Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Kindergarten homework

Jacob and I have had a rough two days, mostly clashing over homework. He uses any excuse to put it off and I end up feeling like a bully for ordering him to do it after his snack. Today I decided I would try extra hard to make it a more pleasant day than yesterday, so even before we left the school I said I thought a cold rainy day called for hot cocoa. He agreed and ended up dumping semi-sweet minimorsels into it. Then he had a Twinkie (long story why I bought them and won't again) and went off to visit the dogs, who were in their beds because of the rain. I distinctly told him not to let the puppy out of her crate. Next  thing I knew Sophie came bounding into my office. His explanation? He wanted to try his sunglasses on her. That did NOT get us off to a good start.
But we turned to the homework.  Jacob's approach is to guess. One problem had five chickens. If you take two away how many are left? He looked at me brightly and suggested "Five?" Now this is not a slow child--he figures things out way beyond his years when he wants to. He just plain doesn't want to do his homework. We struggled through that math work, counting on fingers and counting animals on the page. Once he gets the hang of it, he whips through it in no time and generally is pretty proud of himself. That didn't happen today--I almost felt he was playing with me, and my string grew shorter and shorter.
Next we moved on to the new batch of reading words he'd brought home. The guessing was much worse. He'd look at "this" and I'd sound out "th" and "iss" and he'd say happily, "Green!" Then he wanted to love the dog; next he was distracted by the pictures on my computer screen. I got read of all distractions. We finally muddled through, and as he finally got each word I made him study it. Told his mom they should go over the words with him again tonight. Bet he doesn't remember them.
We parted friends. I got three kisses, a huge hug, and an agreement that tomorrow will be better. But Mom was quite strict about listening to Juju's dog instructions or losing his dog privileges.
I hate the way this whole business makes me feel, like it's ruining all the fun we usually have together. And I hate it when he says, "You're so mean. All  you care about is homework." I tell him "No, all I care about is you."
I honestly don't think my kids had homework in kindergarten, and I'm too old for this!
Rant over.

3 comments:

Taryn Raye said...

Bless your heart! I remember those days with my two kids as we fought our way through doing "kindergarten" homework. I don't remember ever having homework when I was in kindergarten. My kids are sharp as tacks, but they both just loved to push my buttons about getting homework done. Even now they do it from time to time and I'm dealing with a 13 y/o and a 9 y/o.

I think when they get home from school, they're just so thrilled to not be cooped up there anymore that any excuse is a good excuse to say phooey on anything school related.

Hope tomorrow is MUCH better, for the both of you!

judyalter said...

Thanks, Taryn. I think you're right about pushing my buttons. Maybe I shouldn't try to do his homework, but I figure his parents are frazzled after work, cooking dinner, etc., so I can help. Maybe I'll rethink that. He may need a break aftr school. PLaying with the dogs may be just the answer.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday my son brought home an A+, A, A, B+ and a C+. I was very frustrated with the "C" that here received, then I thought I should have focused on his As.

In addition a Nintendo Mario brother’s game will not be given to him. I feel “mean” but at the same time, a deal is a deal and not following through would open up a Pandora’s Box not only with him, but my other kids.

Geez, no one told me parenthood would be this hard.

So, yes, I do feel "mean" a lot of the time, but what choice do I (we) have?