Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Angry And Irritable 5 year old DS - Help!

Tonight's homework was decorating a gingerbread man and writing a story. 30 minutes?
Last night was common core math packet. Decomposing the number ten by writing 11 math sentences. Our ds has never done addition, somo had to try and explain the addition sign, equals sign etc. Then we had to move beads on a bracelets and write a math equation for each bead. Our ds doesn't have the best handwriting and is just learning to write some numbers correctly. So, that took a little longer. The homework isn't every night, but they are bumping it up. Plus we have to read with them a lot and practice spelling words and counting too.

It's a little crazy

I agree ConnectingDots and I still get kind of mad about the amount of homework in 3rd grade. Luckily, for us there isn't much busy work but more project based homework (3 weeks to put together a project on a country, a greek myth, and explorer etc). But still the occasional math and spelling homework can take 20-30 minutes. Which is a lot for a kid that needs an early bedtime.

I actually think my DD had more homework (and it was definitely busy work kind) in kinder and first than she's had in second and third.

My DD had a lot more homework in 2nd and 3rd grade than she has now in 4th, and it was much more poorly managed in terms of how much time she had to complete it.

Your little guy has a long school day. Ours get on the bus at 7:30 for an 8:00 start and get out at 2:30 most days, and just after noon on Wednesdays. They usually stay at Boys and Girls Club until I can pick them up around 5:30 or 6:00, so they are gone for longer, but that sounds like a difficult school day for you to manage.

Wait? What? Are you serious? It never would have occurred to me in a million years that there were schools like this. What's going on here?

My ds6 has always needed a lot of sleep too. At 5 it would have still been common for him to be in bed at 6.30 and asleep shortly afterwards. He also could do long afternoon sleeps then go back to bed at 6.30 up to the age of 3 or 4. But if your son is needing help to get to sleep now it is different. Maybe you could negotiate the homework issue and just work on keeping him awake until 5.30 then putting him to bed for the night. It is a shame he will not see his dad but it is not forever.

I'd explain the situation to the teacher and refuse some of the homework. Are all of other kids doing all of this stuff? Is it a big deal if it isn't done? I ask because last year DS had lots of homework in grade 1 and I ended up being the volunteer that marked ALL of it. About 1/3 of the class did all of it, 1/3 did some and another 1/3 of the class didn't do any of it. I mentioned it to the teacher the first week and she said "oh it doesn't matter, I can't base any grade on any homework anyway". Gee, thanks for wasting my time.

I've never heard of a kid being graded on homework in kindergarten... I'd vote set a timer for 15 minutes and when the timer's up, homework time is over!

DS5.3 sounds a lot like your son. The only difference is the sleep. While DS needs sleep, he really cannot go to sleep on his own. Absolutely no naps because then he'd be up all night and even without naps and while being really tired, he needs Melatonin and Hydroxyzine and still can take anywhere between 1-5hrs to fall asleep at night. He needs some 12hrs of sleep to be himself but hardly ever gets it.
I know that a lot of the tiredness we see in DS is caused by Melatonin. It helps him fall asleep but it does NOT help him get enough good sleep and just makes him drowsy during the day. So we've been slowly cutting back on the dosage at the expense of him going to bed later and later.

We've also experimented a lot with Omega3 and it makes a huge difference for us. But the gummy ones are just too low dosage to make any difference in our boys. They both get this one in their almond milk (it's also great to hide in yogurt) http://www.amazon.com/Barleans-Organic-Oils-Ultra-Potency/dp/B007R9TSSW/ref=pd_sim_hpc_1 ... it's makes our usually low verbal DS3.5 turn into a chatter box (when he's comfortable) and it gets DS5.3 be a very easy kid to manage, we have a lot less sensory problems, concentration problems. I ran out 2 days ago and waiting for new Amazon shipment and DS5.3 turned into a little maniac. Can't concentrate for 5 seconds, is angry, extremely sensitive, doesn't want to do anything at all. I can't wait for the UPS guy to get here so I can give him what his little body clearly needs! When we tried the gummy omegas it made no difference. The dosage was very low.

Wow - I may have to get that supplement!!

DS had a half day due to snow. He's happy and calm and been having a great day. The school day is just too long.

Our school has decided that they are going to be "the best" and they have bumped up all the common core stuff. Last year they had to know a set of sight words by recognizing them by Christmas. This year they have a spelling test. DS is doing fabulous with his reading, but the spelling is slightly harder, and with poor handwriting it is harder yet. The school does almost no hands on are developmentally appropriate education. It's all paper, cutting, pasting and writing. Not hardly and crafts or fun learning. No wonder ds is miserable.

The school wants to challenge the students, but they aren't doing it in age appropriate ways. Ds could be a whiz at math if they would use hands on manipulatives. If we had a montessori he would have been out of this school and probably constructing a bridge or something innovative and learning at the same time. Teach smarter, not harder

The whole Common Core nonsense in Kindergarten is one of the reasons why we pulled DS5.3 out after the first trimester. Now we're doing a lot of play and fun and little bit of actual guided school work. I just let him lead.