Homework and a 4 Year Old

The best advice I can give you is stay on a schedule...if I get off schedule with my son (who is in head start), I can forget it. Also...don't go for perfection, if she scribbles all over the paper, so be it...that is where she is at. This is headstart, there is no grade. The idea is to get her use to doing something at home after school, you don't want her to hate school and homework right out of the gate.

I wonder if the youngest might be bored with the work involved. I failed coloring in Kindergarten because I thought it was stupid and a waste of my time. I was reading then, so I always wanted a book. If she's doing well with the material she's been given, you might as the teacher if she can have more advanced work. Good luck!

I taught for HeadStart for 15 years and have a great appreciation for those parents who attemp to help their children with homework.
Your child is around others who are also sitting down doing homework, and its implemented in a daily routine. Try giving homework to your other child also and do it daily.
My daughter is in preschool, they have homework weekly, and I make my own homework for her with things she need extra help on. She to throws a fit and tries to rush thru or not do as good as I know she can. I have started a routine to work up to doing homework. We SAY the alphabets, count, sing, and etc then we finish with the homework. We have a saying that we are working our hands to the bones. My daughter is just now showing an intrest in learning. I use to tell her she needed to know this in order to goto kindergarten. She could care less about kindergarten, now when she is doing her work she gets excited about kindergarten.
Although many people are against littleones in homework, she is being prepared for "Big School". I have many friends that teach for the public schools, and the teachers all want the kids that have gone to HeadStart, because they are usually advance.

If you would like your 4 year old to do the work sheets an idea might be to make a game of it. When my daughter was 5 I would set an egg timer and say see how much you can do in 15 mins. Once the time was over we would look at what she did and I would praise her on the good work.

I don't know if you have tried this, but I would try doing "homework" of your own by her side. You could copy her work and do it or you could do something similar while she is working. The improtant thing is to have your time together while she is working.
S. R
Mother of 5

from my experience in working in early childhood the homework packets are sent home so that parents and children can spend quality time together, the parents are aware of what is going on in the classroom, and what their child is learning at school. If your child is doing good at school and is progressing properly there should be no concerns. You should not force her to do it that will only cause worse problems like the ones you have decribed. I wish that when I was teaching that parents were concerend about getting it done I always felt I was wasting paper and ink making the sets to send home. I would just ask occasionally if she would like to show you what she has been learning at school and if she would like to do this paper to show you. If she completes it or attempts it make a big deal of it. If she doesn't just let her know that you know she is smart and maybe sometime she would like to sit WITH you and work on it. Make a special place to leave the packets out where your daughter can find them on her own, any time she wants, and she just might surprise you by working on it in her time not when mom says it is home work time. Remeber, every child is different and try not to compare, I no that is not easy as a mother or a teacher. Hope these ideas help. This makes me want to go back to pre-k.
May the Lord be with your family,
M.

Not sure what else is included in the homework other than the coloring you mention, but does the 4 year old have any coloring books or other pages that she likes to color? If so, perhaps you could get a few of those pages and a homework color page together. Get your daughter to color a page from her favorite coloring book first, then try to work in the homework page.

Maybe there are some other fun ways to get her in the mood to do the other homework. My daughter is only 2, so we haven't hit the homework yet! Lately she always tells me to draw a tree for her...I hope that doesn't lead her to expect me to do her homework for her! ha!

My six year old was the same way. My advice is for you to color in front of her and have fun at it without asking her to join. Color out of the lines even or draw your own picture. Sometimes my son would join in for a few seconds and other times he couldn't be less interested. The fact is simply no two children have the exact same interests, development rate, or learning style. My son gets frustrated very easily and is very much a perfectionist. If he fears he won't get something perfect he doesn't even want to try. You might try other small motor skill activities with your 4yo, maybe homework itself isn't what frustrates her it could be just that she isn't all that comfortable with using those small motor skills. toys like small legos, or those tiny doll sets with a thousand tiny pieces. Just an idea. Whatever you do don't push her if she gets frustrated guide her attention away for a while. Instead encourage her, try to peak her interest by visual example maybe let her see you reward yourself after coloring your picture. If there is one thing I've learned about my children its that the easiest way for me to get them to do anything is to help them enjoy it and before they will enjoy it they want to feel like they are good at it.

have you tried sitting down at homework time with her. I know you have other things to be doing, but that is how I finally broke my oldest of the habit of blowing off homework. When it is homework time I sit down too. No TV, or radio. The kitchen chores, and laundry have to wait. I sit and pay bills, or just do crosswords. When he finally realized that it was quite work time, he stopped fighting it.

Try punishing her if she doesn't do it spare the rod and spoil the child you are the parent she should do what you tell her to do not what she wants to do... Then reward her after she does the work whether verbally or with a treat... My son is six and he doesn't like to do homework but he does because i tell him to

To me .. homework and 4 yr. old doesn't even belong in the same sentence. I've got 2 children and that is way too young for homework. You should only expect that they could concentrate one minute for each year of their age on a project, meaning they might be interested for 4 minutes. As the child matures, their attention level and discipline will increase for longer assignments, but not know. Our son is all honors classes and he never did homework, only coloring for fun when he wanted at that age. Same for daughter. When they are 5 or 6, a small amount in the evening would be fine. They get tired also and bored quickly. Don't burn them out too early on school - let them exercise and do the work like a fun thing, you color a page and they can too. Make a book for a family member as a gift. But only in a few minutes at a time.

Personally I think, at age 4, homework is a little much to ask from a child. Let them be kids for a little longer.

My son went to one year of preschool and we had to struggle with him his entire school career - school was just not his thing. He did only what he needed to do and he turned out fine. My daughter also went to one year of preschool and there was no homework involved for either child. She is now a senior in high school, valedictorian for her graduating class, Oklahoma Academic Scholar, NHS, student council, works two part time jobs and is a baseball manager. She managed to do just fine.

Kids are different and you have to make your peace with that.

I think if you push too much on them too soon, you will just have the constant battle.

Four year olds should not be required to do homework (i.e. worksheets). I work at an elementary school. Homework for children that age is not a requirement. They probably just want you to be involved with your child. Talk to the teacher to see if it must be completed. My son (age 5) is in prek. He went to an early intervention place at 4. The only homework they had to do was creative things such as draw your family, cut out things that you like, etc. Check with the teacher. Don't push her or you will have her hating school before she has even begun.

Rochelle-
I've worked for Head Start for a total of 10 years in Buffalo, NY and Central, AR. I was also their education specialist for 6 years! I never heard of giving kids that young homework. Actutally Early Childhood says that work sheets should not be done in preschools AT ALL. It should be creative work like collages and children's drawings. You may want to talk to the director about it. Also, it may be part of parent involvement and volunteering. They HAVE TO have parent involvement to keep their grant. Many parents do not realize that if they do not have enough in-kind, They do not keep their grant ... thus they close up. This is for ALL centers around the states. It's in their performance standards.

I'm sorry and you all may find my solution to this problem not to your liking. Controversial even.

Don't stress about it - if she does it- fine! If she doesn't - fine! It is not like she is going to fail or fall behind.

I don't think 4,5,and 6 year olds should have homework. I even find 7 a little to young for homework. Why should they do homework - they are babies. They have ahead of them 10-15 years of homework and a lifetime of work. Let them be kids and find things out about the world on there own. (At 13 & 15 my sons have atleast 2 hours of homework a night, so there is plenty of time for homework later.)

Sure you can make things educational but first make them fun. Count the flatware out of the draw when laying the table for dinner. Have magnetic letters on the fridge and play games with them - find me a 's', spell cat, etc. I have always had crayons and colored pencil and paper on the table - they can draw, colour or write whenever they want too. My 10 and 8 year old sons will sit there ages creating things (they both have always liked coloring and drawing). My 15 and 13 year old sons rarely ever touch it when they were little. My 15 year old son liked puzzles when he was little - he now has a very logical mind - that was his strength, but could we get him to write - no! My 13 year old likes sports and is very sociable and always has is head in a book.

Remember always try to read to your children. Plus let your children see you reading a book. Studies have shown that parents who read books regularly have children who read and enjoy reading.

I quess what I am saying is let her find what she likes to do. Don't stress about it. Give her the opportunity to do the work, but don't force it. You never know she may follow her sister's example one day. Find her strengths and let her fly. There will be plenty homework when she's older.

Homweork for a 4-year-old? You have got to be joking.

Quite franky, I wouldn't push the homework issue - she's too young to be having homework to begin with.

R., your clue is in your statement - different as night and day. I have 5 kids and not a one of them is the same. I home schooled 3 of mine for years and I think the worst thing you can do is try to force her to be like the other kids. If she is having fun at "school" but wants to leave work there and not do it at home there is no harm in that. She is not going to be behind the other kids if she doesn't do homework at 4. She's still so young, let her play and explore her imagination with toys. This gives her the opportunity to learn what excites her in life. The world is so determined today to make kids into mini adults and the kids are loosing the best "fun" of their life. If she isn't forced - which stresses you - she might one day just sit down on her own beside sister and start working. Leave the papers out where she has access and don't mention them. She's 4, let her be a kid. You don't want to make her think school is something to dread. Good luck.

try playing a game with her tell her we have to do this work so we can grow up very smart

Don't get stressed about it. It is not important that a 4 year old color a picture. Some children don't like to color. Some children want their coloring to look better than they are able to make it, so they won't even attempt it. Some have their own ideas about artistic expression. Whatever is going on in her mind, which you may never find out, just back off and give her time. Maybe she will be willing in a few months. If she isn't, so what? You can't force her, and if you keep on trying, you are going to cause bigger problems. She is an individual, and different from every other child. Everyone has their way of learning.