More School Issues (warning: VERY long!)

Wow, I'd be upset too. Especially about the "needs improvement" remarks on
his report card.

I dont have any other advice over what others have posted. I can tell you,
that here in NY the standards are also high but it's nothing like that. At
least not at our school.

To compare, Kaylie is in 2nd grade and typically has homework once a week. A
project of sorts she brings home on Friday to be completed with her father
and I, and expected back on Monday. Any other homework she has is her school
work that she didnt complete at school. She doesn't do spelling tests (she
did last year, it varies by teacher) but rather she has a list of words that
they work on during the week that they should know, recognize and be able to
spell correctly by the end of the week in review.

As far as math facts, she did have to learn hers last year too. And IIRC,
they had 5 minutes to complete 100 and no one ever did complete all of them.
It wasn't really expected. It was more of "how many can you do in 5 minutes"
type of thing and after 8 weeks of it, they crowned a math queen and king
(which Kaylie was the queen!! ) I think by the end of the 8 weeks, she
could finish about 95 of the addition and about 80 of the subtraction.

Honestly, she had far more work last year in 1st grade than this year. I
dont know if it's a difference in teachers, or if that is the norm at the
school, or for NY.in general. I can't imagine why. I swear sometimes I
wonder what she IS learning this year because of the lack of papers and work
she brings home. I guess that can be a good OR bad thing, lol

Hang in there, I'd definately be talking with the teacher and/or the school
administration as well.

Kari
mom to Kaylie (8) Noah (4) and Xander (5 mos)

"Circe" wrote in message
news:zuH7c.23733$Nj.7454@fed1read01...
You haven't gotten MY son out of bed g. I dread the teen years if it's
this hard at 6.5yo!

When he's a teen, it will be his responsibility to wake up and get out of
bed.

In article _548c.67248$J05.519322@attbi_s01,
"toypup" wrote:

"Circe" wrote in message
news:zuH7c.23733$Nj.7454@fed1read01...
You haven't gotten MY son out of bed g. I dread the teen years if it's
this hard at 6.5yo!

When he's a teen, it will be his responsibility to wake up and get out of
bed.



I find that the age at which they willingly take responsibility for this
varies somewhat; I have one who has been getting himself up since he
was about 8, and one who still fights waking up at 18!

However, you are right that by the time kids are in their teens, it's
generally a good idea to get out of their way on this one, and let them
get themselves out of bed in the morning. I will make an exception if
someone has to get up unusually early -- but since I'm one of the
easiest "wakers" in the house, I make the same exception for DH. If
someone has to be up earlier than normal, I generally get myself up,
just to make sure they get up. Since one of mine can still, if she's
over tired, sleep through her alarm clock, it can come in handy.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

dragonlady wrote:
In article _548c.67248$J05.519322@attbi_s01,
"toypup" wrote:
"Circe" wrote in message
news:zuH7c.23733$Nj.7454@fed1read01...
You haven't gotten MY son out of bed g. I dread the teen years
if it's this hard at 6.5yo!

When he's a teen, it will be his responsibility to wake up and get
out of bed.

I find that the age at which they willingly take responsibility for
this varies somewhat; I have one who has been getting himself up
since he was about 8, and one who still fights waking up at 18!

However, you are right that by the time kids are in their teens,
it's generally a good idea to get out of their way on this one, and
let them get themselves out of bed in the morning.

I was mostly joking when I wrote that, anyway. I've been watching the
updated version of _Freaky Friday_ a little too often lately. Given that the
mother's efforts to get her 15yo daughter out of bed seem to mirror mine to
get my 6.5yo out of bed, I related a little too strongly, I guess g!

Still, the teen years are tough in this respect because school schedules
seldom recognize that teens often can't fall asleep until the wee hours of
the morning and start at very early hours. The result is a lot of
sleep-deprived teens who have a hard time getting up in the morning. It's a
stereotype with a lot of basis in fact, and it isn't entirely the kids'
fault!
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [2] mom)

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman

"Kari" wrote in message .. .
Wow, I'd be upset too. Especially about the "needs improvement" remarks on
his report card.

I dont have any other advice over what others have posted. I can tell you,
that here in NY the standards are also high but it's nothing like that. At
least not at our school.

To compare, Kaylie is in 2nd grade and typically has homework once a week. A
project of sorts she brings home on Friday to be completed with her father
and I, and expected back on Monday. Any other homework she has is her school

As far as math facts, she did have to learn hers last year too. And IIRC,
they had 5 minutes to complete 100 and no one ever did complete all of them.
It wasn't really expected. It was more of "how many can you do in 5 minutes"
type of thing and after 8 weeks of it, they crowned a math queen and king
(which Kaylie was the queen!! ) I think by the end of the 8 weeks, she
could finish about 95 of the addition and about 80 of the subtraction.


**

When my kids were in 1st/2nd grade, they had what they called "hot
pencil" tests. There were 50 problems to do in one minute. After 60
seconds, they had to drop their pencils, since they were "hot." The
scores were pretty dismal at first, but as the year went on, most kids
were finishing, and a fair number had scored a perfect score, so it's
not impossible In third grade, they had a teacher who did 100
question tests of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
At first, they'd have 10 minutes, later in the year they only had five
minutes. Most of the kids (addmittedly 2 years older) made the "5
minute club" in at least addition and subtraction.

YMMV
Honestly, she had far more work last year in 1st grade than this year. I
dont know if it's a difference in teachers, or if that is the norm at the
school, or for NY.in general. I can't imagine why. I swear sometimes I
wonder what she IS learning this year because of the lack of papers and work
she brings home. I guess that can be a good OR bad thing, lol

Hang in there, I'd definately be talking with the teacher and/or the school
administration as well.

Kari
mom to Kaylie (8) Noah (4) and Xander (5 mos)

As other have mentioned, this really doesn't seem like the school for
you and your family. You might want to again look into the
charter/magnet/private school options. But, if you are looking to try
and change the school you might want to look at it from the view of
the administration, and other parents.

My daughters, now in 9th and 4th grades went through a very similar
school, and maybe I can give you some insight.

When you are looking at something as "too much for first grade"
remember that the administration is thinking at this point in the year
first graders are 7 or pretty close to 7 years old. They are also
thinking their fine motor skills at this point are pretty well set,
and writing things down is no longer something that takes lots of time
or concentration. They are also setting up study times around the
concentration level of your average 7 year old. I know in California
the cutoff age is still Dec 2nd, but this has been explained to me
that at this point only those that are advanced for their age are
expected to enter first grade before their 6th birthday. They are
expecting a reasonable number of kids whose birthdays fall in the
summer should be held back, starting 1st grade at age 7. In our
district, if your child is young and does not test extremely well for
fine and gross motor skills and attention span at age 4 they suggest
they either be held back a year or take kindergarten twice. Reading
or math skills are not tested at this point, because despite how well
they read or do math, if they can't color, leading to writing answers
fairly quickly in first grade, their is a good chance they will fall
behind.

That said, in first grade my daughters had the timed math facts, 20
questions in 90 seconds (or 4.5 seconds per question.) When helping
with the class I
noticed that about half the class could finish that fast. It wasn't
my younger daughter's strength. She got stuck at level M or so (Think
each letter is a level. Eventually she got to X, but the full set was
through Z). However when testing for advanced math two years later
they didn't even look at that. If that is the only problem your son
is having in math, just let it go. Especially if it is because he has
reading comprehension or fine motor skill problems. (Didn't he hurt
his hand? It could be he can't write as fast.)

Spelling words looked very similar to what you are dealing with,
including the sentences. Their spelling homework included using each
of the spelling words in a sentence, but you could use more than one
in a sentence. Our family had great fun trying to get it down to one
or two sentences. Though punctuation was marked, I'm not sure it was
emphasized. It's possible they are just marking this to tell you what
is coming. I'm guessing there is no letter grades given in first
grade (in our school letter grades started in 4th) but the teacher may
be giving you lots of information just in case, because some parents
want to find something to work on.

In first grade we had 10 to 20 minutes of homework a week night,
(actually all assigned on Monday, and in our house, finished Monday
night in about 30 minutes and then put away never to be seen at home
again) and I didn't think that was too much. However, we never
drilled or practiced math facts or spelling. Talking to other
parents, I'm not sure many of them did. You have to remember, if the
kid no longer has to think how to write, they can concentrate on how
the words are spelt as they write them in class. They get to study as
they write, while your son may be still concentrating on how to write.
Many kids flew through the spelling and math quizes never once
practicing this stuff at home. So your school administrators, asking
random parents, may get answers that their kids do hardly any
homework.

To me the school doesn't sound all that far out of line compared to
the public expectation put on schools these days. However, it
definitely doesn't sound like the right school for you and your
children. In education there is no one size fits all, as much as it
would be cheaper to be able to do it that way. Look into magnets and
charters. From greatschools.net I once found a way to find all the
magnets and charters in the state of California. There are public
Montessori and Waldorf schools. These might be a better fit for your
child.

In article , dragonlady
says...

In article _548c.67248$J05.519322@attbi_s01,
"toypup" wrote:

"Circe" wrote in message
news:zuH7c.23733$Nj.7454@fed1read01...
You haven't gotten MY son out of bed g. I dread the teen years if it's
this hard at 6.5yo!

When he's a teen, it will be his responsibility to wake up and get out of
bed.



I find that the age at which they willingly take responsibility for this
varies somewhat; I have one who has been getting himself up since he
was about 8, and one who still fights waking up at 18!

My 11 year old started getting himself up, even earlier than the 5:30 hour am he
has to, to finish homework sometimes after busy evenings (like last night with
Scouts).

He sure didn't get it from me. I'm beginning to suspect a mistake at the
hospital where he was born... :-)

Banty