My son is a kindergartener. He has a homework page to do each night. It's nothing outrageous. The assignments are very easy to keep up with, it's all reasonable. My son rushes through each assignment. It takes him four times as long, because we have to redo everything. He just won't slow down. I asked the teacher for some advice and she laughed, because she was going to ask ME for suggestions on how to get him to take his time on his work. He is getting right answers, but he is moving so fast, it needs "translation", because it is difficult to read. ( He absolutely does NOT have ADD or ADHD). There is no incentive for him to finish early. He doesn't get "free" time or "play" time when he's done. When he does take his time, his writing and work is legible and correct. We do homework before school. My son is an early bird and he it seems to work better before school rather than after school. I am tired of feeling like a big nag at homework time. Any ideas on how I can slow down my little speed demon?
We have to read for 10 minutes a night (which we do everyday as part of his bedtime routine any way) and he has to practice writing his letters and occasionally a simple sentence. Usually it's writing a capital and then lower case letter five times. He knows how to write all of his letters (well, we still struggle with those darn s's) and when he takes his time, they look great. And the teacher has a 15 minute rule. If it's taking longer than 15 minutes, it's too much and you should stop.
I do sit with him and attempt to have him copy me, like it is suggested. He'll do one letter and then quickly "rush" the rest of the line. I have him erase the sloppy work and we start over. That's where I start feeling like a nag. Maybe I need to barter with him and let him "earn" some extra privileges.
If you don't actually sit with him and slow him down from the start, I suggest doing that. At the beginning tell him you're going to play a game to see how slow he can be. Give him a prize for being slow and getting it right the first time.
Coach him along the way to slow down. Something like, "draw an A now." Watch him do it. "Now draw the B."
I wish I knew what the homework is. Practice writing and reading, in moderation, are probably fine for kindergarteners, but I've seen some pretty silly assignments for all sorts of other activities, as well. Many educators and schools believe that homework is next to useless in the early grades, and may actually work against kids' love of learning. Far too much of it is pointless busywork, not really skill-building or even relevant to the child's educational needs and interests (especially if the child already knows the material and has spent a good part of his earlier day working at it.) Alfie Kohn is one such educator; check out his essays and articles: http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm.
Some teachers would love parent support in reducing the amount of homework their schools encourage, and some have just never thought about the issue, assuming that more work = better results. But schools that have a thoughtful no-homework policy turn out students with grades as good as, or better than, heavy-homework schools.
You might also find the following thought-provoking article about praise and motivation helpful. There's a lot of common-sense wisdom here: How NOT to Talk to Kids, by Po Bronson: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
hmm, you really are doing everything right, It might just be that he does need to be nagged. But here are some ideas taht might or might not work
Like someone else said make sure you are sitting with him from the start. I'm guitly of telling my DD to get her work out and i'll be right there and then i'll have to deal with just one more thing and before i know it she has started.
You could get him a fancy pencil like a mechanical one or one with his fav character on it. and tell him this is a slow down pencil and he can only use it to write super carefully. That would only work if he is imaginative.
You could ask the teacher if he could write his letters in shaving cream or sand on a cookie tray, or something like that. just to break up the monotony.
get a rubber stamp and after each letter he gets to put a stamp right above it and then do the next one.
If there is any chance he is worried about how long it is taking ( like beign late for school or something) you could set a timer and show him that he has soooo much time, like tell him he has 10 minutes and what a long time that is he can do they all very very carefully and still have time left. Lilke Look you are half way done and you still have 8 minutes, it only took you two minutes, lookhow nice and slowly you were going.
Is there someone else who could sit with him, sometimes kids need someone besides mom. I think cuz they know mom will nag.
My sons were and are the same way, and they are VERY different students from one another.
Sometimes male brains just work differently; i.e., they are all about efficiency. Why spend 20 minutes doing something you dislike when you could get it done in 5? I honestly think that's how they look at it, even from a very early age.
I would pick my battles . . .
My SD was the same way. We'd tell her that if she didn't want to have to do it again, she had to slow down and write legibly. She also got angry when she got points off on spelling tests because the teacher couldn't read it and we said, "SLOW DOWN!"
If he does it better before school, then get up and make it part of his routine til the time required becomes impossible.
We continued to "nag" SD. We told her that she could continue to rush and be sloppy and take forever or she could do it right the first time. Eventually she slowed down enough to get better grades/legible.
I keep making my son re do it when its sloppy. I love the idea of the slow pencil I will try that! (cant hurt)
