Call It What It Is: PARENTwork

My daughter Honeybun’s kindergarten homework regimen started this week.  Let me start my rant (and yes, this is going to be rant) by saying any work assigned to be done at home by a 5 year-old kindergartner should not be called homework but rather “parentwork”.  This is because even my “advanced” kindergartner is completely incapable of doing her homework without my full attention.

Monday she had 2 tasks. The first was to complete a #5 handwriting sheet which she also had to last week.  Her teacher (whom I do really like, I think) was not satisfied with how Honeybun did it the first time so sent it home again.  The second task was for her to write her phone number, address and birthday.  I am not allowed to do any writing, spelling, cutting or gluing for her homework which is fine but after the #5 debacle, I’ve realized the teacher is going to expect proper handwriting so the two tasks took us an hour and half.  What I could have completed in less than 5 minutes (probably less than 1 minute even) took us an hour and a half.  An hour and a half that I sat at the table with her, erasing, correcting and explaining how to better form her numbers and letters.  An hour and a half that Sugarplum napped and Doodle fussed.  An hour and a half that Honeybun would have usually spent napping and I would have usually spent resting.  An hour and half of rest that I really needed.  An hour and a half.  For a five year-old’s homework.

Tuesday she had to write 10 words: 5 beginning with M and 5 ending in m.  This sounds like an easy enough task, until 40 minutes later.  We got tripped up on this one because the first words she chose were “monkey” and “mouse” and since I’m not allowed to help with spelling it took her awhile to work it out.  I’m also still being very particular about her handwriting.  When she concentrates and writes carefully, her handwriting is pretty neat but when she tries to hurry and forgets the “rules” (like all lowercase letters need to be below the dotted line on her paper) her handwriting is very messy.  After the first few words of erasing and trying again, she finally started to remember to write below the dotty line and luckily her words ending in m were “bam,” “Jam,” “am,” “mom,” and “ma’am” and she breezed right through them!

 Wednesday she had to write 3 sentences, 1 each using the words “the,” “like,” and “I”.  I gave her 30 minutes to do it since Wednesday is ballet day and she needs to rest before going to class and time is limited!  I was not as picky about her writing as perhaps I should have been and gave up the fight over whether or not her teacher would know “bdin” was building due to the time limit.  Even 30 minutes of homework is too much for a 5 year-old, I think (really, homework is completely developmentally INappropriate for kindergartners).  Though she could have easily finished in the allotted time if she could remember the simple writing rules from day to day!

Today is her math homework.  Two workbook pages and she has to draw and label all the shapes she knows.  This should be fun.  At least today is our free night, nothing for any of us outside the house so if we get too tired/frustrated before nap, we can finish before and/or after dinner.  This is why I refused homework in VPK last year, but unfortunately not doing homework is not an option when she’s being graded.  I guess we just need to get more efficient at getting it done.

As hubby said when I angry texted him 20 minutes into Monday’s homework extravaganza (if only I’d known…): “Yay for homework.  It’s reallllly helping our country close the gap.”  Indeed sir, indeed.

(This post originally ran on Beyond Mommying)

About the authors: Melissa is a homeschooling, ballerina mommy of four and lives by the motto “Life is never boring when you’re never alone, but I know somewhere out there, there is life Beyond Mommying!” She shares her parenting adventures on her blog Beyond Mommying. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.