Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Are you smarter than a first grader?

The assignment of homework picked up this week.  As did the onset of Everyone Get Sick Because School Just Started.  I am slightly questioning our decision to keep the girls in separate classrooms.  Although, the questioning seems to revolve around selfish reasons, such as not having to keep track of who is supposed to do what with the weekly spelling list.

Here's this week's list:

at
can
cat
back
dad
am
bat
mad
ran
sack
way
on

All of the words with 'a' in them are "short a" words.  Out of the three adults here last night, Rich was the only one who knew the difference between a "long a" and a "short a."  I felt better this morning when I asked two childless co-workers if they knew the difference.  They did not.

The girls are each supposed to complete different lessons each night at home with the spelling words.  Some of those lessons need to be turned back in to the teacher.  Then they have a quiz Friday morning.

Allie has "math" homework twice a week.  In addition, we need to practice math and reading four nights a week and record this in a log, which is returned to the teacher on Friday.  Here's an example of the math homework. She had to complete this over the weekend.

sep24a

sep24b

Anna's math homework started last week.  The girls are all doing the same worksheets but not at the same time.  It's interesting because the curriculum is the same across all three classrooms but teaching styles (and homework) are different.

Emily hasn't had any math homework yet.  Her math assessment came home yesterday.  (She scored a 9/10 - YAY!) It needed to be signed (sounds so serious) and returned to school.  

The girls already seem to know how to spell all of the above so I think we're in the clear this week.  I commented to Rich last night that they seem to have a lot of homework for first grade.  He said that it isn't really that much - it just seems that way because there are three of them.

We've had asthma coughing and a 48 hour bug in the house so I'm one tired mommy right now.  Emily had to miss school yesterday.  Already!

8 comments:

kdliberty said...

I live in a school system were worksheets are king. (Interestingly, no 2 teachers in our system will use all the same worksheets. The teachers can decide what works best for their own class.) It just seems they have a lot because you are doing 3 children. You will become old pro by the end of the year.

B said...

We have twins in different classes for the first time and I'm right there with you. Trying to remember who has math homework, does it go in a special folder, is it special take-a-stuffed-animal-to-school day, do we need to return library books? So.many.questions.

I hope you guys can stay healthy too.

Amy said...

Let the fun begin, right? :) When you posted that they were all in separate classes my first thought was of the different homework. It's why we've kept the girls together to date (they have completely different interests and don't really hang just with each other, so there wasn't a good reason to break them up just yet). Wait till they bring home stuff you have to review to help them with - then the fun really begins! Looks like they are having a great year so far :)

Kayla said...

My twins started kindergarten this year, separate classed. They are learning the same things, and luckily, there isn't really much homework, but when they do bring something home it's the same work. Thank goodness. The different "specials" schedule messes me up. I have 3 weekly calendars up on my fridge (2 for the littles and 1 for my oldest). I don't look forward to the future years when they are all needing my help with different hw.

As for sickness, we made it 4 days before the kids were sick. Fevers, all 3, but not on the same days. ARGH!!!!

Hang in there. I will too :)

Lisey said...

Just a little note to say that thanks to your posts on Abby and how to handle grief and the tough questions, I helped a mom today who lost her daughter at 26 weeks today.

Any input on what to say next would be great though. Mom is still in the hospital and not doing well. I feel helpless.

Anonymous said...

In terms of knowing the difference between short a and long a... I know that one is one sound and one is the other, but I couldn't tell you which is which. :) Honestly, I feel like the math your girls are getting is more advanced than what I recall at that age - it seems like second grade was the year we subtracted two-digit numbers from two-digit numbers, and your girls seem on track to do that this year. I also don't remember homework, really, but I don't really have strong memories about actual school work until 3rd grade. But I DO remember how daunting it was to have to remember your library day, computer day, and whether you were going to P.E., art, music, etc. At least your girls have each other to get through any culture shock!

Sarah said...

Lisey - I'm so very sorry to hear this. Tell her that it's okay to be angry and mad. Be sure that she feels like she can talk to someone, anyone. She just has to get through one day at a time. My thoughts go out to her.

Sarah said...

I don't remember any homework until 4th grade and even then, it was maybe 1 sheet every other week. It's crazy how different school is for them than it was for me.