Lightening Online

Image via WikipediaYou’ve heard me rant before about how much homework “sucks” when you’re a parent.

When Singstar Princesses mid-year report came home, I noticed that “we” failed in the homework category. Apparently our homework effort “needs developing”. *sigh*

I was actually a little bit mad about that because we had explained the home situation to DD’s teachers earlier in the year. Some things (like feeding our children) had to take a higher priority than homework.

Of course, it doesn’t help when the homework often ends in tears.

Singstar Princess had this list of Target words that we were practising writing. It was quite a comprehensive list but it said to just pick 5 at a time to work on. According to the instructions, when she got them right we needed to initial the word. When she got them right 3 times she could colour in that word on her sheet and it was all done.

At the rate we were going, it was going to take ALL YEAR to get through the 1 sheet.

Last night there was a single word added by her teacher to the top of this particular sheet of paper.

READING

DOH!!!

No wonder DD was having some trouble spelling some of the words.

She only needed to READ them!!!!

Double DOH!!!

This week she has brought home her first list of “Spelling” words to practise at home.

They are a LOT easier.

No wonder the teacher thought we were “failing” in our homework attempts.

In reading, she would have been through the whole sheet in a week.

By trying to teach her to spell the words, we were taking WAY longer than anyone expected.

I kept trying to pull out the easier words on the list because I didn’t want to knock her confidence. Although she was actually managing quite a few of the words.

I tell you what, I think we ALL deserve an A on the next report!!!!

Not sure who should get a fail on communication skills though - us or the teacher (or both).

Perhaps it’s the price the poor girl pays for having a gifted older brother. He did very little in the way of reading and spelling homework beyond reception (first year at school) because he was already so far ahead of his peers. I mean, where do you go when your 5 year old reads the newspaper, bible and encyclopedia. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for “practise”.

I wonder if the teacher assumed that her being our second child meant we should automatically know the difference between “target” words and “spelling” words??? It only took her just over a term to find out from DD that she’d been WRITING the words instead of READING them.

Image via WikipediaI HATED it the first time around.

Which is probably not all that surprising given most of my secondary years I had reason to have to do MORE homework than most.

Year 8 - Never did first year high (year 8 is second year high in Victoria) and while I DID do year 7 (in primary school) there were things I had to catch up on (like 12 months of Greek).

Year 9 - My music teacher tried to kick me out of the class before we’d barely begun because I hadn’t done any AMEB theory levels. So had some catching up to do there. Plus new school (again) so different stuff covered in the previous year etc etc etc. Oh, and a “class time is for socialising” issue that lead to more homework than perhaps necessary.

Year 10 - Spent more time at home than I did at school so was constantly behind. In 6 months of history I didn’t sit one single test. Missed every single one of them. And no, it WASN’T planned that way.

Year 11 - Was a TOTAL nightmare. Some *idiot* thought compulsory Australian Studies sounded like a good idea. Giving us a whole EXTRA subject than previous year 11’s had had to endure. And leaving us with one crummy free lesson per fortnight in which to socialise study. Along with reducing student stress by introducing Work Requirements and all sorts of stupid stuff that drove me up the wall and did NOT reduce student stress.

Year 12 - is year 12. *shrugs* Actually, I think I did LESS work in year 12 than year 11. In fact, I was so burnt out by this stage I did ZERO homework for the entire term 3 of year 12.

And come on, what’s the go with homework during the SUMMER HOLIDAYS???? Don’t we deserve a break???? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!!!!

BUT….

This post isn’t actually about MY homework.

Could have fooled you? Yeah, sorry about the brief trip down memory lane there.

Homework from a PARENTS perspective SUCKS!!!!

It really DOES so much MORE than homework from a students perspective.

HONEST!!!!!

In fact, I have this BRILLIANT idea for solving unwanted teen pregnancies.

Forget the whole “baby’s are hard work” line.

Send them home a kid with HOMEWORK for a week and see if that doesn’t put them off for life!!!

***big sigh***

Yeah, I know. Kids should be responsible for their own homework.

But does it really happen that way?

Ever?

Homework SUCKS!!!

***end of rant***