I saved all the papers Honeybun brought home from school for an entire month. This is what we ended up with:
What is most disturbing, though, is not just the vast quantity of paper that comes home (easily 5+ sheets DAILY), but it’s the type of papers she’s bringing home:
- 15 Announcements and Notices (there may have been more that I had to return)
- 8 projects
- 14 independent drawings or writing sheets
- 88 worksheets.
88 Worksheets! That’s more than four times the number of projects and independent work COMBINED! This doesn’t even include the math workbook pages we do at home and I can’t help but wonder “How is this helping my 5 year old?” (My FIVE year old!)
This bothers me because I know worksheets are completely inappropriate at this level and it shows a lack of understanding of kindergarten aged children by the teacher (which makes one start to wonder what other developmentally inappropriate things she is doing in the classroom!)
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC,a well-respected organization within the early childhood education realm and which I am a member) publishes a book on Developmentally Appropriate Practices which covers birth through age 8. In their “Teaching Methods” in Kindergarten section they state developmentally appropriate as being “Teachers provide a variety of engaging learning experiences and hands-on materials” they say in contrast “learning materials are primarily workbooks,worksheets flash cards and other materials hat do not engage children’s interest, promote their self-regulation, or involve them in problem solving and other higher-order thinking skills.”
Perhaps this is why my five year old constantly tells me “school is boring” and “I haven’ learned anything at all in school” and “I don’t like school, I don’t want to go anymore.” And I’ll never forget the day walking home when she excitedly told me (she rarely talks excitedly about school) “Mommy, guess what we got to do today…We got to have FREE CHOICE!” and in that moment my heart shattered into a million little pieces.
I have been meaning to reply to this since you posted it. Lol, darn kids, always vying for my attention. I totally feel you about the state of our school system. What helped me tons was volunteering as much as possible. Funny enough, it was much easier before the baby was here. But even if you can go in for one hour, you’ll get soo much insight into the vibe of her classroom and her teachers. Just knowing the kids names, and knowing who tended to make “good choices” or “bad choices,” made for much better conversations with my son b/c I knew who each kid was. Also, you see how hard teachers have it. Overall, I’ve been very happy with the teachers my son had last year in K and this year in 1st. However, the system is still flawed in many ways– and the teachers don’t have much flexibility to do otherwise. That’s why we’ve now been looking into homeschooling. I know the “H” word freaks out a lot of people (just like the other “H” word -homebirth) but there are so many resources and groups out there. Anywho, don’t despair! But do try to volunteer.. makes such a difference!
Thanks for the advice, Nermari. I’m in the same boat with the “baby on board” thing (plus a three year old!) and unfortunately don’t usually have help around but have been in a few times and helped out where I could. We are very heavily considering homeschooling as well, it’s just so hard to take the plunge!
I know, it’s a bit scary. I’ve been heavily researching it since January, and still tell friends we are stil “considering” it. Lol… I’m 99.9% sure we are doing it. It’s hard to mentally flip yeah switch. But, I’ve now bought curriculum, and it’s only becoming very real. If you have any questions, I’m always down for a play date (and coffee!)
We’re about 90% there, probably going to have a go at it over the summer and see if we can tolerate each other (we have a very bright but stubborn girl who likes to say no, argue and do the exact opposite of what she is asked!)