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as far as more in-depth work, etc. he does not want MORE work, he wants less work at home since he says he learned it in class already. i agree, HW is a drag! and I don't think he needs it. I think my DD needs it to reinforce what she is doing in school but he doesn't. So, what can you do? Anyone ever have a psych. write a HW exemption? it really does cause stress and anxiety! lol
Oh, I totally agree. Homework should not be done just for homework's sake. All of our homework is to extend the school day -- not to reinforce. For example, they move through their AoPS more quickly by assigning some work to do on that at home... and the quicker pace is better for him, so that's fine.
I think from your details it sounds like he simply didn't need all of the time given to do what was required and would rather pursue other stuff. I think that is fine, too. That happens sometimes and that is part of learning to make decisions about where to focus time. Also, sounds like the work is way too easy for him. So...if you want him to work more to his full potential, looks like you might have to have the teacher increase expectations in addition to finding a topic of interest.
I was talking more about research projects (research followed by MLA style reports) and the open-ended nature of those allows for whatever complexity a child is ready for. Also, we are very, very fortunate to have a teacher who gives the students a ton of choice -- they probably had 50 different possible projects to choose from for this block -- with the capper being - If you don't like any of these you can suggest your own. My son would not want to do a diorama either.
As for the "why" question. I got that all the time when he wasn't challenged enough. But we're grade accelerated one year and subject accelerated 3 or 4 more years on top and those questions have mostly stopped. It did come up a lot at the beginning of the year with Spanish, because he couldn't figure out a good reason for knowing Spanish.. but that was something we were able to give him with real reasons for why it would be good and he's now doing well enough at least to meet requirements for an A. Not necessarily doing his best, but good enough. He's not working hard at it, but that's okay, because he's working his butt off in other areas.
Good luck!
