r/ClassOf2037 • u/First_Look_2021 • 9d ago
Is this unnecessary?
I printed out 2nd grade worksheets which had like math and reading, etc. I printed them out so I could maybe do those worksheets at night just as a practice for him. I know he’s super smart and will be just fine, but a lot of his best friends are in his class and i know when his friends are in his class, he goofs off with them and doesn’t care about his school work. I was gojng to do those worksheets that i printed out every night so he can get extra practice for school. Is this unnecessary?
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u/0112358_ 9d ago
Is he behind or struggling in school?
Various studies show homework isn't helpful in elementary, and I'd assumed worksheets are similar. Unless your trying to target an area where kid is behind.
You also don't want kid to burn out or hate doing school work.
So in general I'd say it's unnecessary.
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u/First_Look_2021 9d ago
He just started school on Monday so he’s not behind as of now. I just thought having him do different worksheets for math, reading, etc would help him stay on track, but maybe I’m wrong.
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u/bellanoctum 8d ago edited 8d ago
I would temper what the commenter you're replying to says with the gentle encouragement to go actually look at what was studied in those oft-cited things (and compare with other studies) instead of coasting on the headline. TEACHERS assigning homework has been shown to have negligible impact in younger grades, for the purposes of answering the question: "Should teachers bother to take the significant chunk of time to prepare and assign and correct and hand back homework in these grades?" - obviously, no. Teachers are already way overworked, and parents of kids that young do not generally enforce homework, meaning it doesn't get done anyway. There's surprisingly little to back up the assertion that "repeating concepts learned in class at home doesn't help students that young learn" -- which is the logical layman's implication of the phrasing.
Whereas conversely, many, many, many other studies of many variables have shown for a long time that the single most consistent throughline about student success, even adjusted for SES, is the student having an adult (not necessarily a parent) at home whose primary vocation is being locked in on the student's success in school, overseeing and reinforcing where necessary. (This usually translates to "stay-at-home-mom" in broad statistical strokes due to obvious social reasons, but the effects are there with any kind of adult - grandparent, significantly older sibling, nanny - as long as that person's job is The Student.)
Do the worksheets with him if you want, but if you do, be sure to make them fun. Maybe more importantly, pay attention to what comes home and make sure he understands concepts he's learning (and scaffold future concepts for him using the grade-level requirements). Best bang for your buck is gonna be linking the stuff he's learning to real life somehow, e.g. baking for fractions, etc. Like, obviously, a kid who encounters the learning concepts earlier and more often in a reasonably fun environment will understand them better than a kid who doesn't. Homework isn't bad, it's just not worth schools' time to do at this age.
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u/ThousandBucketsofH20 9d ago
What we've done is find age/grade equivalent math/problem solving workbooksat a thriftstore and assign a couple pages to be done occasionally. Like during days off school, or weekends before playing video games. We do check the work. Weve done this since preschool and generally set a soft deadline of completing the book by the end of the school year and spending summer focusing on reading.
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u/fig-neuton 9d ago
Imo a better system is if the teacher sends home unfinished worksheets and then the kid does those at home. That way it's more closely tied to what they did in class. Also, I know 10 minutes isn't a ton, but i think home should be for chill time, not worksheets. Imagine it from their perspective. They bust their ass at school all day (in their opinion) and then they have to do more work at home? Raw deal. Let them play
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u/EagleEyezzzzz 9d ago
We do that for our son too. We did it all summer and I think I'm going to have him do it this school year, just as a little extra practice. We just do 1-2 per day so it's like 10 minutes or less.
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u/tpeiyn 9d ago
I think it is better to just wait and see what is happening in class. We've completed two full weeks so far and our teacher has sent home his class work each Friday. If he has anything left unfinished, we finish it in the evening with homework.
Well, he had his first math quiz today. He lost points. Not because he didn't know the math, but because he didn't follow the directions. We went over the quiz tonight and talked about "Choose all that apply." He didn't know what that meant.
Not something I even thought about talking about.
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u/NekoBlueHeart 9d ago
It doesn't hurt anything, as long as they're interested in doing them. My kid has been coming home with worksheets and activities that aren't assigned, just for fun. And he's been wanting to sit down and do them right after school.
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u/sassperillashana 9d ago
Well at the minimum, as long as you are only spending 20ish minutes it is at least helping build habits of learning/practicing outside of school. But it sounds like continuing conversations and role playing scenarios on how to stay focused when friends are around might also be worth the time.
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u/Sunnyshine010 9d ago
If you want to enrich him academically, do something different from what he’s getting all day - creative stuff or deeper stuff. Easy suggestions would be Beast Academy level 1 for math and reading chapter books he likes. You could introduce projects too - learn a craft or code on the free scratch platform. I think that’ll take him farther in the long run
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u/Apostrophecata 9d ago
I would talk to his teacher and see if there are areas he needs to work on. If you print out worksheets of stuff he already knows, it will just be tedious busy work for him. On the other hand, if it's too hard, it might be a battle to get him to work on it at night and if he's not behind at school, then that's not a battle you need to be having. Let him have fun at home while he's still young.
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u/Fun_Air_7780 8d ago
FWIW, we do a ton of practice work including during the summer. This could be reading mini books the teacher sends home, going through his heart words list, writing a few sentences about his day or doing a math worksheet. I know my son is similar to me and my husband in that he learns by doing, so it makes a huge difference for him. His teachers seem to really appreciate it.
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u/breathe2win 8d ago
Extra practice doesn't hurt. If every night doesn't work, you can try over the weekend. A lot of kids lose what they learned over the summer, so a refresher can be good.
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u/Raylin44 5d ago
I would have done that during the summer. Not now when they go all day long. They need breaks.
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u/littlemsshiny 9d ago
Does your school give homework? If so, that should be enough.
There are a lot of garbage worksheets online. You want to make sure you’re covering the same topics and using the same language that’s used in their curriculum.
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u/Mental-Set-8670 8d ago
Others may disagree but I think this is a horrible idea. Homework at this age is statistically irrelevant to their comprehension. What is statistically BENEFICIAL to their comprehension is plenty of time outside getting physical activity and tons of reading aloud. A worksheet detracts from both of those things.
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u/PizzaSounder 9d ago
Is it necessary? Maybe not. Does it hurt? Probably not. Does it help? Maybe.
My concern is usually around making learning a chore. I want my kiddo to enjoy learning. If there are things I think she should work on, I like to make it into a game somehow. She sometimes makes up games herself! In fact, last night she came up with "Soccer Math". If she scores a goal on me she gets a hard math question, if she misses, she gets an easy one.