Homework. . .Whose is it anyway?

My oldest son is in the third grade at an exemplary school and is pummelled every night with approximately 2 hours of homework 5 nights a week. On top of that, if I don't sign the appropriate papers and turn them in on the appropriate day, he gets points deducted. Wow. . .and he's only 8!

I have heard that all of this ridiculousness is due to the TAKS test. The teachers spend most of third grade readying the children to take (and pass) this test. Alex's school wants to retain their "exemplary" rating, so the students have to do well on the test for that to continue. As a result I have to be the homework police. Did you do your reading log (mandatory reading for at least 20 minutes a night)? Did you do your math log (at least 10 minutes of math practice a night)? What about other stuff (poem memorization, cursive, spelling. . .)?

The reading log has it's merits, but overall I don't like it. He MUST read. He actually enjoys reading and does it very often on his own. I am worried that he will become burnt out on reading and not want to do it anymore.

The math log REALLY pisses me off. The teacher says to find your child interesting math practice to do for 10 minutes a day. Oh, really. Am I a teacher?? Do I have a teaching degree?? In my opinion, if she wants 10 minutes of math practice a day, send home a 10 minute math worksheet. If I had the patience and knowledge to home school, then yeah, I would come up with the creative math.

Yes, this is public school, and reportedly one of the best in our area. Is there a perfect school? No. But this kind of workload for an 8 year old is ridiculous. He spends almost all day at school sitting in a desk behaving himself, and then has to come home and sit at the table and do even more schoolwork. Yeah, that's natural for an 8 year old boy. He needs to come home, have a snack, and run around and play whatever he wants, not do 2 hours of homework. This and the chicken nugget may be why American kids are so fat! Don't even get me started on school lunches. . .

What Happens Next...

Wow. . . a new president. Not that I didn't think we were going to get one, I just didn't think it would be THAT one. Whispers of recession have become shouts. Now Rush mentioned the concept of "deflation," which is worse than inflation. What now?? Stock market still falling. I have already heard ads on the radio from financial advisers promising to "Obama-proof" your portfolio.



In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, when groceries were still hit and miss, I made garlic bread out of hamburger and hot dog buns to accompany our spaghetti. It reminded me of when I was little and stayed with my Grandma and she would do things like make garlic bread out of the old hamburger buns, etc. Does anyone remember the famous "welfare green pepper burger" from Eddie Murphy's 80's comedy routine? What am I getting at? Is this going to be what we have to look forward to?? Making do with whatever you've got because you can't afford a loaf of special bread or to take your kid for the occasional Happy Meal?? Do I need to call my Grandma and ask her any more "depression era" tips so I can be ahead of the situation? My Great-Grandma would wash out the plastic bags that bread came in so she could reuse them. Will I have to go that far??



By no means do I condone being wasteful, although I know that I am, but I'm not Mrs. Green-Home, either. But it's one thing to conserve, recycle, etc. by choice, but it's another to be forced to do so by hard economic times brought on by socialism. My ancestors rode a nasty, stinky boat for a very long time to get to America and bust their butts to improve their lives, and I am thankful for that. It's a slap in their collective faces if this country goes in possible downward spiral towards socialism, where everyone's situation is the same. . .and it sucks!!

Everyone else has a blog, why not me. . .

My husband made a blog while me and the kids were out of town. He seems to really like posting on it, but since he is very opinionated and likes to talk, i guess it's no big surprise.

My 8 year old son is glued to CNN election coverage right now. I tried to get him to change to Fox News, but he said that CNN was more visually appealing. It will be an interesting few hours or days or weeks to see how this will turn out.

I have randomly surfed blogs lately to see what they are about. I can't read a lot of them, since I'm limited to English only, but I have always been interested on how other people live. . .how people are different, but still the same. I am actually learning things, too.

This first blog is boring, and I'll try to get more interesting, but hey, this is the first post.