In Lux there is hardly any homework in first grade. European primary education methods are quite different from the us. Clara has 2 years of montesouri style kindy, and they did not learn how to read. First grade it starts, slowly but very structured. For example, all writing is done in lined notebooks and they practice rows and rows of each letter to learn proper handwriting. They don't think at this early age the child should be burdened with too much homework, they should be free to play and do activities in the late afternoon and evening. Clara has learned a ton of stuff, but in an environment where they use all senses to learn. I was surprised last week in Greece, we were at the ruins in olympia, and she explained in great detail how archeologists excavate sites, preserve the artifacts and display them in museums. I never knew she studied that. ( tho they have been to tons of museums with her class)
I miss this. That is how Mason's pre-k was in NL, and it is still like that for 1st grade too. I think the montessori approach just works way better at this age and Mason seemed to learn more AND be excited about learning all at the same time. Now he doesn't even like school at all.
Mark gets a worksheet on Friday or Monday that has 9 options* on it. He is supposed to do at least 3 of the activities/assignments on it by Friday. He can do more if he wants, and he gets a ticket for each assignment that he completes. Sometimes he is motivated to do all of them. Other times, we rush through 3 of them on Thursday evening/Friday morning.
He also brings a take-home book home each day, and we read it. They're super-short, easy readers that take about 5 minutes if we both read it.
*The options are things like:
Go to spellingcity.com and play a game with your spelling words.
Draw your favorite character from our weekly story and write who it is.
Write or type your spelling words 2 times each.
Write your spelling words in ABC order.
Write sentences with your challenge words. [There are 3 challenge words.]
One simple math word problem to draw and solve.
He also has some flash cards with words he is supposed to practice. I forgot about those until I saw them in his pencil bag on Thursday morning. Oops.
