Today is the end of the second week of first grade for the Monster.  (Why our schools here start before Labor Day, I know not.)  And as such, this is also the end of the second week of homework.

Now, the Monster’s teacher apparently only checks homework on Monday, which is good because his work did not get done last night – I had my PCAB meeting, and the wife had choir rehearsal, so he had to go to choir with her and didn’t get a chance to work on it.  So we’ll get that done tonight.

The only problem, though, is that I question how well his homework might be adapted to him.

We’re a little too accustomed, perhaps, to the way things were last year with his special class.  Granted, much of the time, his homework last year was quick and easy, where it was drawing shapes or working on identifying letters and very basic math skills.  This year, the skills are (thankfully) getting harder, and involve the basics of addition and some writing of open sentences (the ‘write a sentence of at least 5 words, using 3 sight words’ variety).

On the other hand, though… the Monster doesn’t display that he has a grasp on what that instructions mean.  He’s still using manipulatives with prompting at home to do the math skills… and a lot of the time, I’m not even certain that he’s really grasping the concept of addition.  We’re mostly coming up with sentences for him, since we’re not sure that anyone’s explained what a ‘sentence’ is to him (plus he’s still mostly echolalic when it comes to speech).

My real large concern is that if there’s no adaptation in the homework assignments, it makes me wonder what the level of adaptation in in-class assignments is.  Is he capable, in class, of demonstrating the same level as his classmates (horrible handwriting and all), or is he sinking slowly with no one really noticing?

Parent-teacher conferences are in a short bit, but if I don’t see things that reassure me before then, I think we might have to schedule something more impromptu to double-check.