Counting by 2's up to 100...in Kindergarten?

[liz]

Let me preface by saying that I am not looking to start a debate, this is really just me venting. This is my third DC going through public K. Our school rates very highly and overall I was pleased with the old curriculum. The school started a new curriculum a few years ago and now I am not sure how I feel about it. It seems the type of work coming home seems like school work to me, not homework. To me it feels like these kids are doing 1st to 2nd grade work at times!

The latest kicker was one of the assignments was counting to 100 by 2's. Let's just say that this was frustrating for me and DS (who is 6yo), but eventually we got through it. Worksheets come home with 6-7 assignments a week. Example: Write a sentence about your family and draw a picture. Write out numbers 50-60. Practice your Sight Words every day. Jump on one foot 25 times. Count to 100 by 10's. Complete the addition worksheet on the back. He can do this work, but definitely not independently, not even close (he is just learning how to read). At the end of each assignment DS has to rate the difficulty from 1-5. At school they keep track of how long it takes them to get through an assignment. It seems the new K curriculum is focused on "how to do homework" (this is taken directly from teacher letter from the beginning of the year). My older kids never had any problem with getting their homework done using the old curriculum. I feel badly because I see DS gets frustrated by all this work. My older kids used to think homework was fun at this age. This is not always the case for my youngest DS though.

Slightly OT but my kids are/were in 1/2 day K. The district recently started offering full day K if you pay out of pocket. I am wondering if the kids in full day K are getting this in class and not coming home with this amount of homework. In no way am I blaming the teachers, I know this is the curriculum they have to follow.

bleh, just had to get this out.

[HannaAddict]

I agree that kindergarten is harder and more rigorous academically in kinder than when my now sixth grader went and even when now third grader went. We are at an independent highly capable school but I still would prefer more social emotional focus but parents at our school (versus common core since we don't have to do that as an independent) are what drive the changes. People seem very caught up in being advanced in everything and don't know yet that academics in kinder are not a big predictor of overall success. I would push back if I were you on homework, no way. We don't have that issue in kinder at least.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[trcy]

Good grief! The more I hear about K, the more terrified for DD to start in the fall.

[petesgirl]

Good grief! The more I hear about K, the more terrified for DD to start in the fall.

Me too. And my DS will have the 'disadvantages' of being a boy with a summer birthday. Oh well--bring it on I guess!

[georgiegirl]

My kids never got any homework in K.

Kindy kids need to be able to count by 2s to 100 here, 5s and 10s to 120

[PZMommy]

Kindy teacher here... I know this is the bitching post so feel free to ignore....

Count by 2's to 100 is not a standard, but we are expected to expose them to it. Counting to 100 by 1's and 10's is the standard. They are to write to 20, but most math programs teach them to write to 100 because that is the first thing they do in first grade. I always warn parents if you think Kinder is bad, wait until they get to first grade. It is insane!!!!

My school sends Kinders a packet of homework each week to be turned in on Friday. It has 8 pages, so two pages per night is the suggestion. We are required by our district to send homework. If it were up to me, I wouldn't, but I don't get a choice. I do tell my parents if your child can't complete it just write a note on the top of it. I know with my own kids after being in school all day, homework is a huge battle!!! He spends more time crying about it than it takes to actually do it. Drives me crazy!!! Parents always ask me if I have any special tricks, and I tell them, I wish I knew!! I will say that kids tend to do the work in class for their teacher without any kind of battle. They save all of that stuff for their parents 🙄

Believe me, I do not know a kindergarten teacher that agrees with these standards. What I do know is that we try our best to make it fun and help them learn. I have kids who come into kinder not even speaking a word of English, but they do okay and by the end meet enough of the standards to pass to first grade. We work our butts off trying to help the kids. I know many parents are scared to send their kids to Kindy, but it isn't all scary. My oldest was in kinder last year, and my youngest starts next year, so I do get it from a parent standpoint as well. My youngest DS makes the cut off by a few days (and only because he was a preemie who came nearly 5 weeks early). I do worry since he has diagnosed issues, but I know in the end he will be okay.

[JBaxter]

2's, 5's and 10's is standard in Florida but yeah wait until 1st its crazy. Jack's teacher started her career teaching 3rd grade and she says what was standard 3rd grade is now taught in 1st and they are pushing more.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

hm, i wonder if it is a 1/2 day vs. full day thing. my son is full-day Kinder and they get only 4 assignments a week (Mon-THur). they typically get a short book to read (provided by teacher) plus every week get sheet with like a dozen different options of assignments like you describe (write a sentence about xxx, write these sight words 5x, etc)..and each nigh (Mon-THur) they have to choose one to complete. it's not a lot though, it typically only takes like 10-15 minutes (maybe bc they do other stuff in class? ). We definitely don't get the math sheets...though some of the assignments involve counting. Last week one of the options was counting to 100 by 5's and then 2's, and DS chose that one bc he thought it was the quickest (didn't have to write anything..he gets verrry frustrated when he makes a mistake and has to erase). By far the most painful assignment we had was tying his shoes (still doesn't have it right).

i can't imagine dealing with 7 assignments eveyr week in kinder. if the district is already well-regarded, why are they pushing it? if anything i'd be pissed about all the extra work for ME! as it is i get home around 6pm and have 20 min max to dedicate to helping make sure he does his hw. i think anything more than that is asking a lot..from kids and parents!!

[twowhat?]

Wow! Our highly rated public K (full day) was nowhere near that amount of work! We had a reading log (teachers put a few small books in a bag and you get a month to go through them and it wasn't even required!) and every month or so there was a small project based homework assignment and you get a whole week to complete it.

Now in 1st we have required weekly reading logs and ONE sheet of homework (math, writing, etc) and a whole week to do it all! Spelling test each week but no requirement to study at home. Every couple months we get a small project based assignment.

That's enough for me, I still struggle to keep up. I'm sooooo glad our school doesn't push a lot of homework.

[SnuggleBuggles]

No homework in k-1, minor work in 2nd (reading log, practice math facts and spelling/ phonics). No worksheets. Love it. If my k kid came home with homework, I'd do very little of it. ;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[liz]

When I started this thread I was pretty frustrated, but I do hear what you all are saying about requirements. It's not that I think the assignments aren't worthwhile. I know he can learn these standards. The problem for me is when we sit down to do homework and DS is looking at me blankly like he never heard of counting by 2's. I am sure they have covered it in class and he just isn't remembering (I hope??) and I feel like I have to be the one to sit and spend a good amount of time reinforcing it/ teaching it. Or, he'll have to write 3 sentences about a topic. Again, he is just learning how to read so how is he supposed to write these sentences on his own? sigh. I don't know, it seemed like the homework my kids used to get in K was truly a review (simple math sheet and reading).

The report cards and progress report shows that DS is on track as a student. Not everything he is assigned is a struggle. Sometimes it's just really frustrating though. This is something that has slowly been bothering me more and more. I could speak with the K teacher although I'm not sure what she can do since this is a curriculum she has to follow.

And to all the moms (upthread) whose kids are going to K, take my grumblings with a grain of salt. K is a lot of fun and my DS loves going. He is learning a lot and thriving.

[schrocat]

My kid who is going to Kindergarten in the fall can already skip count. He worked on it in preschool. The work you're describing, my first grader finished in school last year. It was not homework. He went to full day Kindergarten that we had to pay extra for as opposed to free half day Kindergarten.

[doberbrat]

I think it might be worth asking the question whether the FT kids are doing this work in class. I suspect they are. DD2 does get these sorts of assignments but mostly in class. She also only gets hw 2x a week.

Of course, my perspective might be skewed too b/c she can read quite well and generally does her hw completely alone -we just check at the end. So its no big deal to me. I'd probably be frustrated too if I had to sit and teach stuff as homework.

[khalloc]

My kids had almost no homework in Kindergarten. Maybe a few times a year they had a project to do. Like read a book (have your parent read it) and then draw your favorite part of the book. Once they made leprechaun traps out of whatever you wanted. That was the extent of their "homework". They did send home those Level A, B, C books to get your kids reading and they were expected to know Frye Sight words 1-20 by the end of the year. It was pretty easy for my kids. Homework started up in 1st grade for the most part.

[Mommaof3]

My kids had almost no homework in Kindergarten. Maybe a few times a year they had a project to do. Like read a book (have your parent read it) and then draw your favorite part of the book. Once they made leprechaun traps out of whatever you wanted. That was the extent of their "homework". They did send home those Level A, B, C books to get your kids reading and they were expected to know Frye Sight words 1-20 by the end of the year. It was pretty easy for my kids. Homework started up in 1st grade for the most part.

This sounds like the same thing my girls did in K. I am scared to see how much different it will be when DS goes next year.

[AnnieW625]

My Dd2 is in kinder at a Catholic school with a rigorous curriculum (harder than it was 4 yrs. ago) and they haven't done that yet. They are working on counting to 100, and writing to 20.

Despite the changes (things were really rough before Xmas, but things seem more appropriate now, and I didn't think there was enough of a transition to kindergarten......but it is now expected that most kids attend a transitional pre k program vs. a playbased one like DD2 went to) DD2 only gets 2 one sided worksheets per M-Th night, a weekly set of addition flash cards, and 6 spelling words for a test on Friday. She gets simple reading sheets called decodables, which are very kinder appropriate.

[PZMommy]

Despite the changes (things were really rough before Xmas, but things seem more appropriate now, and I didn't think there was enough of a transition to kindergarten......but it is now expected that most kids attend a transitional pre k program vs. a playbased one like DD2 went to)

This is very true! Our kindergarten curriculum assumes all kids come in knowing their letters and numbers, and they have attended TK or preschool. A lot of my Kinders come from a low income family where mom stays home, so very few go to preschool. The first few months are a huge struggle, but they turn a corner after winter break.

[citymama]

My DD is in K, age 5.5 and has no homework other than a weekly reading log which is *our* homework as parents. That sounds like way too much!

[AnnieW625]

This is very true! Our kindergarten curriculum assumes all kids come in knowing their letters and numbers, and they have attended TK or preschool. A lot of my Kinders come from a low income family where mom stays home, so very few go to preschool. The first few months are a huge struggle, but they turn a corner after winter break.

Yeah all that seems to be standard in our area and it just solidifies that the LA Archdiocese is really following the CA Dept. of Ed., and national Ed. standards now. I know people who left our school for a catholic school in a neighboring OC city (with more income than our area) because the OC diocese seems to be a little more lax than LA regarding standards. I could be wrong, but sadly my Dd1 is already in trenched in her school and I can't afford to move Dd2 and pay two tuitions. That school still has two hours of playtime for kindergartener in the after lunch.

[chottumommy]

DS1 didn't get any homework in Kindergarden except a reading log to be filled once a week with a book they read during the week (not a everyday reading log). They always got some worksheets that they didn't complete during the class but weren't required to complete. They did skip counting, count in 10s etc and some kids were able to do basic multiplication, division ( in terms of dividing by groups) and also identifying prime numbers by end of Kindy and at the same time they had kids who were barely able to count to 100 by end of Kindy. What you describe seems like torture. Math and reading should totally be based on ability with more one-on-one learning since in Kindy there is a huge range of age and readiness and they develop in spurts.

DS1 now does fractions and really long multiplication, squares etc in 1st but get 5 worksheets of basic Math facts per week which he can easily get done in less than 10 mins.