Kindergarten Homework
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Since the beginning of the Kindergarten year, Zane and I have been tackling a few pages of Explode the Code after school. Thankfully, he immediately took to the book, which truly came in handy when I found myself regularly needing to focus on Harper as we worked through the math portions of her daily homework load. Rather than plopping Zane in front of the TV or having him stare at books while constantly asking me to read to him, I would assign him a few pages and let him go.
Today, he completed that book.
To the tune of, "I just LOVE that I can read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Finishing this workbook just so happens to coincide with the beginning of his "official" Kindergarten Homework: a notebook, in which an assignment is completed each day and turned in once a week.
My concern was that he would react to this "real" homework with the intense dislike that he has heard his sister communicate on occasion. Instead, he has responded with an unexpected voraciousness - wanting to work ahead and complete 2-3 assignments a day.
What is driving him?
Is he simply goal-driven?
Perhaps he's just proud to be doing "big-kid" work?
Does he dig the after-school mommy time that comes with homework? For he has certainly seen me working with Harper on many a day.
Check. Check. And, check.
He IS goal-driven and likes the satisfaction that comes from completing projects and tackling new ones.
He IS proud to be sitting beside Harper while doing homework together - and it's good for her also, for she enjoys jumping in to help him.
He DOES dig having me by his side while he attacks his work, as much as I enjoy sitting with him, completing my own "homework" on the laptop with my afternoon cuppa in hand. While I don't hover over every inch of his page, my presence is indeed requested (aw, thanks) from both my kids, for my being nearby is important to them in case they have a question. I learned quickly that a blunt, "Figure it out," is not an effective answer to one's call for help. I'm as much the teacher as the actual teachers are.
Scary.
The dining room table has thus become the ground zero of homework. Worksheets, folders, pencils, workbooks, flashcards, rulers, stapler, crayons, etc. take over this space up until dinner time. And while Harper either works here or alone at the desk in our duel-office, Zane spreads out on this table, in close range of me preparing dinner or working beside him.
And while I thought he'd be relieved that Explode the Code was now a tool of the past, I was elated to hear,
"Mommy, when can I get the next book?"
Way ahead of you, Mr. Man.
Class in session!
Joline Pinto Atkins is a former actress who now uses the web as her world-wide stage and can also be founding writing at The Cuppa Jo, and Fit With Jo. Joline is wife to one (phew - that's good to know) and mother of two amazing children, aged 10 and 6, who are both named after authors. Addicted to fitness, she sweats out any daily angst by running (not with sharp objects) and P90X'ing, and longs for good books, vats of coffee, and an endless supply of buffalo wings - which she will not share with you. So, please, do not ask.