I'm not in kindergarten, SHE is...

Our daughter who is in kindergarten has homework that comes home every Monday. This homework isn't due until Friday, no biggie. But I cant send it back with her UNTIL Friday, I've sent it back the next day (Tuesday) and it was sent home.
Also, each child in her class is given a 'week' during the year when they can do show and tell, bring a family member etc. Her week is the second week of January, again no biggie. But there were papers sent home yesterday that we have to hold onto until then for her week..

We all know, who gets to keep track of these papers, because there is no way a 6 yr old can keep track of that paper until January.
Sounds silly, but is this normal for kindergarten?

Jim,
Our daughter is in 1st grade and I could have written your post regarding homework due no earlier than Friday. Our daughter's share week is June 4 of 2012 so I will be holding on to the papers and poster board I received last night at Back to School Night for almost a year!

Yes dad, they are preparing you for all the papers that come home in the upper grades....it only gets worse! =) I have a folder for each of my kids that I keep these things in and I look at each sheet every night so I don't forget anything. So yeah, kids homework is also our second job... GOOD LUCK!!!

This is normal for kindergarten- my son is in 3rd grade and we still get the weekly folder- AND the daily folder- then the notes and papers and the only reminders I ever get are that I forgot to do something. Get prepared it doesnt get any easier

Yes.
My son is in Kinder.
He has similar things.
The parent, keeps track of the deadlines and timelines.
They give you a calendar of events, so that you can plan ahead. The parent with the child.

This is how it is, all through school.
Only as the child gets older and in upper grade levels, then THEY need to learn to keep track of what is due and when.

Yep... normal. We have a file by the door and a cork board for stuff like this. For us, the homework due on Friday thing is so that they are doing a little each day to reinforce the material. So they don't want kids to turn it in early. They also realize that some kids are involved with after school activities and don't have time to do it all in one night or in two or three...

It's frustrating, but at least you're involved in knowing what your child is learning.

Yes...isn't it upsetting!?

When the kids go back to school, so do we....aarrgh! No fair!

Yes. It is called following directions. Teach your child this is the way the directions say they need things done.

You are modeling it for your child.

Our daughter could do a packets worth of work in one night, but we were asked to spread it out over the week, so the child would learn, "homework, is each afternoon".. At the end of the year your child will be required to read for a certain amount of time each day, are you going to have her just read the whole book in one afternoon?

I am sure there are lots of reasons they do these things.. I have learned to just do them.. Some teachers just have a system and it works for them.. If you want to know "why" ask the teacher.

I should not generalize, but I know my husband would want to do it HIS way.. He has to question "Why" all of the time.. While I just follow the directions, because when I ran a store and was a buyer, I did not always have time to explain why.. I just needed it done.

He wants to make suggestions and tell me how to do it better or how he does it.. I remind him, at work that is great, but at my work, I get to do it my way.

Just attach the paperwork to the back of the family calnedar and when you change out the calendar Viola! There will be paperwork. I actually had a special calendar for all of the school info. I had clips to attach envelopes for forms, envelopes.. etc.. that were due and when they were due,

Yes, this is usual. Doesn't he have a folder in his backpack to carry papers back and forth? If so, you can put his homework in the folder on Tuesday and leave it their all week. Then the teacher will take it out on Friday. Same for the other papers. My daughter leaves all my grandson's papers in the folder. It has two pockets. She does move papers from one side to the other depending how the teacher has labeled the pockets. Some teachers don't care which pocket it's in. In that case you can use whatever "filing" system you want.

If the teacher hasn't asked that there be a folder then you can put one in yourself. Then on Thursday night or Friday morning take out the homework for him to turn in on Friday.

Or you can have a letter sized envelope in which you put these papers that you keep at home. My daughter has one on her counter for the older child.

Wow, I was expecting that all the answers would say "No way! Completely unreasonable!" I have no advice, but I am sure I would fail Kindergarten in this case.

Yep..totally normal for both issues. Teachers want the students to learn how to do work daily. As each year comes, they get more and more responsibility to do work daily on their own. By 3th grade here, the students have planners and have to write down their own assignments and be in charge of getting it in on time.

As for the Show&Tell date. Put the far away date up on the calendar and the paperwork in a specific spot. I have a filing system...I got it at Target. All paperwork pertaining to the child goes in his/her slot. Then I know where to go for it once the "date" arrives. I have 3 kids so we have tons of individual papers and due dates streaming in weekly.

Good luck and best wishes for a great kindergarten year...for you daughter and YOU!!

This sounds pretty normal to me, and pretty reasonable. Really, what is there to keep track of. Keep the homework on her desk, and tuck the student of the week forms into a drawer or post it on a bulletin board. Problem solved.

My son gets a weekly homework packet on Monday. There are several activities to do. It was explained at back to school night that the intent is for students to do a couple of the activities each night during the week. I don't think the intent (or desire) is for you to finish it early... they're looking for your daughter to do something EVERY night to reinforce what she's doing at school.

Hope this helps,
Thea

YES! Our counter is overrun with paper/packets/things to return, etc. from the first week of school to the last. It is sometimes too much for me to even track, LOL. Trying to find a system that works for you is the best thing. I leave the items in my DS's folder, but half the time he leaves his folder at school and then we can't work on the homework at night :(. I can't win. Heh. Good luck!

yes, with 20 kids it is a lot easier for you to keep track of what your daughter needs when than it is for the teacher with 20 kids to deal with! Just get a push pin board, that is where all our stuff is.

Nope, not for us, but we go to a private school where there are only 15 kids in the class. Our school also does almost EVERYTHING electronically and almost no papers come home. Its great. All I have to do is save the email and print what I need when I need it, or fill it out online and email it back.

My daughter is in 2nd grade this year. She had some project that they sent home paperwork for in July - same as for you, my daughter's "week" wasn't until this week. Well, thank goodness I had it on my Outlook calendar that she had something due or we both would have forgotten it. Needless to say, at this point I had no idea where the stupid assignment went off to, so I had to ask the teacher for another copy. I'm not sure why she couldn't have just given them out to the kids maybe a week before they were due, rather than handing them out in July and then thinking that these papers would magically stay safe until the project was due months later... I do like my daughter's teacher, but this one had me scratching my head!

Yep. I think it's normal. I used to teach. Sending stuff in early causes it to get misplaced or lost. Teachers are notorious for stacks of papers...it's easy to misplace things. Most teachers have a system that not only keeps them organized, but keeps the class running more smoothly. Think about kindergartners interrupting the morning schedule to randomly turn in various unexpected items. Plus if assignments are assigned for daily work, it needs to be daily, not all in one sitting. We simply found a magnet folder that we keep on the fridge for the homework folder. We do homework in the mornings most days. My son is an early riser and it helps slow him down and not do it all at once. For the stuff that's not needed for while we clip it to the family calendar on that month (although our teacher hasn't really bombarded us with too much "future" stuff). It really hasn't been a big deal. And as a nice side effect, I think it's helping teach my son time management and responsibility.

& your job is only beginning.....

I've got a huge cork board in the kitchen where I hang up things that I don't need to tend to RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE, but if I put them somewhere where they're not in my face I'll forget about them when they DO need tending to.

My kids, now teenagers, are so accustomed to this system that they hang things there themselves for the same reason.

Someday she can hang things herself, but not in kindergarten. It'll happen, I promise.

:)

Yep -- Trust me, it's better for the parents to look after the papers. I learned the hard way. I had my daughter try and keep track of her homework page this week and she lost it Tuesday - she found it today IN THE FREEZER!!! Thank goodness, it's due tomorrow!