Homework, part the 94th

I finally got the opportunity to talk to Sabrina's teacher this morning. (I say "finally" because I wrote her a note on Wednesday asking her to call me, wrote another note on Friday--that one just explaining why Sabrina hadn't done her homework, not asking her to call--and thought I would see her yesterday at aftercare but was wrong.) The note I wrote on Wednesday said something jargon-ish like "I want to talk to you about how best to support what you are doing in class." What was in the back of my head was "she has too much homework, so what do you want me to do, skip dinner or skip getting enough sleep?"

So this morning she apologized for not calling--totally reasonable, she intended to call me over the weekend but is caring for her ill mother and didn't get around to it--and then promptly said "you can support what we are doing in class by doing the homework." At that point I explained that we were spending a half hour on it and not finishing it, that we have only an hour and a half between getting home and bedtime, and I'm the only adult in the house and just can't prepare dinner and help with homework at the same time. I also explained that we talk about school in the car (for example, yesterday's homework included finding words that start with "F" so we brainstormed those words, as well as other things like rhyming and opposites) but she can't write in the car! I agreed with her that Sabrina does need practice with writing but was just feeling hamstrung by not having enough time in the day. So we agreed that we could switch back and forth between reading and math homework, and I think we're doing to focus on writing more instead of the finding pictures part.

She also told me that by the end of the year, the kids are expected to be able to count by 2s and 5s to 110 (why 110, and not 100, is beyond me). And after they get to 20 (2 more weeks), the next project is to learn their address and phone number. After last Thursday's adventure with mom, I'm a little nervous about teaching her our address! She knows the apartment number and recognizes the building, and I did already start working on teaching her my street name, and it's super important for safety reasons for kids to know their address. But I'm nervous anyway. I told her teacher that I'm a little nervous about it, and we'll just figure something out, whether it's teaching her my address despite my nervousness, or teaching her her dad's address.

Or maybe dad will have moved to my big city by then?

Who am I kidding.