To color or not to color.
That is the question.
Every Friday, Sydney gets a half dozen worksheets sent home from kindergarten. The worksheets are her homework. There are letters to identify and write, words to try and read, plus math exercises to tackle.
We have until Wednesday to turn in the finished homework, but Sydney and I choose to knock ’em out in an hour after school each Friday.
Except last Friday she found the instructions to color every one of her six worksheets a bit, well, stupid. I have to agree. I know she’s in the prime of her life for mastering her fine motor skills, but honestly, color EVERY worksheet?
So Sydney refused to color the sixth and final worksheet last week. We did complete the literacy exercises on it, she just chose not to color the pictures.
I wrote “Sydney doesn’t want to color this page” on the worksheet.
Look how it came back:
Ha!
Sydney needs to follow directions?
How about we reward Sydney for thinking for herself and realizing that coloring five out of six pages is sufficient enough to develop her fine motor skills? How about we recognize Sydney’s hard work on completing the exercises on the worksheets rather than coloring them? How about we remember this is Kindergarten?
I know, I know. I’m a bit insane over a silly coloring page.
Is this why people home school?!
Yep, this is EXACTLY why we homeschool 🙂 Good for you , Mom, for managing your daughter’s needs and recognizing the sheer stupidity of blindly following instructions that have no logical point or purpose (well, other than training a child to blindly follow instructions).
Thanks, Lila.
Katy recently posted…Rage Against the Kindergarten Machine
There is only more of this type of ridiculousness to come. Save yourself and your daughter, get out now.
Thanks, Lesa.
Next time you color it… I mean it’s just a suggestion…um, maybe I did that before…last month…FOR MY 15 YEAR OLD!!!!! Gads, it was a map that he had to label…ok, maybe the teacher told him the coloring was poor. This is all very hypothetical and nearly imaginary!
I thank you for your hypothetical suggestion! 🙂
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Rage Against the Kindergarten Machine
Ha! is right! I think your child needs to be congratulated for breaking societal rules which dictate that busy work is considered good work. I disagree. Busy work just means that the teacher had nothing better to give as homework. I like Sydney, and I’m restraining myself from writing a very mean spirited comment about the teacher’s comment….Sydney needs to follow directions…pffftt…
Sandra recently posted…When sadness sets in…
Thanks, Sandra. 🙂
Oh my gosh! How silly. This might be a reason people home school. You know your kid better and can determine that 5 pages is enough. I do understand the teacher’s perspective though. She’s trying to teach discipline and yes, following directions, which is important for kids to learn. However, I think 2 pages would have been enough and Syndey prob. would have been fine with that. 5 pages is just overkill!
Of course, it probably didn’t help that I sit down with Sydney and we do it all at once to get it over with. But I find that so much easier than trying to remember to pull out and do 1 sheet a day. I’m there, we’re in the zone, we got all 6 sheets at once, so let’s do it.
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Rage Against the Kindergarten Machine
Seriously??? Who the eff is this teacher, and is Sydney getting a PHd from kindergarten??? Gimme a break, I would be up in that teacher’s grill so fast… but my husband would stop me of course, I have been known to be a little irrational at times. But really I think this response for a parent to see and a child to recieve is uncalled for, and poorly written.
Not Winning Mom of the Year recently posted…Bed Rest
Hence my fur got ruffled and my post got published!!
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Tales from Halloween Past, Part II
That’s one of the reasons people homeschool 🙂
All my kids hated, absolutely hated coloring, can’t say I blamed them. One son took care of this problem by putting a purple crayon scribble on each page of several coloring books.
I can top that. We stopped doing kindergarten homework. He doesn’t get a letter grade, he’s graded on his skills, which are developing just fine, thank you very much.
Denise recently posted…Bubblebum: A Portable Booster Seat
So glad my son’s Kindergarten teacher doesn’t believe in homework. The most he ever has is to read his sight words and his little book. My kids’ school seems to be moving away from lots of busy-work homework; thank goodness.
Rabia @ TheLiebers recently posted…Pajama Day!
Sydney needs to follow directions! HA! Oh God Bless Her. Does she really, does she?? huh? Or should someone else be happy she did 5 out of 6 and did the literacy stuff?????
Lou Lou recently posted…A Very Swedish Christmas – part 2
Kindergarten broke my kid too. Actually, after enduring two years of kindergarten-hell, we’re ready o homeschool. You can always check the Kindergarten Chronicles section of my blog for more on this one.
Angela recently posted…Stomach Flu
Yep. I am about to graduate with my bachelors in education k-8 and I am not going into teaching. Lots of student loan debt down the drain, but I don’t care. We are homeschooling. Working for a few months in the schools observing and teaching for school was enough to do it for me. I see her point about following directions, but six coloring pages is ridiculous! Busy work, meaningless, and way too much. No one should have busy seat work in kindergarten. Too much cognitive work is being shoved down 4 and 5 year old’s throats and we have forgotten the best foundations are set through maninpulative and dramatic play. I could go on forever. It wont get any better, I promise. This Common Core crap is designed to be directly tied into making a national testing curriculum.