KEEPING UP WITH SCHOOL

Luke is in first grade and I am amazed at how much a parent has to do with their children to help reinforce what they are learning in school. Just to give you an idea, a typical evening/week of school work includes the following....

Sight words: These are flash cards that he should be able so see and say with in 1 second of seeing the word and he is not to sound them out. We have about 90 of these right now and they add about 5 new words to this list each week. Our flash cards are divided into two piles, words we know and words we are working on. Anyway, it takes about 20 minutes to run through all these words mostly because I can’t flip the darn things fast enough.

Spelling words: Each Monday he comes home with a new list of spelling words. He has 10 words each week and they are different from the sight words so in total he learns 15 new words in a giving week. We do two practice tests in the evening. Usually one on Monday night so I can see where he needs the most help and one on Thursday night right before the test on Friday. In between these two tests we practice them verbally when we drive in the car.

Reading: The requirement is 10 minutes a night and I have to sign a paper. At first it was more me reading to him but we are changing that and I am making him do more of the reading. 10 minutes is not enough time for Luke to get through the books at the level of reading he is supposed to be at. Instead we spend about 30 minutes a night reading. We also have a 10 book challenge each month where he is to read 10 books and I sign off on the books. Another reason I am making him do more of the reading.

Another reason I am making Luke do more of the reading is I have found that the sight words that he knows, I will catch him sounding them out when he reads them in a book. This is not good because I think the cards have been memorized and he doesn’t translate it over to his reading the way he should. I have actually sat down and written up a bunch of sentences using his words and making him practice them this way.

Math home links: These are all assigned on Monday and due back on Friday. Each week varies as to how many we have to do. It can range from 2 to 4 papers per week. I would say this is the easiest part of all the home work. I say that because Luke really gets into math and does it with ease. Often he will sit down on Monday night and do all the papers by himself in a very short time. I then review them with him to make sure he did them right.

I would say we spend about an hour and a half every night on school work. This is tough on the nights we don’t get home from work until 6. It seems like we make dinner, eat, squeeze homework in the middle of all this, take baths and go to bed.

Luke goes to an excellent school and I think part of the excellence comes from what they demand of the kids and the parents. I just worry as this is only first grade and what do I have to look forward to as he moves up each year. I also feel like I put a lot of time into all of this because I really want him to do well in school and when I was growing up my mom put a lot of time into us kids and I am thankful for that.

Do you have school aged children? How much time do you put into helping them? Do they carry this type of load?