Fourth grade daughter in private school, ADD and LD. She has a project in social studies, a project in science, reading a book (needs to be over 150 pages)for an upcoming book report, plus all of the homework!!! She is already doing vocab definitions and sentences plus 2 - 3 weekly spelling sheets on the weekend just to keep up with the nightly homework.
How much should a 9 year old child do at one time?!! She used to love school. This year she is making comments about her dislike of school. The child goes to school all day, then goes to tutoring for an hour every weekday except Friday. Two days of tutoring is not actual tutoring but afterschool homework club to work on reports. She is beyond burnout at this time.
Her social studies report has her researching a state indepth and then listing facts about something that begins with every letter in the alphabet and drawing a picture. This is not done just one time but on a posterboard, on lettersize sheet of paper with squares for each alphabetical letter, and in a folder on looseleaf. On top of that she must list the state flower, tree, bird, flag, seal, write about 3 famous people from the state, the climate, the economy or industry, etc.
Then as if that is not enough, she is assigned an animal in science, given a book and told to come up with 50 facts on the animal and I’m sure more is to come on this.
Her book is supposed to be a book based on a culture and then the book report due date is quickly approaching as well as the date for the projects.
Any opinions out there? This child barely has time to eat dinner and get in bed on time. Her socializing and playtime doesn’t exist at this time other than gymnastics one hour per week. Your advice or opinion greatly appreciated.
thank you
Thank you for your post. Fourth grade is very well known as the worst elementary year at this school. It is almost like they are trying to weed out the kids that won’t make it. Funny (or more to the point - very SAD) because fifth grade is not as rigid. Middle school is also at this school and while the teachers are very strict, they are good teachers and the children benefit. There is not so much “busy work” but more focus on learning and beginning to deal with adolescence.
School finished up last Friday, much to the relief of myself and my daughter. Her projects were turned in and she received “ok” scores for her work. Although, for as much work as she put into these projects, I think her grade was low. I’m just glad it is over!!!!
To answer your questions: This is not an LD school but a parochial school. I am really on the fence about sending her back to this school as much as it breaks my heart. The school is already considered an accelerated curriculum. I see the school counselor as very power hungry and trying to make the school more and more academic only; forgetting that these are children and they need to be involved in other kid related activities. She more or less demanded that I get a neuro-psych. exam before we come back the next school year. (And yes, I will need to pay for it because it is private.!?! And, it doesn’t matter that she’s already had a psych. exam - also private.) I think I would change to another school, if daughter’s grades were better. She became so burned out, her grades plummeted the last two quarters. (She went from an “A” in Science to an “F”!) I would rather send her one last year to get her grades up and then transfer. (She is also failing math.) Her only high grade was a “B”. She is not a straight A/B student, more like a B student with a C in math. This year was very stressful. I feel like beginning 5th grade in the same school but if it begins to become more of what this year was like, I will pull her out and transfer her to the local public school. She would be very upset to leave her friends.
As to the teachers, one was nice and approachable for the most part. She will not be teaching next year, but instead, is going to become the resource teacher for the school. The other teacher was totally cold hearted. Complained about my child’s disorganization from the beginning of the school year until the end. I hope I never see her again.
Is her private school an LD school?
In my opinion this is too much homework for any child. I don’t know what they do in school all day but there is no educational justification for so much homework. Much of your list sounds like busy work to me.
I have seen a lot of elite private schools and public gifted and talented programs that just load on the homework and destroy any love of learning that children might have had to begin with.
I think homework should consist of reading and thoughtful (not necessarily lengthy) writing assignments. Children should learn how to research a topic but the point is to learn the methodology, not to pile on an enormous quantity of information that they need to regurgitate.
Have you talked to her teachers? Have you talked to other parents? What do they think?