DownSyn Forum

Barbara

Henry, age 5 1/2, has no homework for K5 and won't for 1st grade either. I know as a society that our kids are being overloaded with homework, but I do see the importance of homework: http://www.samgoldstein.com/homework/homework1.pdf

Also found this interesting site that speaks to how much homework is considered reasonable: http://www.kidsource.com/education/sciencemath.html

Anyway -- he may not have homework from school, but on most nights he has about 20 to 30 minutes of "Momma homework".

Oh, and the poll is about children with DS but feel free to elaborate on your other kids!

kwisteena1021 · Posted: April 09 2008, 6:13 AM Post subject:

In Kindy Kallie didn't have any homework other than to practice letter recognition and letter sounds. In first grade Kallie had homework everynight, including spelling words, math, book reports, writing stories, of coure it was modified but she was still responsible for it. Second grade, first year not included, she has the most homework of all, usually spelling words at the beginning of the week including an activity to put the word in a sentence, reading a story and answering questions about it, math, stuff like that. I hope this helps!

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Amy · Posted: April 09 2008, 8:26 AM Post subject:

We homeschool..so all school work is HOME work. However, most of the children I know don't have homework till upper elementary. In reading about children who are successful in typical classrooms and they have special needs... I've read that they duplicate at home what was taught at school. So Mommy's work is the best way to go. You should be able to see his curriculum on the gov website for your school system.
amy

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lespring · Posted: April 09 2008, 9:20 AM Post subject:

Angela is on a shortened day because she doesn't have the stamina needed to make it through a full day of school. Because of this, she misses a lot of stuff...like social studies, health, and science. So whenever they start a new unit they send home a huge packet of stuff, and I try to work through some of it with her each day. We don't get through very much. Crying or Very sad

We do try to do spelling every day, and a little bit of math. She doesn't work more than 20 minutes or so at a time.

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Barbara · Posted: April 09 2008, 10:24 AM Post subject:

Amy,

I actually use your state's standards (http://www.georgiastandards.org/) a great deal. It is so informative. I haven't thought to look for SC's equivalent - though I have seen some small brochures that lists goals for SC. I'll dig around. Maybe I'll find an extensive site for SC.

Thanks!

lesterbell · Posted: April 16 2008, 11:37 AM Post subject: homework

My Daughter started Kindergarten at a school that I was told would have a wonderful program for her. She had 2 pages of homework sent home every Friday. She was in a special Ed class for most of the full-day. There were only 3 kids in the spec ed class.

I contacted the teacher one day because I wondered why the homework seemed so advanced for spec ed Kindergarten and I was told that they were doing an "experiment" with the kids, giving them regular kindergarten work, not modified to fit her learning level.

I never heard about this before or during the time she was in class! Then we had the IEP meeting and nothing was mentioned about possibly moving my daughter to a new program due to behavioral issues. I found out on the printed copy of the IEP written "In the spring, we may need to find another placement for Kayla". They never said a word at the IEP meeting about this.

Then the teacher mentioned that they didnt have the staff or the funding to meet Kayla's needs so she had to switch schools. Are not IEP's suppose to be read before they put a child into a classroom knowing that they need hand over hand and 1 on 1 attention most of the time? The school district supervisor told me that the 1st school she attended would meet her learning level, she didnt have to "qualify".

I hope this doesnt happen to anyone else. Where I went wrong was not asking enough questions about staffing and funding to see if my daughter WOULD get when she needed in a school setting. Also, I should have looked at the curriculum and discussed her needs prior to, or at the beginning of the school year.

Thanks for listening.

naomid · Posted: April 16 2008, 12:17 PM Post subject:

All of Callum's class (mainstream class) get homework once a week. They also bring home reading books and sentence strips most days. The homework is usually quite short (no more than 15 minutes) and reinforces something that they've been working on that week.

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Solveig · Posted: April 16 2008, 4:49 PM Post subject:

Bene has no homework yet. We've tried, but had to cut it out - she was just too worn out after school! Smile

Yet, she can still write her name, and knows all her ABC's, and counts to 20. She's learning the stuff she's gotta learn, it just takes her a little bit longer! Wink

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Barbara · Posted: April 20 2008, 4:38 AM Post subject:

Well -- After telling Henry's teacher about how I felt about homework -- Everyday last week ( except for Friday) -- He got homework!!! Henry's teacher is really great! She listened to me! During our discussion, it appeared that we were just not going to agree -- and then the next week - homework EVERY DAY! It's been a source of teasing now -- because her and her assistant said I asked for it. And she says that she's not giving homework on fridays, and I can't make her.

All kidding aside, I feel very fortunate that I have her for Henry's teacher. And though I had been doing stuff with Henry most nights -- this is giving me formatted homework with good expectations for Henry. She is now giving 1 to 2 sheets of homework Monday - Thursday, and it's taking Henry about 10 or 15 minutes to do each assignment. He seems excited to do his homework.