After seeing DD8's math homework this week, I emailed her teacher asking what ideas she had to keep DD excited about math this year. I said that DD was already beginning to get the attitude of "math is too easy, it's boring, so I'd rather whine about it for an hour than spend the 2 minutes it takes to do my homework" that she had last year that made our afternoons miserable and I hoped we could work together to stop it before it started. I asked what options the curriculum had for differentiation and/or enrichment and said I'd be interested to see what was available. That was Tuesday evening, and I haven't received a response yet.
I also decided to take matters into my own hands a little and spice up DD's homework each evening. Last night's homework was identifying place values to the thousands so I added a few decimal points and changed things to thousandths, hundredths, and tenths. DD enjoyed it and was proud of what she did until she turned it in today.
Turns out, to further reinforce the concepts reviewed in homework (or to save herself work), the teacher has students correct each others' papers in class. DD had to correct her own paper because I had made it too hard for the other kids. Personally, I don't have a problem with this, because "correcting" her already correct homework herself saves her from even more review. But she felt left out, and had the impression that her teacher disapproved of what we'd done.
So what do I do next? I wasn't going to pepper her teacher with emails, since it is only the 2nd week of school and I know she's still assessing where students are. I don't want to put her on the defensive, but is it unreasonable to expect a response to my first email within a couple of days? Have I already alienated her by tinkering with the sacred homework?
