My son is only seven, in grade two in the British system. Every year since he’s started school his teachers have expressed concern about his handwriting and his ability to “express his thoughts” in writing. When I tried once to respond to this concern by saying I thought it was quite common for little boys to have poor handwriting and that we were practicing writing his name at home, his teacher at the time gave me a serious look and said “you did give him a really long name.” As if handwriting should have been on my mind when I chose his name!
Of course, things have only progressed as he’s moved up through the grades. His handwriting hasn’t improved much, nor has his spelling, and asking him to sit down and write a couple of sentences for homework is pure torture – for both of us. This week’s assignment: Imagine a new planet where (pick a scenario) time runs backward, there is no day or night, people are tiny, etc and then explain how life is from when you wake up in the morning to when you go to sleep at night. What things are easier? What things are more difficult?
I know adults who would have trouble coming up with a decent response to such an assignment let alone a seven year old boy who’d rather be doing just about anything else but sitting still and writing an essay after a long day spent at school sitting still and doing work.
What makes it all worse is that I know my son could do it if he wanted to. He has the fine motor skills to trace detailed pictures and to color elaborate illustrations inside the lines. There are even times when he will sit down with a notebook and write himself a story out of his head, complete with illustrations. What’s the difference? Motivation. He wants to do his thing, not theirs. I get that – I can’t write someone else’s story ideas either. I, however, was always a good student and did my assignments well to please my teacher if nothing else. Hard to know how to instill that desire in my own children.
Every year I tell myself that I’ll work with the children during the summer to improve the subject they are having the most difficulty with: math for my daughter and writing for my son. Then by the end of the school year I’m so tired and fed up with fighting with them both to get through the required school work that I let it slide… for the whole summer. When will *I* learn?
As we come up to the last month of school and the end of the year, I’m dreading the next parent teacher conference where I’ll have to sit and nod while the teachers tell me about my son’s failure to perform up to their (in my opinion, ridiculous) standards in writing and how my daughter knows the math but doesn’t test well. Blah blah blah. Both of these things are well documented already. Surprise me and tell me something new, please.
Five weeks of school left and counting…
Ah, the days of homework. I don’t miss it at all. My son was in a combined 1st/2nd grade class and because he was bright, he was working with the second graders. He didn’t have those fine motor skills yet, and Tuesdays were hell as we had to write sentences and stories using spelling words.
Good luck
by Terry Odell May 26th, 2010 at 11:41 amI’ll take math homework with him any day over anything to do with writing, Terry! He’s got more than enough imagination to write stories, he just doesn’t care for assigned topics or have the patience to sit down and write it out. He’s asked a couple of time to use the computer to do his assignments but I really do want him to learn to write before he relies too heavily on typing. (my own handwriting has deteriorated a lot since I write long hand so infrequently!)
by Jenyfer May 26th, 2010 at 11:47 amMaybe a summer journal? With pictures to illustrate?
All of my children had learning disabilities on top of the crappy assignments. I feel your pain.
by anny cook May 29th, 2010 at 7:49 pmI like the summer journal idea, and have planned that in the past – only to decide that I need a “little break” from homework, then find that the entire summer has passed!!
by Jenyfer June 1st, 2010 at 1:19 am