It is the last few days of the term before the school holidays. With the tests behind her, I thought that it would be easy days for my girl with less homework. I was wrong.
Yesterday, she came home with two chinese homework plus English homework. Sounds little right? One of the Chinese homework was a simple fill in the blanks kind of questions. She had 2 pages of that. The other was Chinese Sentence Construction. She had 10 sentences to make. Not bad. She also had 2 pages of Math but fortunately the teacher realised that she had given them quite enough homework so she made them do those in the school. Fine.
Then my girl took out her English book. She showed me that she had to complete homework for the whole unit or chapter. Imagine that! That is ridiculous. Do an entire chapter or unit of lesson all in a day? There were 8 pages altogether. Although the English is simple for the kids, however, it is the time needed to complete the work. There were a lot of colouring to do as well. There was simply not enough time to do it all. Unfortunately she had piano lessons yesterday and the teacher was also rushing her to do her theory work for her uncoming theory exams. I had told the teacher, No, give her time, do not give her extra work during her tests. Well, now it is AFTER tests, so the teacher thought it is time to do catching up.
Couple that up with the fact that the doctor ordered at least an hour of afternoon nap plus 1/2 hour of physical activity each day and to be in bed by 8.30 to 9pm. Where do I find the time for everything? Meals, naps, homework, physical activity. There is only that many hours in a day.
In the end, I had to negotiate with my girl to let me and her brother help her with the colouring so that she would be able to complete her homework and still have enough time for the rest that the doctor ordered. Imagine what sort of wrong things I am teaching her? I told her to just do it hurriedly and simply, (“ugly also nevermind”). Great! I have just taught her that it is ok to ask others to help you with your work. I have taught her that it is ok to rush and do work for the sake of doing work. I have taught her that it is not necessary to do work neatly and properly. And a host of other wrong messages and lessons.
She also did not manage to get her nap and only ended up in bed at 10pm because she was still rushing to complete her work. It is madness.
I am doing that too, the coloring part. I am helping my girl. Can’t help it, really have no time.
Oh dear …. school life for kids nowadays is even terrible then the time when I attend uni ….. pity them actually! I think I would do the same too if in time like this …. or else, I really can’t think of a better way to solve this. I hope we as parents are doing the right thing …….
oh….madness indeed. Poor girl! Really no time for anything else.
Or may be you have just taught her an important living tip, (could be a life-saving tip, hehe) – GET HELP when you are desperate! Of course they should be taught not to abuse it too!
One of my housemates does not like to get help. Frustrate me to max sometimes… when a little help from outsider would have eased our situation tremendously… Not because of ego, but just doesn’t feel good to trouble others… Others here means other family members!!! Everything oso keep to oneself…mah stressful lor….
sorry, it’s ok to disagree…just my opinion.
for coloring, instead of colour them fully, we can also draw lines or patterns with color pencil to complete them.
my girl sometimes use one color for all… no eye see.
Your girl is in chinese medium school kar, very taxing leh! Chinese schools are best known for “no mercy on homeworks”!:p
Have a wonderful weekend!
Helping the child was doing okay, but to note is that as long as we help it do not make your child become dependent on us. If the tasks given to children outside of their ability, should consult the teacher concerned.
My hubby always complained about those tons of homework given to his boy.
You are definitely not alone! I will do that too in that situation.
Oh yeah, finally I purchased the Besta CD-668M yesterday at the Mines Book Fair. Thanks again for your info. 🙂
That’s a lot to do for a little girl. Poor her, 24 hrs is definitely not enough.