Just wanted to update everyone about the homework situation. I guess the parents complained and the teacher now doesn't give the busy work homework and for the last week it has been better. It now only takes him 15 minutes to do his homework. The school he is in has never had a g&t program before and I guess they are still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. They really are listening to the parents and adjusting things accordingly so we are very lucky. Apparently one of the problems is that they just don't have the resources so parents are now donating books and money for games, blocks, etc. On Tuesday ds came home with a Henry and Mudge book which is near his reading level rather than really easy books. He told me he had to go to another classroom to get it though. I asked the teacher about it and she said that they didn't have books that went up that high so now they have to order them. As for the Kumon we did about 3 pages this week and that seems to be good and we were also able reading a few books extra that are at his level. This seems enough for him. Since this is the first time doing work books with him it was interesting to learn that he probably will not need to do the whole workbook to have the concepts down. I introduced him to how adding and subtraction works and showed him how people write number sentences rather than using just pictures and he seemed to catch on write away. The Kumon book is all word problems since it is what he is good at. I tried teaching him 5+1 orally a few months ago and he didn't seem to understand it that way but using the word problems that seems to click much better.
Well the start of school has proven to be quite interesting.
Apparently DS is the highest in reading level in his class but yet he only got 2 of 4 spelling words right today on their "quiz". He couldn't write the letters fast enough he said and then the teacher moved onto the next word. The teacher had written "quiz" in quotes on the note sent home so we thought it would be informal but it was quite formal with it marked and everything. I still haven't decided how I feel about grading in kindergarten. I think I am against it. We will see. Must go eat I I think I am delirious.
