonable, either. I don't think it's reasonable or necessary in 1st grade. Banty I'll go further: I think that homework before about 4th grade is just plane evil, and ought to be completely done away with. How o How do I start such a campaign in my community? The thing is, I am probably going overboard here. But I think that asking kids to do useless work for the sake of nothing undermines grown up credibility. The do something cuz I said so thing does not work to well for me. (Can you imagine that??!!??) I want my children to grow up to be adults who can make judgements about what needs to be done and why. Certainly there are things in every person's life that they don't want to do. DS 4 does not want to set the table, but he has to. But there is a reason he has to. That being that it is right to contribute to the family. What is the reason behind having to do homework that has never been shown to do one ounce of good? I cannot think of any reason than because the system says so. And so, it becomes for me, as someone who wants to back up the authority in my children's lives, a battle not worth fighting. I will have to enforce the doing of useless homework... just because. There is NO evidence, anywhere, that homework before that does any good whatsoever, and for some kids it just sets them up for homework being a constant struggle. -- Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care |
#48
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
In article . com, Barbara
says... Chookie wrote: In article .com, "Barbara" wrote: SNIP My feeling is that kids need to practice what they've learned. I just don't think it's unreasonable to ask a kid to do ten math problems, @ 2 mins ea that's 20 mins.... If it is taking your first grader 2 minutes to answer 1+3, then its signaling you that there's a problem that you need to address. HOW! More drill, standing there with a whip? What what? Some kids are dawdlers. It's a developmental thing. A lot of kids lose their focus on that kind of thing (or get perfectionistic about it). Especially when it's drawing out the day. It's not necessarily an actual learning issue. They're not doing calculus, you know. I'd give it 20 to 30 SECONDS each, making it about 4 minutes. Calculus can be just as easy. d(2x)/dx = come on come on this should take you a millisecond! write sentences using his spelling words, ... assuming 20 words that's probably another 20-30 mins... Gosh, let's assume 500 words, then its HOURS of homework! I've never seen a 20 word spelling list yet, and One is in 3d grade. In general, there are 10 words, plus 4 *challenge* words that they can *choose* to learn. That's been the case since 1st grade. And since I've always been able to find his spelling lists all over the 'net (and this year found a school that connects games like hangman to every list -- One enjoys playing them), I assume its a fairly widely-used spelling curriculum. My son had to write a weekly composition in 3rd grade. If you think they're all playing hangman, maybe that's why you don't get why this is a problem. Banty |
#49
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
On 10 Nov 2005 09:10:50 -0800, Banty wrote:
My son had to write a weekly composition in 3rd grade. If you think they're all playing hangman, maybe that's why you don't get why this is a problem. Okay, now I'm wondering.... when are letter grades being given to the kids? I never received a letter grade until Jr. High (Middle School), and I don't think my ds did, either. I recall his "report cards" having the options of Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, and Needs Improvement (although I'm not sure what the difference between Unsatisfactory and Needs Improvement would be!). My thinking is that until the letter grades are being given and actually *count*, then what's the big deal with not enforcing the homework you disagree with? I always saw the report card as nothing more than a tool to let me see if there are areas my ds needed help in, and not much more than that. Nan |
#50
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Homework for a 5 year old - how much involvement needed.
In article . com,
"Barbara" wrote: I have to believe that if a kid is crying about homework, it means the child didn't learn it in school, and it's therefore important for the parent to know that so action can be taken -- extra help from parents, retaining a tutor, or just letting the teacher know that the child is struggling. I guess I find it difficult to believe that you were crying about your 3 and 4 tables (multiplication?) at home, but whizzing through them and getting straight A's at school. Our take is that tears end homework -- if it's that much of a struggle, if you really don't get the material, we'll let your teacher know so she can help. No, sometimes a kid is crying about homework because they just don't want to sit and DO it. They know how, so doing it yet again feels like a waste of time and energy. The homework battles in our house were quite unpleasant. None of my kids has problems with learning the material -- but the oldest hated, HATED, doing homework from second grade on. -- Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care |
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