So I’ve been working on bringing a new project to light in my spare time over the last few years, dittos.io. It is a communications platform for teachers to more effectively communicate with parents. The goal is to build stronger communities and hopefully create more parental involvement. We recently launched the website, and the app will be available soon.
Continue ReadingAfter my last post questioning homework for elementary school kids, we’ve done a lot more reading and researching on the subject. A lot.
Since the last fight, we took a stand -- our first grader won’t be doing any more homework. While dropping him off one morning, she asked him for his homework folder and I calmly and politely informed her that we will not be doing homework. Her only response was “Oh, okay.” I’m sure it took her off guard, and I didn’t expect to engage her in any meaningful discussion, so her response was perfectly acceptable. I informed her that the most we will do is review his spelling words with him which can be done as a game, and its no real pressure on him. It can be done at any time, whether for dinner or bath, on the way to school, etc. Since we’ve stopped doing homework, we’ve found his attitude is infinitely better. There haven’t been any crying fits, he comes home and gets to unwind and play. He is once again our happy boy. I should also mention that he got 100% on his last spelling test and 85% on his latest practice test. He’s also getting near perfect scores in math and doing well reading.
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