[quote=JaneSmith]If my kids' Montessori teacher made them do this much writing (esp. at the age of just six) they would very quickly begin to hesitate to choose work and when nudged would choose on the basis of what work would have the least associated writing.
This is EXACTLY what ds does! He had about 15 different practice lessons to choose from to reinforce his spelling words at home last week. He went through the list very carefully and chose the one that he thought would require the least amount of writing. When he has to generate his own writing/thoughts, even if it's just filling in a blank or coming up with a list of words in a particular category, he chooses short words. For example, if he thought of the word, "airplane," he might try to see if he could make the word, "jet," fit so that he could write a shorter word. I have many examples of this kind of thing. I, too, see no problem with him facing some adversity or struggling through a challenging task, but when it causes him to hate school, cry about having to go morning, and cry every afternoon when I pick him up, are we doing more harm than good? 6 year olds are supposed to enjoy school and look forward to it. The teacher is wonderful, and I feel certain she'll do whatever she can to ease his stress. I just wonder how flexible the school will be in the long run if this turns out to be more of a problem than just a kid who needs more practice with writing. I guess the bottom line is that I need to really sit down and discuss this more with the teacher. We are so new to the school, and I'm already very vocal about his needs. I don't want to interfere so much that I'm not letting the teacher do her job. I also don't want to be my son's enabler in his pursuit of underachievement!
