About this Homework Thing

I've done more homework in her first grade than I had ever done in all the grades.

So - Homework. Another thing they didn’t warn you about when you become a parent.

Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

Remember homework as a kid? Actually, to be completely honest I have absolutely zero recall of doing any homework. Ever. This probably explains a lot but that’s a story for another day.

The child? She has two days of homework every week. TWO DAYS! In first grade.

The first homework is the one we do Sunday night and it’s kind of lame - she’s supposed to read poetry and talk about it. This sounds like a session in a shrink’s office more than homework for first grade if you ask me.

I let BW tackle this one.

The spelling word challenge? That’s me most times. I am not sure why - but to quote Bruce Hornsby and his Range - that’s just the way it is.

Word homework is so effing complicated it took both BW and I multiple times to read the instructions when she first came home with it. We were both so confused at first at what the teacher even wanted us to do.

The word homework of the week is this: The child has to write about five words of each phrase or whatever they are learning that week.

Today was plurals with both -s and -es. For example: frogs and boxes, dogs and purses - you get the idea.

This should be where the homework ends. You sit with the the child and help her spell a few words and you’re done right?

Oh. No.

Now you have to play some games with her - they give you about five choices and you have to do three. I try to pick the three easiest and of course the child picks the 3 most annoying.

How annoying? Annoying. Very Annoying. Very, and even more VERY. Annoying.

Tonight she had to write the words on the piece of paper, cut them out and then lay the small paper with words on them and then throw a “snowball” at them. The snowball was supposed to be a pair of socks - does the school think we’re rich? A PAIR of SOCKS? THAT MATCH?

In this house? - Ha!

So here we are a past-bedtime-o’clock throwing a pair of socks at little pieces of paper on the floor. And, because it’s a 7-year-old throwing a sock - aim isn’t the best skillset we have here - so it takes multiple attempts to land said sock on said word so that the homework can end and we can go to bed.

I may have helped her at the end:

It’s D.O.G. Okay, we’re done - let’s go to B-E-D.

That’s one word I know how to spell real good. :)

Keep Learning,

TH and Co.