As prompted by Hissychick‘s recent comment, Caitlin’s preschooling does include homework.
- Lots of colouring
- Math: Colouring the corresponding number of objects and repeated writing of numbers 1-8 at this point. It’s amazing that while Caitlin handled writing number 8 quite well, her number 2 is still problematic.
- English: Colouring the corresponding object which first letter is the repeated writing one.
- Mandarin: Colouring the corresponding object to which the Chinese calligraphy refers and repeated writing of that word; earlier in the year practise just the strokes that make up a calligraphy word. We are up to writing number 4 now; she already knows how to say 1 – 10
Of course with all these new “words”, she also needs to remember how to read / say / pronounce it.
On top of that, she does still come home with the sporadic artworks, usually done in school.
She also has books with 3-4 sentences per page, aimed at letting the kids recognise the words…..
These days, from the back child seat, she does already exclaim whatever she can read off the billboards she spots.
“Daddee! That’s a ‘six’ and a ‘zero’!”
No, not the speed limit; only an ad for a prepaid plan!
6 responses so far ↓
1 Moomykin // Jul 26, 2008 at 1:10 AM
Wow, she’s so good to sit through all that… or should I say poor girl…
I think Micah will absolutely hate school if he’s in the same place as Caitlin.
He can’t stand coloring as to him it’s “too hard” and “it takes too long” to finish the job.
Moomykins last blog post..Man-kid
2 Daddee // Jul 27, 2008 at 2:56 AM
I say poor girl too. She does start off quite ok, but her attention wanes very quickly.
It’s not surprising I guess. Humans of that age are always looking for new stuff to fidget about.
What I do is crack my head trying to keep her interested in whatever book is opened in front of her. Other than finding ways to keep the topic of the homework alive, I have to watch my body language to maintain the up-beat: high pitch, animated excitement, bring your attention back here…
I am lucky in that I am quite good with art. Sometimes I colour or draw something that amazes her a little, to inspire her to practise her colouring. She actually doesn’t mind colouring. It’s the repeated writing of letters or calligraphy that she tires of.
I don’t blame her.
3 hissychick // Jul 27, 2008 at 7:06 PM
That’s amazing! I’m sure that A would enjoy many of the letter and number activities that Caitlin does for homework….purely for fun. Although I think she would rebel against too much proper colouring in! We don’t have homework here during the preschool or early primary school years.
hissychicks last blog post..Frustrated Inc.
4 Ann // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Colouring EVERYTHING ??
I mean, isn’t that any other way to make the child learn something other than colouring it? What if the child doesn’t like colouring?
Gosh…gosh….gosh….
Anns last blog post..Durian anyone?
5 Daddee // Jul 30, 2008 at 3:21 PM
I think colouring is the school’s (or the system’s) way of making the homework more fun; that colouring is the fun side to the accompanying writing.
I can understand your angle though. Luckily Caitlin doesn’t mind the colouring itself, although she doesn’t really practise discretion in her choice of colours! Like, one of her elephants has 5-6 patches of different colours on its body!
6 A movie, a show, a dip | Daddee Yah! // Aug 5, 2008 at 12:55 AM
[...] we stayed in during the day, much to her dismay; and got her to complete as much of her homework as possible, much to her even more dismay. Daddee however, didn’t stay home that much [...]
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