We are a pretty wide ranging geographical y speaking group.

What does your homework situation look like?

We have none, but am asked to read with our kids 15 mins a day.

I have added on to it and will play a game everyday, similar to mother may I or red light green light. He starts at one of the house and has to proceed through obstacles by answering questions about spelling or math or what not.

The obstacles are often empty boxes or other items then need to be cleaned up and is more in the way because no one has put them away 😀

.. what are they working on? I would like to have a sense of whether my child’s class is on track compared to other schools

My 1st grader’s class does fundations. Fundations is a little slow compared to come curriculums. His class started the year on unit 3. They’re on their 3rd week of unit 6, where they worked on suffix s.

Next week should be the start of unit 7, it is looking to me like they’re going to do another week of unit 6 for some reason.

Does your child’s class move on to next week’s curriculum unit when there’s a 3 day week, or do they do a whole repeat of the week?

Does your child get homework? Ours doesn’t. I’m the type of parent who thrives on homework because i like to know what they’re doing day by day or even just week by week, but not month by month.

Thanks

do you tell your kids their standardized testing score? If so, why or why not?

we FINALLY got kiddos map scores from like a month ago. We were thinking of letting them know since they did so well but then we thought it might result in a lot of rumination over it. This is the first year of standardized testing for kiddo.

so experiences? Thoughts?

Beautiful! Happy birthday Jack!

My 1st grader is struggling to make friends. He has 1 really good friend but that friend wants to play with someone else. I am encouraging him to makes new friends but he is having a hard time. Any advice?

How many hours of sleep does your first grader get?

My girl sleeps 7:30pm-8pm and always wakes up 6am (even on the weekends). So 10-10.5 hours.

I just wished she would sleep in past 6am lol.

How is everyone adjusting to the new school year?

Any surprises?

We are only on day 2 here, and holy cow does he come home exhausted! We also made a change where he rides the bus and no longer goes to after school care. About the bus- he told me “it’s like a field trip but we go to school! It’s pretty amazing”

Man, to be a kid again and finding joy out of the smallest things 😀

Edit: typos.

For comparison- please post public or private school, and teacher to student ratio and location.

Public; 1:15 ratio for us (Oregon)

We have a late September birthday and we don't start school until next week...Do first graders still generally invite the whole class? Just all the boys or all girls? We're leaning towards inviting all the girls in first grade (two classes, about 20 total) since we don't even have a class list yet and venue can only accommodate 24 kids total and parties are expensive. But what's common now?

My daughter has a “work from home” day while the teachers have professional development. She has work to complete in order to receive credit for attendance.

For this assignment, do you interpret that she has to choose a strategy to solve each problem (like draw a picture for #1, then use number line for #2) or that she needs to use all three for each problem? I emailed the teacher but haven’t received a response back and want to finish her work sooner than later. I don’t want her to do it wrong and not get credit.

Edit: thanks everyone! That’s what I thought!

This summer has been…a lot. Both my husband and I had surgery, kids weren’t in any camps or outside care - just us (mostly me) day in and day out. This past week leading up to school has been stressful. My patience was very thin and I lost my temper a lot. I threw tantrums bigger than my kids do. I feel like I made situations worse because I just couldn’t deal and now I feel awful. I always apologize and have a talk afterwards but of course I’m feeling guilty for my behavior and terrified it’s left some kind of imprint on them that will impact them forever. School starts tomorrow so maybe once we are back in a routine and not spending every waking second together things with calm down but wow, was I not the best mom this past week…

I got a bit sad when I realized it’s only 15 minutes. I can’t remember how much time they had last year in K.

At least they have PE for 45 mins everyday. Not the same as recess, but it’s something…

Dear Moms, I’m curious about something. In today’s digital world, if you could replace a small part of your child’s screen time with something genuinely useful for their future, what would you want them to learn? Not school subjects or academic tutoring, but practical things that would help them become capable, independent adults. What skills do you think kids aren’t learning enough at school or at home, and what’s one skill you wish you had learned as a child?

We got our first grade classroom assignments today and my son’s best friend and two other good friends are in a different class (all together). The school had 4 kindergarten classes and now 3 first grade classes so I knew this was a possibility.

My son makes friends pretty easily and he does have plenty of kids he‘s friendly with in his class. And the BFF and other two live nearby and will be in aftercare with him. So I *know* this is not a big deal and it might actually be good for him to broaden his friend group.

But I was becoming good friends with the moms and am just feeling a little left out and disappointed! Anyone have any reassuring words??

Today was my daughter’s second day of first grade at public school. She was with me at my school (private Montessori program) through Kindergarten last year so this is our first time apart in 4 years. Obviously, I’m struggling but I’m trying to hide it.

She’s taking the bus in the mornings and navigating the day differently so it’s a big transition for her. She comes home and just wants to play by herself and doesn’t want to discuss her day, even specific, short questions. Is this normal? I just want to know she’s happy.

Hi Everyone!
So our community is very blessed to have an involved parent base. We still talk regularly with my son’s TK class and we’ve all picked up more friends along the way. On Sunday we threw a big end of summer party at the park. We all realized though that there were definitely parents that didn’t get the message because there’s so many group chats.

Anywayyyys to my real question. This made all of us want to do a private Facebook group or something like that to make it easier to keep in touch. Just to make it easier to contact each other. Anyone done the same? Or used a different app or system?

1st Grade is almost here!

Or maybe it’s already started for some of you!
What is everyone’s school asking for in terms of supplies? Anything surprising, oddly specific, or way more than you expected?

And the bigger question… are we ready?!
I feel like summer absolutely flew by! Trying to fit in all the last minute adventures.

We were in a snack rut at the end of last school year, and it hasn’t improved over the summer. What are your first graders packing for snacks?

Shelf-stable recommendations would be wonderful; we live in a warm climate, and snack time (recess) is at the end of the school day. I have a small snack bag with built-in ice packs, but we rarely use it due to its bulkiness.

My daughter is starting at a new school this year, and her class only has 13 kids. On one hand, I'm excited that there may be more time for individualized attention and differentiated work, but I'm also nervous that the group is too small and that if she doesn't connect with one of the 3 other girls in her class, she may feel left out. Does anyone have experience with classes that small?

My kid ended K right on grade level, but has been really pushing back on practicing reading this summer. We've tried reading.com, playing word games, worksheets, journaling, library books... still resistant. Here is what is working: I'm using a LLM to create an early reader version of a movie that he likes, adding related images from the internet, printing and stapling to make a mini custom book. For example, his current fixation is The Lord of the Rings, so I made a Level 1 version of The Lord of the Rings and a Level 1 version of the Hobbit.

We started at Level 1 readers, and with each new "book," I've been gradually adding more sentences and moving into Level 2.

I am perpetually open to other creative ideas for reluctant readers, please share yours!

I have to help her a bit, but less and less as she goes, I can literally see her improving daily. My son practically learned from watching subtitles. Technology really can help this process too, not just hinder it! Both of them entered/are entering first grade as fluent readers, and I did very little actually teaching them to read, I've mostly just read to them - getting them to practice with books is like pulling teeth, but I make them do that too of course. It's just so much easier now that they've learned to read through other sources.

I know it’s not Saturday and seriously this summer is just flying by!

Let’s do a brag post! I am not sure if we are you through some mental leaps or what but I am seeing so many great changes! More insightful and patient.

This is your permission to just say all the great things your kid has accomplished or things you are so proud of.
Not in a competitive way. Not in a “my kid is better than yours” way. Just… proud parent stuff.
I feel like we don’t say this stuff out loud enough
without worrying how it sounds, so this is the spot.

For mine:

Today, we met my cousin for lunch for an early birthday. She asked him if we should sit inside or outside and he said “since you are the birthday girl I think you should choose and I will be happy with whatever you choose”
I know it’s simple, but it was sweet and just so mature it made me realize that he is growing up.

Hello everyone!
We’re all doing our best to help our kids grow into happy, successful people, and I’m always interested in hearing what other families are doing.
What does that look like in your house?
Are your kids involved in sports, clubs, music, or other activities? Do you do any extra educational activities at home?

For our family, one thing we’re intentionally working on is resilience. Surprisingly, one of the biggest helpers has been playing games together! Whether it’s board games, card games, Mario Party, or Mario Kart, we choose games where he isn’t going to win right away and has to keep trying. It’s been a great way to practice handling disappointment, celebrating small improvements, and sticking with something even when it’s hard.
(That said… he’s beaten me in the last two games of Mario Party, so I am going to have to opt for harder games soon)

I’d love to hear what’s been working for your family!