Homework, homework and more homework?

Sounds familiar? Not for darling son KW.

The only homework darling son KW brought home when he was in Grade 1 last term was reading. Two to three books per week. Learning new words, forming sentences, and towards the end of the term, summary writing. Darling son's reading improved tremendously. He went from not being able to read a simple book, to reading chapter books in a year! He needed help from us for writing though. As for Math, there was very little practice, after a concept was taught. No Math homework at all. I guess the problem was that the teacher with him, who was suppose to teach both English and Math, was a trained Language teacher?

Now that he is in Grade 2, things are somewhat different.

Reading and writing are two things they must do everyday. He has to write in his Home Journal every day, except Wednesday. He is allowed to borrow three library books instead of two. Writing is still a struggle for him. No wonder parents were "warned" by his home teacher of spelling tests. Although I am happy that he gets to practice writing everyday, it is a real struggle for me in getting him to do it diligently. He will always throw the question back at me and ask me what he should write. I have been telling him to write whatever he wants. Today, I got tired of answering his question and said "I don't like to write in my Home Journal because I don't know what to write.".

As for Math, he is taken out of his home class to join other students from other classes. His Math teacher, a young and humorous lady, sent out a note to parents on her very first day with the kids, informing us of timed test every Friday. Last week, darling son brought home a sample test paper. Ok, there were a total of 100 simple questions, addition within 20. The kids were supposed to complete the test in 10 minutes. When asked if he managed to complete the test in school, he told me he did three-quarters of it within the given time. Not too bad, given it was his first.

Today, he came home with a Student Math Journal. I was really surprised. This is the first time I see Math homework! He was required to do the first two pages of exercises ... Number sequence (hundreds and thousands), and money addition. He did it without me nagging at him.

Diligence in doing work is inversely proportional to the age of the teacher? Hmmm ...