Good Years - Bad Years

My daughter has no problems in school but my middle son struggles. I believe he had sleep deprivation from the time he was a baby until his surgery when he was 2 1/2 to remove his adnoids. He finally slept through the night shortly after his surgery. Anyway, his teacher this year is making it a bad year for school. We spend at least an hour a day on homework. We even had a number of sheets during the holiday weekend when he is only in third grade. Many other of the parents are having problems with this teacher also. It sure makes getting home from work SOOOOO enjoyable. I certainly don't blame it all on the teacher but I know he does better when the teacher is more organized and can handle rumbunchious (spelling???) boys. I know of at least three other children in this same class that are struggling - I guess I won't expect straight A's or even B's this year. I just hope he doesn't lose his enjoyment for school and his willingness to try his best. I am sure the teacher is doing the best she can but it just doesn't seem fair for the kids that aren't perfect!

Tonight I screemed at the top of my lungs at my son because he couldn't remember a story the teacher read to them last week. Of course it was probably Monday or Tuesday and we had the holiday in between. If he couldn't do the three pages of homework then the teacher WILL (and has) given 0's. I just don't want him to fail because of not remembering. I sent a note to school asking the teacher if we could borrow the book or get a copy if it was short enough. I got no reply. The night before he was supposed to finish a page but it referenced a map we did not have. I see tonight we have the map so at least we can finish this. I sent one page of homework to school and she wrote on it "paragraph" and gave it back. So does this mean he has to rewrite it with paragraphs or is this just a note for us for the future. I have no idea. I usually end up calling one of the other Mom's to see what she thinks the teacher really wants us to do. She sent home spelling words this week (always hand written) with the word equiptment. I can see having a typo but.... Again this is going to be a bad year!