I have a weird relationship with homework
Sep. 14th, 2016 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwySo, Gwen's been at school a week, and I'm still happy with our choice. She races off every morning, and almost every evening I've been met with a tantrum about going home (part of it is she doesn't want to leave; part of it is that school is a lot more tiring than nursery and she is often SO tired by the time I get her. So there are tears.) Monday night we had our first parent-teacher (group) meeting, and we got to hear a bit more about what school is like there. That day, the reception class (kindergarten; Gwen's) and the pre-school (nursery) class had picked apples from the school apple tries; they counted them, and compared numbers and amounts, and combined buckets and counted again, and cut them open, and baked with them, and generally had what seems to be a very awesome and very hands on learning experience. Yesterday they had French class. (Or maybe they didn't: It was on the schedule, but when I asked her about it, the story I got involved the teacher not being able to teach because he didn't know anyone's names? I'm not sure...) This morning on our walk over, we saw ahead of us a matching uniform and it turned out to be one of her classmates; she yelled his name and ran to catch up with him so we could walk the rest of the way together.
I get a detailed recitation of what was offered for lunch, as well as who ate what, every day. She often has received a sticker for some good behavior or other -- and for Gwen, there is no higher praise than a sticker on her shirt. (I know I've either done a good job or am clearly in need of something to perk me up when she gives me a sticker "for working hard"). Tuesday, she was sent home with a book, and before we could even leave school, she insisted on sitting down and reading it to me. I have no idea if it was memory or reading or a combination, but this is the first time she's ever done that -- and she point to each word as she said it and read every single thing perfectly.
They get homework every day -- phonics two days a week, reading two days a week, and math one day. Most of the time, she's already done the work during after care; for example, coming up with rhyming pairs, or a letter sheet with a specific letter that she should copy (and usually a picture of something starting with that letter, which I encourage her to color, because, hey, who doesn't like coloring!)
I can already tell that my biggest issue with homework is learning to treat it as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. See, I never had homework as a kid -- or rather, EVERYTHING I had was homework. The idea of getting assignments that you then worked on in your own time, outside of class, was SUCH a novelty to me when I went off to university; I felt exactly like Gwen did when she told me last Wednesday "I have homework! I've never had homework before!" It's easy to treat homework as an end: To ask her what she got, and to ensure she has it done before bed, so that it can be taken dutifully back the next day.
Except then we get a "pick and mix" math homework, with six different activities that we are encouraged to do with our child, and I find myself stymied. On the one hand, I feel a strong desire to work through them systematically and ensure that some evidence of our doing so gets back to the teacher. On the other hand, I look at the types of things they're asking, and realize either we're already doing them or we've done them in the past, but awhile ago and she's moved beyond that or we're doing much more interesting things already. For example, we've been doing a lot of addition lately: First, it was different combinations of two numbers that equal the same number. Next it was addition of zero -- which was a hoot because at first she simply didn't believe me when I told her you could add zero to eight and get eight. For awhile she refused to believe that you could add zero to anything; then she thought that adding zero to anything made it eight; and THEN it clicked and she realized that n+0=n for any n (up to and including omega). After she figured that out, I started asking about 0+n, and when she immediately gave me back n, we started doing m+n and n+m, until she was satisfied that addition is commutative. During waffle making Sunday morning, I heard Joel going over fractions with her, and on our way home today, she picked four blackberries and correctly divined that split evenly between the two of us, we'd each get two, so we talked a little bit about division and its relations to fractions.
So, I look at some of the activities and I have to remind myself that these are a means, not an end. The end is what counts, and if we achieve that end by our own devices, that's ok.
(I also have to say: For a nursery that does not consider itself a preschool at all -- unlike the chorister school's nursery which they've this year started calling preschool instead -- even though they do sort of follow the early years curriculum, the university nursery did a FANTASTIC job of providing the kids with an educational foundation. Gwen's numeracy and literacy seem to be way above where they're starting out at here.)
I get a detailed recitation of what was offered for lunch, as well as who ate what, every day. She often has received a sticker for some good behavior or other -- and for Gwen, there is no higher praise than a sticker on her shirt. (I know I've either done a good job or am clearly in need of something to perk me up when she gives me a sticker "for working hard"). Tuesday, she was sent home with a book, and before we could even leave school, she insisted on sitting down and reading it to me. I have no idea if it was memory or reading or a combination, but this is the first time she's ever done that -- and she point to each word as she said it and read every single thing perfectly.
They get homework every day -- phonics two days a week, reading two days a week, and math one day. Most of the time, she's already done the work during after care; for example, coming up with rhyming pairs, or a letter sheet with a specific letter that she should copy (and usually a picture of something starting with that letter, which I encourage her to color, because, hey, who doesn't like coloring!)
I can already tell that my biggest issue with homework is learning to treat it as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. See, I never had homework as a kid -- or rather, EVERYTHING I had was homework. The idea of getting assignments that you then worked on in your own time, outside of class, was SUCH a novelty to me when I went off to university; I felt exactly like Gwen did when she told me last Wednesday "I have homework! I've never had homework before!" It's easy to treat homework as an end: To ask her what she got, and to ensure she has it done before bed, so that it can be taken dutifully back the next day.
Except then we get a "pick and mix" math homework, with six different activities that we are encouraged to do with our child, and I find myself stymied. On the one hand, I feel a strong desire to work through them systematically and ensure that some evidence of our doing so gets back to the teacher. On the other hand, I look at the types of things they're asking, and realize either we're already doing them or we've done them in the past, but awhile ago and she's moved beyond that or we're doing much more interesting things already. For example, we've been doing a lot of addition lately: First, it was different combinations of two numbers that equal the same number. Next it was addition of zero -- which was a hoot because at first she simply didn't believe me when I told her you could add zero to eight and get eight. For awhile she refused to believe that you could add zero to anything; then she thought that adding zero to anything made it eight; and THEN it clicked and she realized that n+0=n for any n (up to and including omega). After she figured that out, I started asking about 0+n, and when she immediately gave me back n, we started doing m+n and n+m, until she was satisfied that addition is commutative. During waffle making Sunday morning, I heard Joel going over fractions with her, and on our way home today, she picked four blackberries and correctly divined that split evenly between the two of us, we'd each get two, so we talked a little bit about division and its relations to fractions.
So, I look at some of the activities and I have to remind myself that these are a means, not an end. The end is what counts, and if we achieve that end by our own devices, that's ok.
(I also have to say: For a nursery that does not consider itself a preschool at all -- unlike the chorister school's nursery which they've this year started calling preschool instead -- even though they do sort of follow the early years curriculum, the university nursery did a FANTASTIC job of providing the kids with an educational foundation. Gwen's numeracy and literacy seem to be way above where they're starting out at here.)
