Questions on how to help my Kindergartner with his homework?

Question

My son's class is over filled, under staffed and he isn't getting any one on one attention at school. When I work with him at home doing his homework, he gets angry w/me and it all seems to just go in ear and out the other. I've been told that he's one of, if not, the smartest children in his class however he does need help from time to time in understanding things. Any idea how I can make homework more fun or get him to start paying attention.

Additionally, they are now teaching the kids to read using "sight words" instead of phonics. This means that he memorizes the words that are given to him weekly but doesn't know how to sound out a word in a sentence that he doesn't know. Sight words verses phonics is just confusing him even more..........PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks,
OCD-First Time Mommy

Answer 1

You could try introducing sweets/rewards for good homework and a better attention span. As he gets better slowly remove the sweets so he starts to learn to do it on his own not just for the reward. You could make sit with him while he does his homework and chat to him? You should speak to a teacher about the "Sight words" thing, it sounds like a bad idea to me. Especially if the teaching method is changing in the middle of a learning phase.

Answer 2

My 10 year old son still gets a little huffy with me when I work with him on homework. He is smart, too. But, I noticed I can get a little impatient with him. Be patient with your son. Tell him that you need to work with him, because there are some things that they are not teaching him in school, and that you need to teach him. You may have to talk with him in a different way, since he is bright--- like you are talking to an older child. Tell him why you are doing things. Explain everything to him. I've done that with my son, and I find he is very rational and logical.

Now, about the school's program. I don't like the sight word program. I went through it, and I can't pronounce words I don't know.

Phonics is great. My son had phonics in school, and can pronounce most words he does not know. I highly recommend Primary Phonics books. They are really fun, too. My family and I still laugh about them today, particularly the one, "Gum on a Cat".

Answer 3

I know how you feel. I am a mother of two, a 12 yr old and a 9yr old. It does get easier, I promise...lol I'll share what has worked for me. As soon as they get home, I allow a small snack. Then it's homework time. I get rid of all distractions, the family pet, toys, radio and most of all TV. They sit at the dining room table with the supplies they need and books placed nicely on the table. I have learned that you must be persistant, and always do the homework at the same time. This gives a schedule. They KNOW when it's time to do homework. No supprises and not later in the evening when they have put "learning" out of their mind. Be patient. This is tough stuff to them, and we tend to teach the way we were taught. The problem is, they teach differently now. So what I did and still do, is meet with or discuss on the phone my concerns with each teacher every year. I look at their books before I "help" to see how the book explains the lesson. In many cases, they bring home a photo copy of the homework needing done, and I read the directions and I think to myself, WHAT? This is where talking to the teacher has helped. I tried helping my daughter with her subtraction. I was explaining to her how to "borrow from your neighbor", and I noticed she was just getting confused. I called the teacher and she explained to me they call it regrouping now. No wonder she was looking at me like I fell off the rocker!

It's a great time to start this too. He is only in kindergarten, and unless you set the rules now, and follow them everyday, it will probably get worse. Then you both are frustrated, and this just leads to allot of unnessary "bad times". Good luck and I hope this was some help!

Answer 4

It sounds like he is bored and frustrated. I would continue to teach him phonics at home - use The Letter Factory by Leap Frog and The Word Factory by Leap Frog. My kids love them and my 3 yr. old is spelling because of them. Singing the sight words back and forth to each other might make it fun too. Make a chart for good homework habits and reward him after a certain amount of stars. Read a book together for fun after homework is done. Use M&M's as rewards after each correct sight word (or other treats). Ask him what would make it more interesting...Hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 5

I hate the way they teach now. You can buy phonetic work books for kids that have lots of pictures and you can make a game out of doing a page with a reward at the end of it. (A bowl of smarties on the table & he gets a smartie for every word he gets etc.). Weirdly enough they will bring in the phonics later which is backwards if you ask me. Anyway...

I can't believe they have homework for kids in kindergarten now. As long as you count with him, and teach him words as you are walking through the neighbourhood or in the grocery store learning can be fun for him. It's the sitting down at the table & being forced to do something that he probably doesn't like.

My kids could both count to 50 and had started to read by the time they left kindergarten but they were in the minority. I think if you read to them alot and point out words as you read & sound them out once he starts to "pretend" to read with you, it's all good.

Answer 6

You can teach both sight words and phonics at home. Does he know his basic letter sounds? The Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is great for helping with this.

Some of the sight words taught at school are truely that.....words that don't fit into the traditional rules about phonics so you kind of do have to read them "by sight." Other sight words taught at school are usually words that appear A LOT in text...high frequency words. (the, was, is, of, etc.)

You can help him with the sounding out words he doesn't know issue by teaching him word families and chunking. Word families such as the "AT" family (hat, bat, cat, sat, mat, etc.). Then teach him to "chunk" words by looking for a smaller word that he knows in the bigger word. (If you can read "at" then you can read "combat" for example.)

Try making his work at home fun. Make a game of it. Have him work in short spurts and then take a break for a snack or to run a lap around the house. Or when he is reading, he reads a sentence/page and then you read one.

Answer 7

i'm a instructor and that is too a lot. i have self belief Kindergartners ought to get some type of reinforcement so father and mom can artwork with them at homestead yet a packet? Insane. although, and that i'm playing devil's recommend right here, instructors are being compelled to make kindergartners do further and extra each 12 months. expectancies have replaced appreciably over the purely appropriate few years. i doesn't be shocked in the experience that they ought to commence taking diagnostic checks interior the close to destiny. "interior the frenzy for more suitable tutorial criteria and severe stakes finding out, the expectancy for kindergarten on the prompt's what become envisioned in first grade 2 a lengthy time period in the past. Kindergarten is needed and maximum districts are going to requiring finished-day. youthful ones are envisioned to income their letters, letter sounds, and counting in preschool and are reading and doing addition and subtraction in kindergarten. So, to those that are wondering lower back a era to at the same time as they were in kindergarten, a similar guidelines do exactly not follow." properly reported. i'm 40 2 and *I* went to Kindergarten finished time. section-time kindergarten is rather overseas to me. Florida now calls for that scholars ought to take care of to ascertain previously leaving Kindergarten. They no longer have lovable little kitchens and gown-up parts of their school rooms anymore. State mandates have taken each and each of the interesting out of it. unhappy, yet real.

Answer 8

This may sound funny, but they teach "sight words" first and then they teach phonics. I have a first grader that loves to read now that he really can. As far as helping him on his home work might I suggest that you let him teach you. Let him explain what he is doing, then you try it his way, when it isn't the right way you correct him very gently. It works for me and I can truly tell you that I have a very active child. As far as one on one attention there isn't much of that anymore.

Answer 9

I also have a kindergartner. I made a game out of helping him learn. I put the alphabet and numbers to music. I made a little game out of spelling called Fish Me A Word. You play it by making 26 different fishes. Then you put a letter of the Alphabet on each one. You give the child a pole to fish the letters with and let him have at it. He has to pronounce the letter correctly or he has to put it back and try again. When he gets enough letters to make a word he has to tell me what the word is. If he can't he starts all over.
You could see if this helps your son. Let me know what other ideas you can come up with as I am always looking for different methods to use so that my son doesn't get bored. You could also play word bingo.
I think that once you make the learning fun and interesting he will come around. Just give it time.

Answer 10

i have two kids - now in 6th grade and 2nd grade. i used to also supplement at home. i got them workbooks for all the subjects, and i got them software programs to do on the computer. if you have a computer, then the software programs might interest him a little more. the software programs are good because they also learn independently and usually they are learning without knowing it.
schools now are teaching both phonics and sight words.

Answer 11

I have a kindergartner and she has homework twice a week. They are independent and want to do it themselves and I let her then I go back and grade it and show her if something is wrong. We read the step 1 books at walmart for children and she loves them. Sight words is how it seems to be now days. You might want to check out the flash cards at walmart and use them once or twice a week to help out to.