Homework Blues

No child likes to do homework.

The Monster’s class at his public school is, for all intents and purposes, a standard pre-kindergarten environment.  This means that they follow the standard pre-K curriculum here in Baltimore, and he gets homework like the other students, adapted for what he is and isn’t capable of doing.

The one constant, though, is that I can predict that the Monster’s not going to want to sit down to do his homework when he gets home.

Oh, I think most children can be reasoned with and/or bribed to do their homework.  “If you do your homework, you can go play outside afterwards.”  “If you do your homework, you can play video games.”  “If you do your homework, you can play with the dog/cat/iguana.”

Yeah.  The issue isn’t necessarily bribing the Monster to do his homework.  The issue is keeping him focused on the homework.

I mean, sure, he’s good at some of the academic stuff that they have him doing – he knows all of his letters and numbers, so he’s very good at the exercises that have him coloring in the right letters, picking them out from similar shaped letters without any issue.  Writing’s not a strength, but his letters are, generally, semi-discernable.

This evening is a great example – he came home from school after an appointment with the eye doctor… and nothing, nothing, was keeping his mind on his homework.  I was put in charge of keeping him on track while the wife was working on making dinner and it was teeth-pullingly agonizing.  With the baby making sound, the cats running around, and the fact that he’d been going for hours, there was nothing really to keep him tied to his homework.  It took a lot of guiding to get him to do the homework…

But it got done. And the fact is, he is learning things this year.  He’s starting basic pre-reading exercises, and can make out a few words given the letters in combination.  And the homework is nicely reinforcing that.

Now… until he has to do real math or whatnot… we’ll be okay…. I think….

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