Homework for 2nd grader

[glewis1123]

What type of work has your 2nd grade teacher sent for your child?

I got our assignments yesterday.

A report on two different animals with illustrations - we're staying AKL

A daily journal

Math papers

A report on two different types of transportation including illustrations

Check out 4 different level 2 reading books and do book reports.

15 minutes of reading each day.

Before when he's been out of school all he had to do was a daily journal.


Does this seem excessive for a second grader? or is it just me not being used to taking kids out of school?

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[kellyla]

WOW!Thats alot of work.Last time I took my kids out of school(two years ago) my youngest was in grade three and the teacher only wanted him to do a daily journal with pictures.He then had to present it to the class when we got back.How long are you going away for?4 book reports?Hopefully some of the work can get done before you go away.

 

[Dr. Happy]

How much time will your child miss from school???

 

[Rpsemont]

My first grader didn't have to do anything. She missed 3 days. Of course, I had told the teacher we'd be happy to work before she left and after we came back, but I personnly don't belive in doing work (even school work) on vacation.

 

[glewis1123]

Hi all

My son will be missing 5 school days.

I even had to sign a paper saying these would be completed. Evidently it is so the school still gets credit for him as if he were still attending those missed days.

Thanks for all the responses

 

[llp479]

Our second grade twin DDs missed three days in February. Our district doesn't believe in handing out assignments ahead of time. When we returned our one daughter had roughly 30 pages of homework to complete. Our other daughter, none. When we asked about it the teacher said she had "completed it in class with the aid." Goes to show you the difference between teachers, even in the same district!

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

My 2nd grader missed a week when we went to WDW.

Basically they sent every paper they were doing in class. He probably had 20-30 pages. He had to keep his daily journal, do his response journal (read non-fiction then write a couple of paragraphs explaining whatever concept they were working on), complete his spelling exercises (one per day) and read 30 minutes a day.

He did much of his work on the plane to/from MCO. He did his journals in the evening (the parks closed early while we were there). I'll admit that he didn't read every day - he probably read a total of 1.5 - 2 hours while we were gone.

I wasn't worried about it. I'm just glad our district doesn't give us grief when we take him on vacations.

 

[SandraC]

dd was in the second grade during last April's trip. The teacher gave only a few assignments, mostly review. Last year and this year we go during our school boards Education Week. It's a week of review and a theme is picked (this year is reading) there is a fun assembly this Friday with Dr. Suess, Clifford and MORE children's literary characters (lots of Shakespeare too for the older kids). There is no new material being covered during our vacation. That's my concern, what will dd miss?

dd's second grade teacher remarked that most kids don't get the work done during vacation. dd managed with the small amt given. dd is BELLE, loves to read!

Do you think the teacher gave excessive work? Have a wonderful trip! Sandra

 

[Dr. Happy]

Yes, I do think that is a lot of work for a 2nd grader, missing only 5 days...

Although some of the assignments are related to your WDW vacation (i.e., animals, transportation, daily journal), you'll be needing some time away from the parks to complete it!!

I would suggest asking her/him to eliminate some of the assignments... They might have had you sign the paper about the assignments so they can receive the state subsidy ($$$) for your child's non-attendance. Every state subsidizes schools this way and usually schools don't receive it if a child is absent...

Best of luck!

 

[Jordan's MOM]

This is a lot of work. More than my third grader had when we went this year. Even though it is too much, you might have to deal with it. Remind your child it will be so worth it to get to go to DW. I found it very had to get my DS to do his work while we were there. He was too excited in the AM and too tired in the PM. And the fact that his mom didn't want him to have to do the work on vacation did not help. I would start right now before you go and try to get all the math papers done before you go. He could do a lot of the reading on the way down and even do part of his "15" minutes a day during this time. My DS did all his "15 minutes" at one time on the trip down there.Try to make the reports as fun as possible.We also left one day of return home time for DS to finish up his work before he went back to school. Please don't flame me but I will confess that I helped him a bit more than I normaly do. Was it all worth it. 100% YES!

Jordan's mom

 

[glewis1123]

Hi all - thanks for all your responses

At this time all I have is the assignment list - not the actual papers.

But, I plan on talking to his teacher tomorow and ask her to give me the math work and book report specifics next Friday - so he has the weekend before our trip to do it.

This way he can do one of his transportation reports on the plane over (flying from California) so he'll have plenty of time to do one on the plane and do his "reading at home" assignment on the plane back. This way while we're at WDW he'll only have to do his animal report and his daily journal. He can do his illustrations at home after our return and one more transportation report.

My son is only 8 yrs old and we're not taking this trip to spend the entire time in the hotel room doing homework.

Don't mean to sound sarcastic - but - maybe next time instead of being conscientious about his school - I'll just leave them a message on their answering machine the night before we leave notifying them that he'll not be at school for 5 days.

I mean, I think doing a daily journal, a report on one animal, some math and his 15 min of reading each day would be sufficient I just think they're overdoing it a bit. Something tells me that dear "ol' mom is going to be helping out a lot more than normal - lol

Thank you all!!!!!!

 

[WDW2002]

When my kids miss school, I fully expect that they will be expected to do each and every assignment missed during the time they are done. It is for your childs benefit that they do this work.

Now that said, most teachers only give a fraction of the work that the kids miss while on vacation. Last year my daughter 4th grade teacher only gave the work if the parents requested (which I did). I would have my child do what they can before hand, on the plane to and from. Then anything that should be done daily can be done either in the evening or during an afternoon break.

 

[tkd lisa]

For our cruise, we are taking our two kids out of school. They are 3rd and 4th grade. I asked the school to assign work or send missed things with them to do. They originally said not to worry about it. I suggested that they do reports on things they would see and they said that would be great. The 4th grader will do a report on the Mayan ruins we see in Cozumel and the 3rd grader is supposed to report about swimming with sting rays.

I'm also going to add a report on how much money they brought and how they spent it, to cover math. Both kids read a lot, and will probably do this the entire flight, as well as the hour drive to/from Port Canaveral.

We're going the week after the state standardized tests, and they usually give the kids a break then to "recover" from the stress. Sort of like the Education week mentioned here.

All this being said, and back to the original question, yes I think that sounds like too much work for 2nd grade. I also think the stuff above sounds like too little work for 3rd/4th grade. It must all depend on the school!

 

[glewis1123]

Well, I sent a note to school today asking for the work one week in advance of our trip. And, I also very politely and diplomatically asked to reduce it some. If they do or don't, we're still going to WDW and if he doesn't get it all done by the first day back at school, well, it'll have to just be late and they will have the choice to accept it late or not. That's their right and choice. But, I am not spending all this money traveling from California to WDW to sit in a hotel room and do homework. I'm hoping to get the math and reading assignments done before the trip and do the Reports and daily journal while we're there.

I'm not going to let this stress me or my son out.

We're going to WDW and we're going to have a great time at AKL and there will be pixie dust flying all about us!!

Thank you all for your advice and support

May 4th AKL here we come!!!

 

[StilesMom]

Another option would be to ask for extra time after the trip to catch up on the work. Last year, DD was a second grader and she had a notebook full of worksheets and small projects to do. We got a lot of it done on the plane and during some afternoon breaks. When we returned from the trip, the teachers were very flexible with the last few assignments that were not done. I think they gave her a week to finish up anything she wanted to get credit for.

I actually just sent notes in today for her absence for our trip in 2 weeks. I'm wondering what kind of response I'll get because we will be out right before the infamous Virginia SOL testing and she will miss test review days. I've offered to help her review and her teachers are aware that I am going back to school myself for Elementary Ed - so hopefully they won't give us a hard time. We'll see....

 

[MrsPete]

If your child were in school, how much work would he complete in one week? I also have a child in 2nd grade, and she does the about the amount of work you just listed on any given week.

My daughter was sick last Thursday, and she had a pretty good amount of work to make up from just one day. It took her half the day on Saturday (not that she particularly worked steadily through it -- she took plenty of breaks), but it was important that she made up everything that the other students had done. No way would I ask the teacher to excuse any of the regular class work -- diplomatic or not!

As for the school getting "credit" for students being present in school, maybe they do it differently in other states, but North Carolina has two "count days." Every student in every county is counted on those two days -- one fall semester, one spring semester. Some schools plan carnivals, pizza days, etc. on those days to make double-sure everyone attends. The school receives X amount of money x the number of students who were in attendance on the two count days -- they do this because it would just be too time consuming to calculate cost/student EVERY day -- plus it's really unnecessary. Most students have a few absences here and there, but not enough that the state would pull funding for them.

 

[MrsPete]

Okay, as soon as I posted I had another thought . . . I know why the school had you sign the papers about taking him out of school -- and it had nothing to do with school funding.

Here's the thing: IF -- if, if, if -- the biggest word in the English language -- IF your son were to fail 2nd grade (and obviously I have no idea what kind of student he is, so I'm speaking generally here), IF he were to fail 2nd grade, they could prove that you took him out of school voluntarily for five days.

Don't say it couldn't happen! Children do get sick and miss a month of school at a time (I myself had scarlet fever and missed a whole month of school). Children are in accidents, and they're unable to finish the school year. Stuff happens -- always to other people, of course!

Seriously though, some parents pull kids out of school a couple times a year for this reason and that reason . . . it adds up, and the kid's grades were already border line . . . oops, it turns out that he DID need to hear the teacher's instructions every day . . . suddenly, he's repeating the grade! This tends to happen quite often in divorce situations where parents move kids around frequently. If the school has papers that show that the parent CHOSE to take the child out of school, the school's not responsible -- and if a kid misses days upon days upon days, that's fair.

I teach high school, and we deal with accountability and legalities like this all the time -- much more so than elementary schools. If your child has excellent attendance, chances that this would happen to him area slight, but the school is protecting itself! You may be super-responsible with your child's school life, but -- believe me -- everyone isn't. That's why the school is protecting itself.

You might ask yourself, "What if I just don't sign the papers?" Well, I can tell you what would happen in NC: If your child missed fewer than eight days of school during the year, absolutely nothing. We consider eight days to be acceptable, and most people have no problem with that number. If the student misses day #9, he has to show doctor's notes, etc. IF the child failed the 2nd grade AND you didn't have evidence of good reasons, THEN you'd be in trouble (and he'd be in summer school). However, again, most people will not fall into this trap -- the school just has to cover itself for the few who will!

 

[trishy]

My dd9 missed the first 2 weeks of fourth grade because the school arbitrarily switched her to a "track" (year-round program) that interfered with our previously scheduled summer vacation - we were told nothing could be done to accomodate our schedule. I count those 10 missed days as the school's fault and didn't count them against her total. Well, she had an opportunity to go to New York for the week with her firefighter dad for a special memorial tribute event and we didn't want her to miss it. The school insisted that we sign an Independent Study Contract stating we would have her make up missed assignments and tests. The packet of work they handed me was 28 pages and a daily journal (of course, read 25 minutes per day on top of that). I was livid. She's an A+ honor student. The trip itself was an educational experience. Since she had missed so many days (though 10 of those were out of our control - we weren't about to throw away our 2 wks in WDW and a week cruise that was already paid for in DVC points), without the contract they would have placed her on the truancy list at the district level. I think it's just California schools that have a warped sense of what is truly important in a kid's life.

 

[Dream]

OK, these stories never cease to amaze me! This child is EIGHT years old!!! I'm not going to be tactful....the work they assigned is WAYYYY too much! I think you learned your lesson...don't be so nice the next time. Call on your way out the door and say he will not be in school the next however many days and let the chips fall where they may when you get home. IMHO, a child this age gets so very much more out of a trip to Disney, spent with his family, seeing and learning new things than he would get out of a month of School! Life is more than school...it is also about discovering our wonderful world! Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine? You are stuck with the work now, but if it was me, nothing but the daily journal would be done at WDW. You are on vacation! Doing all that while you could be enjoying yourself? You might as well keep him at home in school! I encourage my kids to keep a journal whereever we go..it's fun to look back on later. Lots can be done on the plane/car on the way and on the way home and...Mom can "help" get the job finished if she has to. As long as your child is not going to fall behind (and I doubt 5 days out of 2nd grade will hurt anyone) go, forget about school once you are there, and remind yourself that YOU are the parent!!! Don't let the school intimidate you!!!

 

[glewis1123]

Hi to All

I want to Thank All Of You for your responses!!!

What really gets me is how this Vacation Homework isn't even close to what his weekly take-home work is.

This is a sample of his weekly homework assignments.

Monday - Brings home 10 spelling words and does a sentence for each word.

Tuesday - study spelling words and study for math test

Wed - Put spelling words in "ABC" order and study for math test

Thur - Math test at school - study for Spelling test

Fri - no homework - spelling test at school.

Plus 15 minutes of reading each day.


In his "Friday Folder" he brings home work done in class - which typically consists of apx 5 math papers, a one page book report on a story they read in class and some sentence structures.

I really feel that they are trying to punish us for him missing 5 school days - I just don't see a balance here between the two.

I sent a note to the teacher asking to give Joey his paperwork this coming Friday so he can get a headstart - so, we'll see if that happens. I'll have him do the work but, I am not going to push to get it all done by the first day back at school - if it's late - it's late - they can decide whether to accept it for credit or not.

My son is also an excellent student with good grades. Also, this trip is a REWARD for him. He had an inner ear problem when he was very young (corrected by surgery) and did not start talking til age 3 - this put him behind in learning how to read - He has been wanting to go back to WDW after our 2000 trip and we told him that as soon as his reading was up to grade level (which we knew he could do) that we would take him back. He is now reading at 3rd grade level and tests at 4th grade level in math. We are so proud of him and he is proud of himself which is more important.

My husband is furious with the assignment and we decided he can do work on the plane and do his daily journal plus some work during our downtime in the afternoon before swimming.
Then he can do some the day after we return. But, we're not going to push it. Afterall, he's only 8 yrs old and in 2nd grade.

Thanks again to all