My First Letter To The School Regarding Homework….
Please let me know what you think:
September 24, 2008
Mrs.
SmithWalker and I tried to do this reading last night. The four-page booklet entitled “Tam” contains a few words that appear to be new to Walker. If you covered this in class and he wasn’t paying attention, please let me know. However, at this time, he absolutely stands firm that he doesn’t know some of the words in he book.
All of our attempts of reading this story resulted in tears as he refused to try to sound out words. Even if I told him the word and we continue on, once we started the story over, he doesn’t know the world when he returns to that page. One of the words happens to be “turkey”.
He does sound the word but has not managed to string the sounds together and refuses to even try when we return to that page. By this time, he is crying and shaking because he cannot do the reading assignment. Each and every time he is asked to sound the world out on his own, he returns to tears. Therefore, we quit even trying last night.
I am not a big proponent of homework and especially in a child five-years-old. I will do as much as I can with letters and sounds, however, anything further; which is stressing my child seems inappropriate.
I’m sorry that I am explaining this situation in this manner instead of face to face, but at the present moment, I cannot come inside and speak with you today.
Please understand that it is my opinion that new words need be learned at school prior to those words coming home for us to practice. It is a constant battle for us, as I assume it is with most students, for a parent to teach their child new words. New concepts and words need to be learned at school and reinforced at home.
Walker eventually got to the point of crying hysterically and saying that he did into know the word even when sounding it out that we quit reading the story. I know that as parents we play a big role in our students education, however, at this point, his learning needs to be confined to his classroom and reviewing is the only thing we should be expected to handle at home.
If he has not explained the situation to me correctly and you did have a lesson on words such as “turtle”, “tent”, “turkey” and “table” then by all means let me know so that I can figure out what the problem is here at home. He basically refused to even attempt these worlds by simply stating that “he didn’t know them yet.” And, any explanations or prodding to sound the word out was met with hysterical tears.
I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter, so please, take a minute today and let me know what your expectations are. If you would like for me to come inside this afternoon at pick-up, please give me a call and we can discuss this further. I can be reached at XXX/XXX.XXXX
Sincerely,
Jerri Ann
Discuss.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:20 am
I’ve raised four, three of them are now adults, and I can’t ever remember having to sit with any of them reading their homework with them. They all read just fine. I was always, and still available to answer questions, but my parental policy was homework was between the school and the child.
If you think that your child is not getting enough exposure to new words, you might try flash cards and make a game of it. Remember that a five year old doesn’t have the same sense of starting and finishing a task that an adult has. This develops over time. Maybe, (and this is just a suggestion) your child is worn out from a busy day and just doesn’t have enough mental energy to concentrate on the task. Better to have the child run through the book once, look at the pictures and tell you a story about what the pictures mean, then be pushed and become resentful about doing homework. And I do think that five is a bit young for two syllable words, but then thats the schools for you.
September 24th, 2008 at 5:03 am
I am quickly becoming a fan of your page, but I mostly lurk. I needed to comment on this, though, just to say you might want to remove your phone number from this page. It’s not safe. If you have put in a false number or left it there on purpose then please forget I mentioned it. But it seemed like an oversight to me…
September 24th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Beth,
I’m closer and closer to going straight up loud and with the media regarding the book I’ve bee reading, The Case Against Homework by Sara Benett and Nancy Kalish. I have put off reading the second part because I didn’t think I was going to need it so quickly, but possibly, the now is the time to speakout…..and in order to do that, I’m gonna need to read the rest of the book. I really wanted to finish my thoughts here about the first section first, but apparently, the homework issue is simply not going to hold off that long….we shall see!
Oatmeal,
The word was turkey. He would say rooster every time. I’m almost certain that he knew it after he tried to read it a bunch of times but then, when we got to it again, he would act silly. It was a little paper printed booked book with four word sentences on each page. That’s it. He has read those little books every week. But last night, that one word was causing him fits. I did get my letter to the school headed out this morning, we shall see. I removed my phone number, thanks for reminding me, I wasnt even thinking about it being in that letter.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I speak to so many parents that are in the same sinking homework boat as you, that I have shared a sample No Homework! Note to the Teacher:
http://www.family-homework-answers.com/no-homework-note.html
Stay strong! Keep standing up for your child and realize, like the last poster said, that kids turn out fine without their parents sitting with them doing hours of homework each night.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I am the co-author of The Case Against Homework and I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughts about my book. When I see the kind of homework your child is getting, I feel so frustrated that there aren’t more parents like you who are standing up for their children.
As you know from reading the book, there’s no correlation between homework and academic achievement in elementary school; in middle and high school, there’s very little. So homework is a waste of time. What’s worse, though, is that kids like your son are going to hate reading.
I’m glad you wrote a letter to your son’s teacher and I’m eager to hear her response. But regardless of her response, I’d have your son stop doing the homework. You want him to love reading and what the teacher is expecting him to do is going to make him hate it, if he doesn’t already. As you know, you’re better off reading to him every day and making it a close, loving part of your family life. He’ll pick up reading whenever he’s ready and, in the meantime, he’ll love hearing you read aloud. (As a matter of fact, I’m a big believer in reading to your kids as long as they’ll let you.)
September 25th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Just the idea of a child needing to take time out of his play time after kindergarten day to do homework makes my stomach sick. Poor sweet baby. Hope this issue has been resolved for both of you!
Val