It Helps If It’s Fun…
So yesterday The Girl got out of bed complaining with a sore throat. It’s been an all around rough week for her – she’s just been much more tired and cranky than usual. Being the Mother of the Year I am, I told that sweet baby to climb back in bed so I could shower her with a day of pettin‘.
In between bouts of studying for my retreat this weekend, I cooked breakfast and took it to The Girl on a bed tray. I kept her dvd’s switched out and generally made sure she had a restful day. I’ve missed that stinker since she has left me for Kindergarten. It was fabulous having her back if only for a few hours.
Newsflash: Kindergarten isn’t what it used to be.
Teacher sent home the work Sis missed in class for one day. There were 8 front and back pages. EIGHT!? And before anyone mistakenly thinks I’m slamming the greatest Kinder teacher ever, I totally know it’s the system that has changed, not the darlin‘ women who have committed their lives to rooms full of 5 and 6 year olds. May the Lord bless and keep everyone of them, may His face shine upon them, and Lord have mercy may He grant them peace.
Seriously, though. What happened to those little padded nap mats? Finger paint? Being able to graduate knowing nothing more than your ABC’s? Something has gone awry, girls. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want my kids to be ignorant but I’m not convinced overwhelming them as babies is producing the desired effect.
Case in point: I knew Sis had enough when she started banging her head on the table crying, “I can’t take all the coloring. I just can’t take all the coloring!” It just so happened I was finishing up my listener guides for the retreat this weekend and had somehow messed up the formatting so that my cute little border was cut off at the bottom so I joined her in the self-mutilation. I finally decided I could live with less than perfection. (Not to mention my head hurt.) I also decided that, no thank you very much, I’m not making this child do all those sheets in one night. So she closed her folder, I closed MS Word and we were both the happier for it.
I guess it was just a little funny that after all the homework distress she went to her room and colored a giant picture of Tinkerbell. When I asked her why in the world she was coloring when she couldn’t take one more second of the homework, she said, “I only color what is fun.”
That’s my girl.
that is one reason we homeschool in Kinder and 1st grade respectively last year my boys had tons of homework every night…
at home they have done 2 grades this year but they only work about 2 hours a day…
We do put way to much pressure on little people.
Hilarious!
There are people who say our educational system is slacking, and then there are those who feel its forward momentum is ridiculous. I have felt both ways in my years of getting the kids through. I do think kindergarten is a bit advanced now.
I cried more during kindergarten that my oldest did. It is insane. Must be on this reading level, must do this math, etc., etc. Has made me even think of home-schooling & I teach in the public system. He would cry – why can't I be on level whatever like so & so.It is definitely not his mama's kindergarten. SO test score driven. Okay got to stop before I get on a soapbox.
Hope the girl is recovered & glad you had the time together!
Amen to that!
My girls are 19 and 22, and I was thinking the same things when THEY were in kindergarten! Seriously, don’t they have their WHOLE STINKIN’ LIVES to be stressed?? I say bring on the juice, animal crackers and a rousing game of Red Rover!
it’s funny where i live. The kids seem overwhelmed and are reading REAL books in kindergartern and first grade. Seems like too much, too soon. i am always amazed at the homework my middle child has. He’s seven.
Then there’s my Man-Child in high school, and i can’t remember him ever having a huge research project or nearly the amount of homework i had in high school.
it’s like they’re getting it all out of the way early and then letting them cruise. Crazy, i tell you…
Girl, you're a hoot! I just found your blog this week and I'm hooked. :)
I'm totally with you on the Kindergarten thing. We're homeschooling right now & it's a good thing for my kindergartener because he can't sit still long enough to finish a juice box. The colossal coloring assignments would probably push him over the edge. ;)
In Texas, school is geared solely for the TAKS test. Teachers are forced to live and breathe TAKS. My daughter is a first year teacher in 5th grade (a TAKS grade) and is so frustrated by her inability to truly teach. They can’t just teach well-rounded information – they have to teach what is on the TAKS…. LITERALLY… they use past TAKS tests as their lesson plans.
And, I’m sorry – kids that graduate and cannot read, write, punctuate, do math without a calculator, have no idea about science and have a skewed sense of a politically correct history – I’m just not thinking that we’re producing a smarter America. I truly believe the ‘dumbing down of America’ theory is what we’re facing in public schools.
Sorry… didn’t realize I had carried my soapbox over to your blog… LOL!
I like her philosophy. I think I’ll apply it to housecleaning.
And ditto what Barb said.
The educational system has succeeded in taking my boy who loved to learn and made him hate school. Specifically, he used to love math, and now he hates it.
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Awww poor baby! I agree. Who wants to do something that’s NOT fun? Nobody, that’s who!
Hope she feels better soon.
Big prayers to you for this weekend! Go work it sister!
Ummmm make those prayers FOR you not to you. Oops!
Sorry.
At open house for Kindergarten this year we were handed a book and told that our child had to be reading at that level by year-end or they wouldn’t be promoted.
The only thing my son knew going into Kinder was his ABCs. A lot of the kids could already read when school started!
Thank You! You said a mouthful! I have a 2nd grader & a 5th grader and look at what they are doing in school sometimes and think, "We were doing this in Jr. High!" Honestly, I'm not sure when they are supposed to be kids anymore. They sit in school all day then have to come home and sit and do an hour to an hour & 1/2 worth of homework then it's almost bedtime. They are always asking me "Why can't we just go play?"
Ginger
I’m sorry she won’t have Mrs Mann in the 4th grade where she can learn to color dark and waxy like my girls did. lol The girl is right coloring is supposed to be FUN!!!
Coloring is very demanding, I completely understand her frustration!
Over Christmas break I had my five year old niece over and I was asking how preschool was going and asked if she was glad it was Christmas break. Her response was “Oh yes, I am so tired of doing art!”
I’m not going to tell her what awaits for her next year in kindergarten!!
OK, you’ve given me hope by giving up gummy worms, but your not giving me much hope for me and my kids’ next two years of kindergarten! Just kidding, even when you are down on something you put it in such a way that it seems like a ray of sunshine! Can you give me lesson on that??? Love ya sista!
As an elementary teacher…don’t even get me started! Not many things make me raise my tail in defense but over-testing, over-analzyzing, over-homeworking is one of them. Really, I’m not going to get started.
oh that’s so sad and sweet. kindergarten IS hard. i remember the mats and lots of playing in a pretend kitchen.
I love it! “I only color what is fun.” Life should be a little more like that! :)
I pulled my son out of public school just before Christmas to homeschool. We do lessons, have play time, together time, he LOVES being home w/ me…..even though when asked what he learned he says nothing. LOL