So your kid hates homework? Mine too. My daughter fights me about it almost every day. And as a teacher, itsi a little shameful to me. But you know what? We still get it done every.single.day. It takes a little creativity, and a lot of energy, but there are ways to take the battle out of homework time. If you find yourself looking for a way to help a child that hates homework, here are some strategies you can try.
Category: School
Get the Primary Homework Help You Need to GET. IT. DONE.
As a teacher, I hated homework. I hated assigning it, and I felt bad that parents struggled to get kids to complete it. Research doesn’t support it, and, frankly, I’d rather have the kids practice with me at school than muddle through with their parents at home, often picking up misconceptions in the process.
As a parent- well, I just hate homework for the regular reasons. Mostly because my kid doesn’t want to do it, but I’ve got to make her.
If you find yourself in need of primary homework help, know that you’re not alone. Here’s some advice from me, both as a parent and teacher, that can help end your homework battles once and for all.
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Crazy Fun Activities to Avoid Learning Loss This Summer
On a beautiful summer day, we were soaking up the sun while drawing in our backyard. My friend’s son, age 6, decided he was going to write a book. He casually asked Lila, age 5 and a recent TK graduate, if she knew how to spell the word “like.” “K….L…E…” she started, and then looked at me in a hot panic. “MOMMY!!! I don’t remember ANYTHING from TK!!”
I mean, she did, of course, and with some reminders to say the sounds in the word, her memory was jogged enough to produce the letters. But her fear of summer reading loss was real. And it reminded me that we can’t abandon school work completely without experiencing the dreaded summer learning loss.
So if you also find yourself with a child entering PreK, TK, Kindergarten, or First Grade, it’s worth putting just a little time into some fun summer learning activities to avoid the dreaded summer slide. Here are some fun ways to make it happen without stressing your kids (or you!) out.
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A Parent’s Guide to Being Ready for Kindergarten
My son “graduates” preschool this week. Which means at the end of this summer he enters Kindergarten. The Big Leagues. As parents, we spend a lot of time making sure our little ones are ready for Kindergarten. We try to prepare them academically, we buy them first backpacks and school supplies, and we worry about their capacity to sit still. Many of us send our kids to preschool hoping they’ll acquire the skills they’ll need to take those first steps into Kindergarten. But what do we do to prepare ourselves for this transition?
Was preschool preparing us – or was it setting us up for failure and disappointment?
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A Teacher Gift You Should Start on NOW
No matter where you are in the school year, I’m sure the pressure is on. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day to day that you forget to prep for the big events ahead. End of year teacher gifts are FAR off of our radar. We are miles away from Teacher Appreciation Week (which, WHOA. Could we possibly make that a bigger deal? I don’t think so.) The last days of school? Please. Let’s just get through Back to School Night first, am I right?
Except on the first day of school last year, when I asked Lila how her first day of school was, she said “I need three popsicles. And a nap.” The second day, she said, “When Mrs. D gets mad, she sounds like a buffalo. It’s AWESOME!” I made a mental note to tell her teacher about it, but frankly, there just isn’t that much time to touch base every day. And let’s be honest. My memory ain’t so good these days.
I spent many years as a teacher, and I’m sure my students must have come home with some whoppers about me. Hearing Lila’s version of events made me think about all the funny/silly/sweet things my students must have told their parents about me and my classroom. I desperately wished I could have heard what those things were. (I mean, the nice things, of course. I’m not a glutton for punishment. I don’t want to hear about how the kid said I’m a monster, obviously.) Continue reading “A Teacher Gift You Should Start on NOW”
10 School Readiness Skills (That Have NOTHING to Do with Academics!)
A new school year brings with it many things- new backpacks. New uniforms. New teachers. And for some of us it brings new experiences. When you first set out to prepare your kids for their FIRST first day of school, a million questions pop into your mind. Is my child ready for preschool? Does my child have the kindergarten readiness skills they need? Will they be okay without me?
As a former teacher, I was surprised to find that I had exactly the same concerns when my daughter went to school for the first time. I felt like there were soooo many things I wanted to teach her before school started- and believe it or not, letters and numbers were the least of my concerns!
When it comes to school readiness, there are more important things to focus on (things like independence, how to get along with others, and fine motor skills) that will free up the teacher’s time to teach academics. Here’s ten things that you can teach your kids before school starts that your child’s Kindergarten/TK/Pre-K teacher will LOVE you for.
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