One of the smartest things I’ve done recently is set up a homework kit for Adam. It’s just a box that contains everything he normally needs for his school work – scissors, an eraser, a pencil (and sharpener), crayons, a glue stick, a highlighter, and markers.

It’s not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, but having everything he needs in one place (and safe from his little siblings) has already made things a lot easier for us both.

And in case you’re wondering just what sort of homework a first grader gets, here’s what Adam does each week:

– He reads at least two books each night and most nights comes home with a short reading worksheet to do as well.

– He’s given a four page packet of math work on Monday that is due back on Friday. I suggested doing a page a night, but he likes to knock it all out at once. It really doesn’t take long and we do it on a non-soccer night.

– He is also given his spelling words for the week on Monday and then is tested on them on Friday. On Monday night I have him spell the words out loud, so I can see if there are any that are going to be a problem (then I can randomly ask him to spell them throughout the week). Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I try to give him a written test.

– He also has a little bit of church school homework each week. This week it was memorizing a short bible verse (“Let the children come to me.” Mark 10:14). I printed out the verse and taped it to the door leading outside. Each time he goes out, and a lot of the time when he just passes it, he will stop and read it. That system seems to work well for him and he memorized this and last week’s verse (“God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” Genesis 1:31-1) pretty easily.

So that’s a normal week’s worth of work for Adam. He is doing a great job with all of it.