Expecting too much from children

[Ozzieshunni]

I agree tasha. I think parents are also not involved enough with their children. I was lucky. My mom and dad got very involved. My mom is now the incoming state PTA president for California so she's continued to advocate for children's education long after my brother and I have graduated college.

 

[BrokenfoREVer]

^ I agree with some of that. Parents do have a duty to take an active roll in education. You can't just send em off to school & forget about it & expect them to come out A* grade students at 16.

 

[Dragonfly]

Thats the general jist here, you go to school to learn. Parents dont do anything. And they get upset when their children dont do well and they find out and blame the schools. Its not possible for every single child to get the same teachings, thats why some parents have to help. Though around here them parents arnt even as smart as the children as they where also left behind and not helped. My other half wasnt helped by any one and left school not being able to read. They read his exams to him. He failed as he couldnt write anyway. He has dyslexia. Back then they had no one to help with that in the schools here.

 

[Natsku]

Yeah parents definitely need to be involved. My mum encouraged us with with learning outside of school (although she never checked that we did our homework which I think was bad as I hardly ever did it and got into trouble) and my dad was a parent governor in all my schools.

Its generally considered that one of the reasons that the education system is so good here is because parents are so involved with their children's education - encouraging them, reading to them etc.

I won't expect my children to get all Bs or As or anything like that but I expect them to try their best, and if their best usually results in good grades then I will expect similar grades but I know that not all kids are smart, some kids are just going to get lower grades and thats just down to their natural abilities and I don't want my kids to feel bad about themselves if they are one of those kids. They will have other skills which I will encourage I'm sure.

 

[tasha41]

I have to admit though, I am fearful for when Elyse gets to high school- they've changed the math curriculum so much here and it's more advanced now- since I didn't really need to take math beyond grade 12, I feel like I'm ill-prepared for it. I'll probably have to invest in a tutor if needed for her at that time. Or have her teach me the math she's working on!

 

[MrsKyliePaton]

My daughter is in school and I do help her with her homework, read to her etc, she doesn't really understand words though (we are thinking dyslexia) so we get packs home if they are struggling but on top of all that we also have reading homework, maths homework, activity sheets, a new thing called talk homework, and then projects to do plus there words to learn. for a 6 year old that is alot of homework in a week, and with a young one on my own when dh is working away it's alot to do and sometimes we don't get a chance to do anything, or are up until 8.30pm trying to get it done. When I was 6 we never really got homework, I think it puts kids off when they are learning all day then have to come home and do homework every night as well and are unwilling to learn, I know from my experience trying to get miah to do homework every night is a battle, there's sometimes tears there's tantrums.

I've kind of went off on a tangent now so ill stop and hope it makes sense lol

 

[Dragonfly]

I get you. My cousin is in primary school and cant leave the house after school at all with the home work they get now. The exams to for his age. It does put a sickener on education all that. I know as i went that way in school to. I gave up so easy as no one would explain to me. So for some its hard. We only had a bit of home work, few sums and spelling nothing like now a days.

 

[Natsku]

Urgh I hate that they give children homework so young. They really should be giving it until they are old enough to do it themselves as its hardly fair on the parents to have to help their kids do homework on top of their own work/housework! Plus I don't think its beneficial for kids. I'd actually prefer they didn't get homework at all except for in the case that they didn't finish work that they should have finished in classtime.

I do worry about maths and science etc, a few years ago I did a maths class at immigrant school that was about GCSE level and I realised how much I've forgotten so I know by the time Maria is doing more complicated maths I will have forgotten again and won't be able to advise her.

 

[tasha41]

I agree- homework should be assigned (beyond spelling lists maybe) to kids who can do it on their own really. That was my school's policy, started homework in grade 4 (age 9/10 I believe). It seems educators are undecided though- sometimes the 'trend' (as in pattern not fad) is to give a lot, other years it's to minimize homework/out of school projects.

 

[robinator]

I don't understand why educators (whoever sets the guidelines) insist kids have more knowledge than they are ready for. Gonna be a whole generation of adults someday who will be bitter at being gypped out of their childhood.

When I was in kindergarten, we spent most of the time playing house or painting. Not learning how to spell "metamorphosis" or working out the formula for the atom bomb.

 

[Tiff]

I agree- homework should be assigned (beyond spelling lists maybe) to kids who can do it on their own really. That was my school's policy, started homework in grade 4 (age 9/10 I believe). It seems educators are undecided though- sometimes the 'trend' (as in pattern not fad) is to give a lot, other years it's to minimize homework/out of school projects.

My school started homework in Grade 2.

 

[Natsku]

Exactly robinator. I'd rather Maria was considered "behind" and actually gets to enjoy her childhood playing rather than worrying about learning things that should really be considered too advanced for her age at the time.

I started homework in year 6 (10 years old) and then it was just a timestable once a week, didn't have proper homework til the next year when we were in secondary school and even then it was never more than 20 mins a night (at my speed )

 

[Ozzieshunni]

Kindergarten for me was all imaginative play. We learned to count to 100 though and had to bring in 100 of something from home. I remember counting tiny seashells from this huge jar my mom had We also read The Midnight Express in our jammies with blankets

 

[MrsKyliePaton]

I agree but it seems in the school miah goes to you get more homework in primary 1-3 and then it gets less, she was getting homework the second week she started school, it means she can't really do any after school acivities unless we did homework at weekends instead (they get there reading books home for the weekend aswell) I encourage her to do well our saying is practice makes perfect. I'm not going to push her though, it's to much, their bags are so heavy aswell, I think natsku is right they should really only get homework if they haven't finished their work in class, that would maybe push them that little bit more to work harder in class.

Primary 1-3 are ages 4-7 just incase anyone was wondering lol

 

[BrokenfoREVer]

^^ Thats what pre-school is supposed to be like! Limited learning but fun! They are still just children at the end of the day. Let them enjoying being young & carefree.

Christ...as an adult in this shitty world I've love to go back to nursery & dick about

 

[Natsku]

Gah I don't think they should even be in school before 7 let alone getting homework!

 

[Cleo]

100% agree with you ladies! I flipping hate homework and I am (was) a teacher!

I taught grade 4 (age 9ish) and in my class I tried to give TONS of time to finish work. I structured lessons as half time instruction/discovery/participation/exploration/etc (depending on what we were learning) and the other half time to complete the work required. If it was a larger concept, we would spend a few days on it, or weeks if it were a project. It also meant that I was available if they needed help. I also always gave a lot of time at the end of the day for them to work on finishing things up so they wouldn't have a lot to take home. Parents always appreciated this, but guess what? I always had a hard time completing the required curriculum. There's sooooo much that they require kids to learn!!! Way too much in my opinion but that's another thread! I really believe that kids should be allowed to be kids and they shouldn't have so much on their plates at such a young age.

 

[Natsku]

In so many education systems too much is expected I think. They have to do lots of tests and teach to the test. At least over here there isn't standardised testing til the last year and teachers have much more control over the curriculum. I bet most teachers everywhere would want that.

 

[MrsKyliePaton]

I know in Scotland it's 2's group aged 2 playgroup aged 3 then they start nursery aged 4 and then straight into school aged 4.5/5, some kids are ready for it others are not (like miah lol)

 

[tasha41]

100% agree with you ladies! I flipping hate homework and I am (was) a teacher!

I taught grade 4 (age 9ish) and in my class I tried to give TONS of time to finish work. I structured lessons as half time instruction/discovery/participation/exploration/etc (depending on what we were learning) and the other half time to complete the work required. If it was a larger concept, we would spend a few days on it, or weeks if it were a project. It also meant that I was available if they needed help. I also always gave a lot of time at the end of the day for them to work on finishing things up so they wouldn't have a lot to take home. Parents always appreciated this, but guess what? I always had a hard time completing the required curriculum. There's sooooo much that they require kids to learn!!! Way too much in my opinion but that's another thread! I really believe that kids should be allowed to be kids and they shouldn't have so much on their plates at such a young age.

This is what I've heard from many teachers, one of my family members teaches grade 6