So we are still in the midst of deciding about Kindgarten. I spoke with his teacher on Tuesday and she said academically his is right on target, seems happy in class, and she didn't even notice the dark circles. So Wednesday we kept an eye on his eyes and they were still bad so I called the office to see what we needed to sign to pull him out. She suggested talking to the teacher (check) and the principal. The principal went down to check Carter's eyes and thougth that it may be an allergy. Her other concern was Carter thinking that if something is hard that he can quit. (Something we had considered but he would inevitably learn it the next year if he still had trouble but had no choice and had to stay). We continued to dialougue when she learned that Carter is coming home with 20-30 minutes of writing homework a night. Carter goes to all day Kindergarten (no half day available in Indiana anymore) and is expected to sit down after school for half an hour to do more work...(10 minutes okay....but come on he is a 5 year old!) .seems a little crazy to me. The principal said she would check into it but I have really started to delve into the issue with the teacher and am in the process of comparing notes with other Kindergarten teachers to see if Carter's teacher has unrealistic expectation of the children with regards to homework. We took Carter to the doctor today to see about the possibility of allergies and she decided to start him on allergy meds to see if it helps. He doesn't have ANY other symptoms besides the dark circles under the eyes, so she said it could be allergies just starting that may get worse next year (Torrey has HORRIBLE...snot pooling out of his nose....allergies) or it could be exhaustion or it could be both. We decided to try the medication for a week and go from there. As I do more research on the homework side, we now have 3 options: 1) He is not ready to perform the writing tasks expected in Kindergarten and needs to take a year to work on it at home 2) He needs to transfer to a different teacher 3) The teacher needs to adjust her expectations of the students with regard to homework and work more diligently on teaching the children letter formation in class.

Any other Kindergarten parents out there want to weigh in on expectations of Kindergarteners for homework. At this point his class has completed ALL of the letters including letter formation. He has not picked it up as quickly as it has been taught so last night he had a full page of writting his name and another full page front and back of writing the letters V-Z. At which point I litterally had to teach him how to form each letter. It seems that letter formation is now review in Kindergarten. Another homework sheet in particular that I am frustrated with is an assignment that has come every Thursday from the first week of school requiring the children to come up with and handwrite 4 complete sentences using thier sight words....and they have to use correct punctuation, letter formation, and capitalization. The first week of school it was a major struggle just getting all of the letters on the page that I didn't even make him worry about periods but low and behold when the paper came back it had little orange periods marked after every sentence! I am awaiting a response from the teacher at this point as the the level teaching I am expected to do as a parent since the children clearly have not yet covered sentence structure and punctuation let alone letter/word spacing in the 4 weeks they have been in school. The basic issue comes down to the fact that Carter and I crying at the kitchen table over homework is not worth it! It has really given him a negative outlook on school and learning...when a month ago he was begging to go to "Elementary School!"

So I have found a new "machine" to rage against! I keep swearing that I am not "one of those parents"....but alas I have come to the conclusion that I AM "one of those parents"....however, I am one that really cares and goes straight to the source trying to change it. If teachers dread me...oh well.. at least I give nice Christmas gifts!
Love,
Mama Bear