[Jane]

Thank you all for the sleep advice. Piper turned 3 in December. She has a very active imagination during the day and I’m sure that is playing a part in all of this. I will certainly be trying some suggestions and seeing if we can get some good nights sleep soon.

As for extra-curriculars. For Piper we do a Mommy & Me type music class and library story time. She will start soccer in the spring. Most music teachers I have talked to say the kids have more success learning an instrument once they can read the letters associated with each note.

My son (13) does fall and spring soccer, piano and is part of the Jr. Ranger Corps in one of the state parks here. He and his Dad run 5k’s and have signed up for him to run his first 1/2 marathon in May. I try to keep activity level to no more than 2-3 nights a week for him. Anything more than that is too much and school work starts to become an issue.

There is so much to do now for kids, even the little ones. It’s difficult to find a balance, but it can be done with some work.

Jane

[Nicole]

We have to travel to do most activities and I am a big believer in ‘down time’ so our children have one sporting activity per season (maybe two) and one extra curricular (music).

It is not much compared with other children but we are very busy on our farm and the children ‘work’ most weekends.

[Tamara]

We did do dance but we had to travel 120km just to get home! We did it for two years and then Miss 10 decided that was enough. Frankly I was gutted by her decision because I could see her improving. But if she hated it so much to want to quit I wasn’t going to push her to do it. N danced for a year – if you can call it dancing. Fancy sitting t the concert and having the audience laughing at your son?! He was so cute in his attempts to do the routine but bumbled all the way through it.

We do piano and miss 10 has signed up for guitar at school this year (yay!) and I am encouraging her to try out for choir because she has a strong singing voice that needs to be nurtured or she will damage it with her various vocal experiments. My sister is a vocal teacher with the Australia girls choir so she will need the voice intact should she ever want to try out (high school age).

We tried netball – went for one practise and wouldn’t participate. I had paid the fees so I said to the coach to donate it to another little girl who might like to play.

We don’t do hockey and football. N would like to play cricket but he isn’t old enough for the team just yet. So we swim instead. It seems to be the best thing for kids who aren’t athletically gifted I’m other ways. When that is over, it is just piano until it starts again.

[cybele727]

I try to balance activities and sleep. I am a bit flabbergasted at the amount of homework A has. He is only 1st grade, gets home at 3:35, and has almost an hour of HW. Phooey. So if we do afterschool activities, and dinner and HW and bed, well, he’d be exhausted. Bed for him is 7:30. He needs the full 12 hours. So only one activity, dance, otherwise he would be the MOST unpleasant child ever.

As to our Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction girl, I do feel bad, b/c clearly something is happening/ going on in her life and I can’t help her.

[with love Heidi]

An hour of homework in 1st grade!!! The kids just been at school for about 6 hours, I’m doing teacher training and know its hard in the classroom but more than a reader and maybe spelling list is unreasonable, kiddies need family time too, and sleep.

[juliamom2009]

So I think one of the reasons that we had another child was for the extra-curricular activities! I was a band geek/athlete myself, and I’ve tried to make all my children in my mold – which of course, doesn’t happen one bit!

I’ve already raised a computer geek, a gymnast, and a basketball player.

We have Julia (3 and almost a half) in basketball, and she was in soccer at 2 1/2. She tried a gymnastics class, but wasn’t focused enough (too much waiting around). She wants to dance, but I don’t think she’ll focus enough for ballet, so I’ve been looking for either jazz or general dance or tap that we can fit into our schedules…..then, I’d like her to take some sort of music class too….yeah, it’s only money and time – we have plenty of both (ha!)….

[cybele727]

Yup. I have cut corners and refused to do some work. Again… subversive mommy…. I have told his teachers that if I don’t think he will get a learning benefit I won’t let him do it. While there is the benefit of self discipline, stamina, and endurance. There is also things like fun, family, and sleep.

I cut out about 1/2 his hw as a result. I won’t let him work more than 30 min on hw, with an exception here or there. I just can’t see nightly spelling, reading, sight word flash cards, math worksheet and math facts flash cards every night. I also can’t let him HATE school b/c of hw. So, I directly tell them that I am balancing his hw with his other needs and can assess what to prioritize.

Again, whipping out that … I have my license to teach and 10 years of experience thing. Not nice, but darn, I just can’t justify my poor child working that long, especially if there is no relevant learning going on, but just busy, busy, busy…

I know… everyone is shuddering about how horrible I am! 🙂

[with love Heidi]

No not shuddering at you, shuddering at the parents who insist that school send home homework for very young kids! and feeling for the poor teachers trying to balance everything!

[Tamara]

There is no evidence to back up the benefits of homework and there is no evidence that says that homework is truly beneficial to learning. Our teachers send home a weeks worth of homework and expect the kids to finish it and hand it in by Friday. In year one and two the only homework is reading the assigned book. In year five, we have a double sided sheet of homework separated into small sections and consisting of comprehension, maths and spelling. And they are also supposed to read for thirty minutes a night too!

Frankly I would rather them spend time doing mathletics or reading eggs alternating each night e cause it is relevant to what they are learning in class – curriculum appropriate not pie in the sky questions.

An hour of homework for a Year one studen is very inappropriate!

[rastis]

i am also not a fan of too much homework in early primary- there’s pressure from schools though on teachers to give it (even if the teachers don’t personally believe in it)… not to mention pressure from naplan testing results… i think reading is always great and perhaps a little bit of reinforcement of the day’s learning and then let kids be kids! they should be able to ride their bikes, play with their siblings, or play their instrument or whatever play helps them unwind!

oh my kids are so tired today… it’s been a big first week back (and we aren’t even in school yet! just preschool and playgroup)… so many tired melt downs from my 4 year old boy! and a little sister desperately missing her big brother when he goes to preschool… tantrums at the preschool gate because she doesn’t want to leave him… i had to drag her back to the car kicking and screaming today… and she waits all day for him to come home and literally hangs off me all day… oh i hope she adjusts soon! must say i am tired too and looking to an early night!!

[Tamara]

Oh poor you rastis! It is hard on the little ones watching their sibling go on to school. I had the “Where’s Immy?” When my daughter started kindy. But he came with me on occasion when I helped out and he wasn’t any trouble in fact he joined in! Now it is “I don’t want go to school” from both of them and we are four days in to the school year.

How’s he doing at preschool? Does he enjoy the activities? Is he full time?

I used to work in long daycare and remember one of my kiddies having a full on meltdown for the first hour after arriving for the first three weeks of her time there. Mum was getting a bit frantic and wondering if she was settling and should she find other care etc. I told her that after a while she calmed down and we did stay with her so she didn’t hurt herself. It ended up being beneficial that way because she bonded and after three weeks the tantrums were shorter and almost non existent.

Perseverance can be difficult but communication is key in knowing when to change directions. She was an adorable little girl and taught me so much! Can she have the language to tell you she is getting sad? Maybe toting some trusty story books on the subject would help? I turned to stories a lot with changing events in the kids early life. It was a great way to reinforce what I was trying to tell them.

Hopefully it won’t take two more weeks for her to settle and realise it isn’t so bad just being with mummy.

School days take the stuffing out of me too and I don’t have as many children!

[Jennifer1568]

Nicole, there are a lot of benefits to kids doing “work” on the week-ends. It teaches practical skills and a work ethic. The family is together and bonding. There is a common goal that benefits the entire family. When parents spend week-ends attending athletic tournaments and the schedule of the entire family is disrupted for the benefit of one child I feel like priorities might be mixed up. We did that with our middle children who are now 21. I am going to try to avoid that with our youngest. Our middle kids are in college and drive me crazy because they won’t work doing anything menial or tedious. I am afraid that they are both going to have to go to the school of hard knocks before they grow up.

Our youngest daughter plays a sport every season. Basketball will start this month, then baseball, swimming, and finally soccer in the fall. She also takes ballet, jazz and tap dance. She is a Brownie Girl Scout and I have scheduled her to start piano lessons in this spring. She is 7. I limit the time she is allowed to watch TV and she reads for at least 1/2 hour daily. I like for her to get exercise and also do art projects.

[rastis]

justsewit:no my son’s not full time in preschool- he’s just moved from 2 days a week to 3, although he does have things on everyday (swimming lessons and playgroup with his little sister on the other days) which is really tiring him out (and me too because we aren’t in town there’s lots of driving to do!!) i wouldn’t choose it that way, but being in a country area i can’t pick and choose days for events, you have to take what is available… i guess it’s a tough adjustment time, but on the bright side i’m sure it will help him get prepared for school next year when he finally does adjust…

and i’m sure my little girl will settle down as well… she just wants to be a big girl and start preschool too (even though she’s only 1.5)!

i just hope the adjustment time ends soon because we are all so tired- i can barely keep my eyes open this morning!

[Tamara]

Oh I understand that feeling well. Murray is currently shearing next door and hopefully will finish today (absolutely loopy to do it in this weather). But it means that I am up at 5.30 getting him sorted food wise (he does the BYO thing) and then getting the kids sorted later on. By that time it is the usual cleaning up after everyone and hardly any other time available. I have the 3.30 itis back that I haven’t had for a good while but can’t have a nap because the buss turns up at 4pm! We are out of town also, so the constant driving in and out can get to you especially if you are required to be at home for certain things. When my kids were in kindergarten they had initially one full day and two half days and that was a sheer pain! I ended up going in for one half day because it coincided with play group but she stayed home the other half day. N had two full days and a half day and with this I was able to send him for the two full days and leave the half day until he asked to go! Them I would fill my time either helping in his class or in her class until it was pick up time. I understand of course tht we are not always able to do that but it is also a good way to catch up with friends in you can or go to the library if there is one and things of that nature.

So I wrote a note to the teacher yesterday because N was really upset over being passed up to run a message. He said it was because he didn’t have his reading folder. She wrote back saying he got it correct and that she needed someone to go straight away but he wasn’t organised apparently. Well I’m getting the notebook out for this one and writing it down. I’m noting everything this year that I’m unhappy with the school over. We had just discussed the reading folder that morning and to punish my child because of no reading folder (because it was being fixed!) is not good! He may not have been perturbed by it straight away but that isn’t the point. She says she knows my child. Well if she did she would know that he retains this information and twirls it around in that brain of his and ends up getting very upset because it festers. It is the nature of a sensitive child I’m afraid! He’s just like his mother!

[lattemama]

We do dance for Sofia (the youngest) and my husband is trying to take Isabel swimming once a week since she has opted on playing the recorder and not enrol in a physical activity.

They both go hiking in the woods every other Saturday from March to June (roughly) and September to December. Isabel is gone almost all day, Sofia gets back at 1 pm. I believe Isabel will be doing a sleepover in the woods this Spring.

As for homework, Isabel goes to a “no homework” school but still manages to bring home some things to do. Reading from a chapter book for Fridays (very very short chapters), reading for their theme classes for Mondays (Early Humans is what they’re learning about), and sometimes a Maths home work for Thursdays. It’s all stuff she can manage on her own but they want us to listen to her reading and sign off on a sign sheet that we did.

Sofia turns 6 in June and hasn’t started school yet. She’s still in daycare.

In other news – I’m picking up my wedding rings today! I handed them in to be altered almost a month ago and they are ready for pick up! So happy to have them back! (And another exclamation point just for the h*** of it!)