Post by eaccae on Jan 10, 2005 0:19:07 GMT -5
You know - this is one of the things we are going through with DS - 9 as well. His teacher (who I love) is having a really hard time because DS doesn't get his homework done as much as he should. They have a thing where each month the kids start out with $15 dollars of play money. Everytime their homework is incomplete they lose $2 per assignment (they usually have an average of 3-4 assignments per night so they can lose between $2-$8 a day). If they fall below $5 they cannot attend the "party" at the end of the month. The party usually consists of a movie, popcorn - and they can "purchase" various things with the money they have (pencils, stickers, etc.). They also must attend "homework camp" during recess the day the homework is not done and complete it. I have no problem with that at all. The problem is that there is soooo much homework - and most of it is writing. For my dysgraphic son it is like torture. He *usually* flies through math (except for tonight - they had about 12 problems that they had to figure out that were like: I am a square number, I am an even number, the sum of my digits equals 10 . . . what am I? I am an even number, I have 12 factors, I am a multiple of both 5 and 10, what am I? - THIS took him a long time and definitely needed my "coaching") - but the writing - we always have 3 chapters to read and then a prediction chart - 3-4 predictions written down that you think are going to happen, then looking at what you had predicted previously and writing down for each one whether you were correct or not and proving it; then a few paragraphs in the travel journal about the assigned city you are "visiting" for the country they are studying, and other writing assignments, social studies assignments (latitude longitude degrees homework), science worksheets . . . there is sooooo much! And most of it involves a lot of writing - which means it is going to take FOREVER for DS. He MUST do his homework at the kitchen table, though, so that I can monitor it and redirect him when he starts to tune out. Homework is definitely a lesson in patience for parents. We have recently started a ritalin booster in the afternoons to help with the homework - it has defnintely made a difference. And we are trying a new reward system in which - every week that he completes all of his homework he gets what is agreed upon but if he misses even one assignment - he gets nothing. We have only started this since the break and have had one snow day and one sick day - so I don't know how well it is going to work yet. But I had to explain to the teacher that it is a scene at home regarding homework. And I do my best but after a certain point - he has to take responsibility for it himself. I can't do it for him and I can't spend all night fighting him. I have another child and other battles to fight! And sometimes he can fly through his homework all by himself . . . and other times I am helping him for hours! But I agree with the others that standing out in a hall by a wall is ridiculous. That is humiliating. And I am a firm believer that humiliating a child is not going to do ANYTHING for them except make them feel bad!!! I don't mind as much what they do with the whole money thing at school because it teaches, in my opinion, real consequences and areal rewards. I don't know what standing in the hall teaches at all!!
