need help helping my kids with homework

[blisstwins]

My twins are in kindergarden and we had homework for the first time tonight. It was a disaster and mostly my fault. My son was rushing and would not concentrate and I was losing my temper. The homework is ridiculous--practicing letters (easy) and writing the titles of the books we read together. My son struggled with this--spaces between words, keeping letter consistant size, not reversing b and ds. I have a feeling these problems are normal and I wish he did not need to write so much (titles are hard because of capitalization, etc). Do I let him to it however, even it it is really wrong. Do I correct him by having him erase his work? If he is doing it wrong do we keep practicing until it is right or do we stop once we have done the amount prescribed in the assignment (ed 1 line of letters)? My son cried and I thought I was going to scream. I am a teacher (much older kids) which I think makes this even harder. I am burnt out when I get home and don't feel like formally teaching....

[Momof3Labs]

All of his struggles sound soooo normal for a new (and even seasoned) kindergartner! My DS1 learned a lot by modeling what he saw - so, he'd see his teacher space things a certain way, and model that. The right answer depends on the child, I think, but I'd be inclined to let him make his mistakes, but perhaps write it properly on your own piece of paper and let him see it.

[Tondi G]

Let him do his work. If it is incorrect then you can help him to erase and write the letter the right way. I wouldn't stress about the size or his letters being perfectly even. I'm surprised the teacher is having them write the titles with the upper and lower case letters etc. already. (But we just started school today... you may be 4 to 6 weeks into your school year)

I had a horrible year when my DS1 was in 1st grade. His teacher was a spelling test person and he was having trouble still with phonics and sounding out words so it made it really hard for him. He would end up crying... sometimes I did do cause it was SO frustrating. He got some one on one tutoring to get him caught up with the reading/phonics and once he got it... everything changed. It is not worth it to make Kindergarten homework stressful... for your child or you!

Can you ask his teacher what she expects from them. Are you as a parent supposed to let him do it incorrectly and then have him fix it or should you send it in the way it is and let the teacher correct it? Some teachers want to see the mistakes so they know who needs work in what areas. Some teachers are mean and make the kids stay in for recess and "fix" their incorrect homework. I would check with the teacher and try to relax and not make homework a stressful thing.

[bnme]

At that age I would write it and let them copy it. I would not have them correct it right now if it was upsetting to them. How many total lines of writing was it? At the start of kindy I think the most they did was 2 or 3.

[egoldber]

If it were me, I would just let him do it however it comes out. Perfection is not expected in K (or at any grade).

If the writing is too much, I would e-mail or send a note to the teacher letting her know that he is having trouble and does she have any suggestions.

[kristenk]

That sounds like us at the start of K last year! I turned homework into something horrible. Sigh. I finally realized that homework in kindy was more about practicing doing work at home and being responsible enough to turn it in to class than perfection and I eased off. My child who hated doing homework turned into a child who did it willingly and eagerly. I also discovered that DD was much more likely to follow instructions given my her teacher than me. (For example, her teacher's correction adding a period to her sentence made a lot more [positive] impact that anything I ever said about periods.)

So DD turned in lots of sheets with backward bs and ds, missing capitalization, etc. Honestly, I wouldn't even worry about having the book title properly capitalized. As long as all of the words are there, that's more than good enough!

[kristenk]

I wanted to add a method that helped DD distinguish b from d. I don't know how well I'll be able to describe it in writing, so let me know if this doesn't make sense.

Make a "thumbs up" sign with each hand.
Turn your thumbs-upped hands so that your folded fingers are facing you and your knuckles are together.

If you have a good imagination, you can pretend that your hands have now formed a bed. If you look at each hand, you can see that your left hand now looks like a b and your right hand now looks like a d.

Teaching DD to "make a bed" with her hands really helped with b/d confusion.

[MaiseyDog]

I wanted to add a method that helped DD distinguish b from d. I don't know how well I'll be able to describe it in writing, so let me know if this doesn't make sense.

Make a "thumbs up" sign with each hand.
Turn your thumbs-upped hands so that your folded fingers are facing you and your knuckles are together.

If you have a good imagination, you can pretend that your hands have now formed a bed. If you look at each hand, you can see that your left hand now looks like a b and your right hand now looks like a d.

Teaching DD to "make a bed" with her hands really helped with b/d confusion.

:thumbsup: Thanks! That's a great tip.

[egoldber]

Honestly, I wouldn't even worry about having the book title properly capitalized.

Exactly. It's for the practice and not much else. And my 4th grader still struggles to know when to properly capitalize things. They did not actively work on that skill until third grade.

[Karenn]

writing the titles of the books we read together. My son struggled with this--spaces between words, keeping letter consistant size, not reversing b and ds.

There's no way my kindergartner could do this. Honestly, I'm suprised the teacher expects a kindergartner to do that much writing so early in the year. I agree with the suggestion to contact the teacher and let him/her know the work is too hard and ask for suggestions. I can't help but wonder if maybe she meant for you to write the titles of the books.

[jenmcadams]

There's no way my kindergartner could do this. Honestly, I'm suprised the teacher expects a kindergartner to do that much writing so early in the year. I agree with the suggestion to contact the teacher and let him/her know the work is too hard and ask for suggestions. I can't help but wonder if maybe she meant for you to write the titles of the books.

My K who can read pretty well (end of 1st, beginning of 2nd grade level) is pretty grade typical when it comes to writing. The teacher has us write the titles of books...my son would throw a fit (or stop reading) if he had to read all of the book titles himself...

[Green_Tea]

Been through K twice - my answers in bold/italics.


My son struggled with this--spaces between words, Have him place a finger after each word to create a "finger space" between them. keeping letter consistant size I would not worry about this, as varying letter sizes is age appropriate, not reversing b and ds. also age appropriate - the teacher needs to see that he struggles with this in order to help

I have a feeling these problems are normal YUP! and I wish he did not need to write so much (titles are hard because of capitalization, etc). Do I let him to it however, even it it is really wrong. Do I correct him by having him erase his work? If he is doing it wrong do we keep practicing until it is right or do we stop once we have done the amount prescribed in the assignment (ed 1 line of letters)? I would judge whether or not to correct/keep trying by his level of frustration. The point of homework is practice and for the teacher to see where you child stands in terms of these skills. Making his homework *perfect* is not going to give his teacher an accurate idea of his skills. It will also drive you and your DS nuts. My son cried and I thought I was going to scream. I am a teacher (much older kids) which I think makes this even harder. I am burnt out when I get home and don't feel like formally teaching....

There is should be a time limit on homework - 15 minutes is probably appropriate for K - and you should stop after that amount of time, regardless of how much you have accomplished. Our K teachers (and our 1st grade teachers) told us to stop at the 15 minute mark (20 min in grade 1), draw a line where you left off and sign it. This gives them an idea of how much your son can accomplish in a set amount of time. You might also discuss with the teacher how much homework is actually required. At our school, there was no required K homework, just stuff to work on if we felt like it, though sheets were sent home nearly every day - we only did homework about 25% of the time.

[Indianamom2]

If it were me, I would just let him do it however it comes out. Perfection is not expected in K (or at any grade).

If the writing is too much, I would e-mail or send a note to the teacher letting her know that he is having trouble and does she have any suggestions.

:yeahthat:

[octmom]

I wanted to add a method that helped DD distinguish b from d. I don't know how well I'll be able to describe it in writing, so let me know if this doesn't make sense.

Make a "thumbs up" sign with each hand.
Turn your thumbs-upped hands so that your folded fingers are facing you and your knuckles are together.

If you have a good imagination, you can pretend that your hands have now formed a bed. If you look at each hand, you can see that your left hand now looks like a b and your right hand now looks like a d.

Teaching DD to "make a bed" with her hands really helped with b/d confusion.


Thanks for this tip! My DS is a first grader and still reverses b and d often. I'm going to show him this trick later today and hope it helps something click. :)