Soap Box

I'm a pretty laid back mom when it comes to a lot of things. If you don't believe me, go back and read some random posts about VICK.S, baby powder, vaseline, or sidewalk paint. I try my hardest not to sweat the small stuff and just concentrate on their overall well-being. You know, the big stuff. Are they learning manners, respect, to love God, and to love the life they have been given? When it comes to academics, my philosophy has always been to learn the stuff when the TIME comes. I have never been an academic "pusher". You know those moms that you see on TV pushing the latest curriculum on how to have your 6 week old read their own Self-Help book on OVERCOMING PUSHY MOTHERS. That stuff always seemed ridiculous to me. My philosophy is to let the baby be a baby, let the toddler be a toddler, let the pre-schooler be a pre-schooler. I never understood why people push their kids at such an EARLY age for no good reason. Let the kids play outside. Learn about God's creation; not how to read the Book of Genesis (not that that is a bad thing.. but you know what I'm saying). Let them get dirty, let them get wet; not figure out the chemical bond reaction your laundry detergent has with the mud when trying to get a stain out. Heck, I don't even KNOW if that sentence makes sense.. but I bet there is a 3 year old that could tell me!
On to what this post is about. Now, as a disclaimer, I LOVE my childrens school, LOVE their teachers. This has NOTHING to do with them. It's the SYSTEM I am frustrated with. In kinder all the kids were encouraged to write. It didn't matter the spelling, the structure of the sentence, or punctuation. They were just encouraged to write. They kept saying, "we have to get ready for 1st grade when your student will be writing a lot!". Enter 1st Grade. They were still encouraged to write without worrying too much about spelling (a little more attention to it, but not much), sentence structure, but at last, some attention to punctuation. We had to do "reading logs" (I HATE reading logs) and write "summaries" for the books because "we are getting the kids ready for 2nd grade!". Now, we are in 2nd grade. I just got back from the "meet-the teacher" orientation thing. I was SO overwhelmed, and I'm just the MOM! I can't imagine what Noah feels like. The homework is getting outrageous, we are finally supposed to learn how to construct sentences, we are going to start spelling tests, and paying attention to punctuation. They will have homework every night not to exceede 30 minutes (this is, of course, not including your reading log/ summary which will add another 30 minutes to your time) and this year they get grades. This all, of course, is because they are trying to get ready for 3rd grade. Why am I babbling all this, you ask? (and if you stuck with me this long, I'm sure you are asking..) Well, two reasons actually:
My first issue is with the entire sentence structure/spelling stuff. For two ENTIRE years, my son has just been encouraged to write how his heart see fit. Spelling/ sentence structure is OUT the window.. just write. I felt like I was being encouraged to be some "new-age" parent where you can't tell him you are writing/spelling wrong--it might damage his psyche!!!! Now, all of the sudden, SPELLING counts, AND it is GRADED. What the heck. Suddenly, he has to know how to construct a sentence. And all of that bad spelling, you ask? Well, we will work on undoing those bad habits by having spelling tests. lovely. Now, I'm 32, and I have a hard time breaking habits... but lets expect these little ones too.. oh, ok. If you might not think this is a big thing, well, you don't do homework with us. My son has NO idea (through no fault of his own..) how to construct a sentence. For example, if I say to write a sentence about our dog Waffles, he would write something like: " runing in the bak yrd" No clue. Shouldn't we start at the beginning and teach proper spelling, sentence structure, etc. BEFORE letting them write? Then there wouldn't be all these bad habits to suddenly break in 2nd grade. Call me crazy (I already know I am...) but it just makes sense to me. When I started playing the flute, Mr. Barker didn't hand me the flute and say "Why don't you just play around with it, make up notes, figure out your breathing while playing and put your hands how you want to on the instrument, then we will go back in 2 years and show you the proper way.. have fun!" Yes, i know that sounds absurd, but thats what I think of the school curriculum lately. absurd.
My second issue is why can't kids be in the GRADE THEY ARE IN???? Why is it ALWAYS , "we are preparing them for....*insert other grade, or heck, college here*" When will kids be allowed to be where they are at and KNOW that it's OK. What happened to that? When did we start expecting kids to prepare for kinder when they were getting their umbilical cord cut? What the heck? I don't think it was always this way? Yes, I believe they should get a good education, but let 2nd grade be 2nd grade.. not be the "introduction to 3rd" because as soon as you get to third grade it becomes "the introduction for 4th". Ugh. I don't want an introduction to the next grade. I want him to learn what he needs to know in THIS grade. That system seemed to work.. after all, THAT system sent a man to the moon.. or maybe I'm mistaken?

*Disclaimer* I know that my sentence structure sucks, as well as spelling. I, however, am not getting graded on such things. I am also a tired mother of 3 just trying to get down my thoughts.