We’re definitely not done in one night. We get the packet on Tuesday and it is due back on Monday. Thank goodness for the weekend because we end up finishing it then. We have two front/back worksheets per night, practice writing letters and sounds, practice writing numbers and a book that the kids are tested on on Friday. We sign off the homework and another sheet for a test every two weeks on letters and sounds. We also practice high frequency words by playing games like “Go Fish” with the flashcards of the words I made. This is in addition to reading 20 minutes a night together.  Geez, this is Kindergarten (after spending 8-3 o’clock at school everyday!).

11 spelling words, has to write them multiple times, alphabetize them, look up definitions, write sentences and identify nouns (spelling test weekly)

4 math problems that have to be added/subtracted and vice versa

Pattern identification of a series of numbers

Place values of numbers

One daily activity that involves reading, math and comparisons

5 phrases that have to have all parts of speech identified

Geology that involves defining a land form, drawing it, naming a local and foreign example and identifying them on a map

Creative writing that has to be 4 sentences long with minimum 8 words per sentence

I can’t even do all that in one night (well… I’m exaggerating… it’s more like I wouldn’t have the desire to do that all in one night).

irvine_home_owner - 09 October 2009 04:45 AM

11 spelling words, has to write them multiple times, alphabetize them, look up definitions, write sentences and identify nouns (spelling test weekly)

4 math problems that have to be added/subtracted and vice versa

Pattern identification of a series of numbers

Place values of numbers

One daily activity that involves reading, math and comparisons

5 phrases that have to have all parts of speech identified

Geology that involves defining a land form, drawing it, naming a local and foreign example and identifying them on a map

Creative writing that has to be 4 sentences long with minimum 8 words per sentence

I can’t even do all that in one night (well… I’m exaggerating… it’s more like I wouldn’t have the desire to do that all in one night).

What grade?

IHO - I know you said she’s in 1st, but is this a public school, private, or what? IUSD?? I think that is crazy. My 1st grader’s class (he’s in IUSD) hasn’t even learned “all parts of speech” and geological land forms yet (with local and foreign examples - LOL!) What’s the deal here.

I don’t get it. You all wanted Irvine Schools and now ranting about homework. It will get progressively more and consume most of your family time.

1st grade… without getting too exact (trying to remain anonymous here)... it’s not an IUSD school and it is private.

For the spelling words, they don’t have to find definitions for all of them just 3 and only create sentences with 5, and it does help with the spelling memorization.

As for parts of speech… it’s only article, adjective and noun right now… but looking at future weeks, all the other good stuff is coming.

The geology part is supposed to be with parental help, it’s not like she knows any local or foreign examples… but it is interesting.

I believe most of the kids can handle it and I appreciate the advantage this may give her… but I do think it’s a bit much.

Again… surprisingly, I’m not an educational taskmaster, a good school in a safe environment is one thing… an over-competitive school is another. I want my kid to like to learn and to seek out knowledge… not have it forced on them. I think this school is good at that… as my kids don’t complain about the coursework at school… but to me… the majority of learning should stay at school. It just seems like either the homework is overkill… or they are depending on the parents to do a good portion of the work. This isn’t to complain that I don’t want to be involved… I just feel it may be more than what a kid should do.

From what I recall… my parents barely helped me at all with homework… I was able to do it all myself but maybe that was an exception (or my homework was way too easy… I did grow up in the LA suburbs).

Ooooohh, ok. I thought you meant she was in the district so I couldn’t understand why the discrepancy between our schools. So, she’s in private and I guess that makes more sense now. Yeah, it sounds like a bit much for a first grader to me. I agree with you IHO.

I compared it to her cousin’s homework who is in IUSD (he’s in 2nd grade now) and his mom also thinks that she gets more work as a 1st grade than he gets as a 2nd grader.

Maybe that’s why most of the kids at this school are of foreign ethnic background but I never really thought of it as an advanced education school. I would like to put her in the IUSD (or TUSD) system but am worried about the continuance of care as she has to go from school to a daycare whereas she stays with most of the same people all day at this school. It’s another reason why I was looking into an afternoon nanny. It would save us some money, but when you factor in daycare (I think it’s called CDC) costs, food costs etc etc the money difference isn’t that huge. I just want her to enjoy school, make friends and be confident in herself… I don’t really mind if she can’t get 100% on her spelling test every week.

I think there is a big difference between homework that is simply review of things that were taught well at school and homework which is expecting the children to learn something new or learn something that was only briefly taught at school. So far, my son already knows how to do all of his homework and he seems to know all letter sounds so well from songs they practice at school that the homework is really easy. If they don’t actually work on the spelling at school and expect the parent to do all of it at home, I really think that it is a bit much.

tmare - 09 October 2009 05:06 PM

If they don’t actually work on the spelling at school and expect the parent to do all of it at home, I really think that it is a bit much.

I agree… one of her tasks was extended number writing (taking 12,723 and writing 12,000 + 700 + 20 + 3). I asked her if they already taught her that in school and she said no.

Maybe she just didn’t remember… but it took me a while to explain the concept to her.

irvine_home_owner - 09 October 2009 05:12 PM

tmare - 09 October 2009 05:06 PM

If they don’t actually work on the spelling at school and expect the parent to do all of it at home, I really think that it is a bit much.

I agree… one of her tasks was extended number writing (taking 12,723 and writing 12,000 + 700 + 20 + 3). I asked her if they already taught her that in school and she said no.

Maybe she just didn’t remember… but it took me a while to explain the concept to her.

I have generally found that my son knows everything for homework so well that practicing it almost seems silly. I think it’s good because at least I get to see what he’s learned and how well he knows it though. BTW, that’s called “expanded notation” and if they had been doing it in class, I think your daughter would remember it.

Heh… that’s right… expanded notation… see… even I can’t remember it… I am not smarter than a 1st grader.

irvine_home_owner - 09 October 2009 05:12 PM

tmare - 09 October 2009 05:06 PM

If they don’t actually work on the spelling at school and expect the parent to do all of it at home, I really think that it is a bit much.

I agree… one of her tasks was extended number writing (taking 12,723 and writing 12,000 + 700 + 20 + 3). I asked her if they already taught her that in school and she said no.

Maybe she just didn’t remember… but it took me a while to explain the concept to her.

If you look at this webpage, they recommend expanded notation for 2nd and 3rd graders but even then… only up to four digits, not as many as your example. If they’re giving the first graders five digits, it sounds a bit much. (Isn’t the 12,000 broken down further into 1*10,000 + 2*1,000? Maybe I need to go back to first grade!) My son’s class has started learning place values but they have just begun easing their way into it.

IHO, this is definitely beyond the math standards for California and our standards are the most difficult of any state. Sometimes private schools are truly unaware of what constitutes grade level material and they just try to do too much because it makes them look good. Unfortunately, the majority of 1st grade students are not developmentally ready to learn numbers that big with any true conceptual understanding.

I know… I told her to write 10,000 and she wrote ‘1000’. I asked her what number that was and she asked me “10 hundred?”. So I said it should be ten thousand and she goes “oh…” and puts a comma like this ‘10,00’. And I said, it needs another zero like 1000, 2000, 3000 etc.

At this point, the frustration on her face was killing me so I just told her exactly what to write, asked her to re-read the number to me and hoped that she would understand it more in class.

As for their method of expanded notation… I have no idea how they are teaching it. I just looked ahead at next week’s assignment which has a number that’s written as I explained and the exercise is to write it in its “regular” format (that’s the only only way I figured out what expanded notation was). I also found it interesting that for many of the activities, we had all 10 weeks of the assignments… it’s as if they wanted to encourage over-achieving. They probably bent to the pressure of other parents asking for homework in advance because their super-child finished this week’s homework in 10 minutes.

irvine_home_owner - 09 October 2009 06:23 PM

I know… I told her to write 10,000 and she wrote ‘1000’. I asked her what number that was and she asked me “10 hundred?”. So I said it should be ten thousand and she goes “oh…” and puts a comma like this ‘10,00’. And I said, it needs another zero like 1000, 2000, 3000 etc.

At this point, the frustration on her face was killing me so I just told her exactly what to write, asked her to re-read the number to me and hoped that she would understand it more in class.

As for their method of expanded notation… I have no idea how they are teaching it. I just looked ahead at next week’s assignment which has a number that’s written as I explained and the exercise is to write it in its “regular” format (that’s the only only way I figured out what expanded notation was). I also found it interesting that for many of the activities, we had all 10 weeks of the assignments… it’s as if they wanted to encourage over-achieving. They probably bent to the pressure of other parents asking for homework in advance because their super-child finished this week’s homework in 10 minutes.

As a math teacher, there is just so much that is wrong here. Kids need lots of time to absorb the meaning of big numbers and just putting in a comma shows me that the class is probably not developing conceptual understanding but just merely following some rules that mostly seem nonsensical to a kid. I would rather a kid fully understand what we are doing this week than try to go ahead (or have a parent try to go ahead). If I were the teacher of a student with a parent asking for more work, I would give them more practice of the same types of things for that week’s homework. (Regular form is usually called standard form). Many of the new curriculum programs have websites that the students can go to and practice class concepts in a new or even more challenging way, this should be enough for the parents who want more.

Tmare, that’s exactly what our IUSD admins told us when we started a new math program. They give us a workbook for practice at home, but they clearly said not to let your child work ahead of what they’re currently doing in class because they want to make sure they absorb the fundamentals and fully understand, using the methods they want to teach them in class, before moving on to the next stage. They said many of the parents have their kid complete the book quickly and turn it in like it’s some kind of race. That is not at all what the teachers recommend in our local schools. I think they are on the same page as you, where they want to take it one step at a time.

Well… at least I’m not crazy thinking that her homework was too much or too complex.

I feel bad for her when she does math, she still uses her fingers to count but I think the peer pressure at school is to not use your fingers so when I work with her, she puts her hands under the table to hide the fact that she’s counting with her fingers… it almost made me cry.

Awww, IHO. That’s so cute. Just tell her to wear sandals when doing math so she can count with her toes instead of her fingers.

Here is a link to what the IUSD kids are taught for math. You can open a PDF which shows exactly the kind of math work they get in class and at home.

(They are taught to add and subtract by visualizing groups - last year in Kindy it was translating groups of numbers to shapes so that it is easier to envision and also using number “partners”. So this year they are building exercises based on what they learned last year.)

bkshopr - 09 October 2009 06:52 AM

I don’t get it. You all wanted Irvine Schools and now ranting about homework. It will get progressively more and consume most of your family time.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds this thread ironic.

FWIW, I had homework in 1st grade. Some of it was very similar to what IHO’s kid is seeing, except for the math part.

I do think the math skills they are trying to teach IHO’s kid are above normal, the spelling and wording, however, is what I remember. I do think the point is to get the parent involved, while the wrong way about going at it, but making sure the parent/s are involved. In a way you should be thankful, but be vocal that it is ridiculous a kid of that age will understand expanded notation of that level.

BTW, I like seeing the feedback on things like this. Whether I have kids or not, at least I know what I need to be prepared for. Damn… I’m screwed… by the time they reach 5th grade they will be explaining deltas and how my regression model is faulty. Either that, or they will turn out just like me… keep that in mind when your kids come home with homework in 1st grade… I had homework then, and look at me now. No, really, look at me now… I am a professional armchair economist. Okay, well maybe it isn’t that bad, but it has been a longer process than the schools promised.

That’s one bonus… they will be more educated than me at some point in elementary school… heh.

I remember in middle school or junior high I brought home some math homework that neither of my parents understood… but that’s what we want… for our kids to be smarter than us (just not in 1st grade).

When my daughter was 5 I taught her big numbers by pulling the filers out from for sale home signs. She learned her comma from Irvine home prices. She knew nothing in Irvine was under $500,000. She was the smartest in her class knowing the placement of commas. She knew the value of $1,000,000 in Irvine and it meant very little in term of home and I showed her a piece of crap that was $1 mil with 2 commas.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/digg/best-homework-ever-pic

Too bad Google doesn’t do image translations.

She is still struggling with some parts of her homework. Last week we hit a big wall where she didn’t want to do any at all and threw a big fit.

She’s fine with the spelling, word problems and geography… it’s the math, she has to do addition and subtraction of big numbers which requires borrowing and carrying over… I seriously think that’s too much for a 1st grader.