Homework Dilemma, Already?

Every day, Sienna comes home with a book bag. The book inside is about 16 pages. A little note from the teacher stuck on the cover indicates the pages that she is supposed to cover. She reads at home first, and the next morning she reads to the teacher for re-enforcement. Or vise vasa. I haven't figured it out.

Every two days, the teach changes the book. There are 5 series for kids from Kindergarten to Grade 2. Sienna will not reach the age for kindergarten until September. But she is about to start Series 3 next week. Here is first half of the content of the last book:

Cop Cat was a cop. Cop Cat had a big hat. Cop Cat had a gun on his hip. It was his job to get Bad Sam and the Kid. His hat did not fit him. The hat was big. The Kid ran up to a man. The kid can rob the man. Cop Cat ran to get the Kid. Cop Cat had his gun. Cop Cat can hit the Kid. The gun got the Kid wet, but the Kid ran on...

Here, "rob" is a new word for Sienna. But she can pronounce it by recognizing it's phonics. On top of this daily reading task, she brings home work to do every weekend. The weekend before the last, for example, she had to write twice the number from 1-50. The last weekend, 50-100 twice. And she had to write a few 3-letter words and her own full name in cursive for a number of times....

Sienna is not too crazy about her daily phonics reading and the writing homework. I had a little dilemma. First of all, I would not, and most probably cannot, make her do any of these. What's the rush of learning to do all these? She is already way ahead of other kids of her age! She even remembers all those planets in the solar system! Is she going to wear herself out doing the home work? But, then I thought about it. We sent her into a system before she turned 2, that encourages different pace of growth for each kids. So far she's been growing beautifully. She is ultra healthy, mentally and physically. I need to trust her teacher, who, with her experience, would have a good judgement as how much pressure she can take. If I were her teacher looking at a 4-year-old who has an attention span of an average adult, I would also assign her some serious task to focus on.

Despite the reluctance, Sienna is willing to finish her home work because she would never be the one to fail the teacher. I talked to her once, "Look Sienna, if you don't like your home work, I understand. But it's your teacher who asks you to do it. What about this? You go and talk to Mrs. Ahmed and tell her that you don't like to do the home work. If she says it's ok, then you don't do it..." I am not sure if Sienna did talk to the teacher or not. She did tell me that Mrs. Ahmed said "Yes, you have to do it."

I skipped two grades but still managed to at the top of the class. And I had no preschool experience like Sienna. And I was by no means a smarter kid than her, maybe I was a bit more showy. To me, what's so difficult about school work or home work? I didn't like homework. But who does? Still I managed to study for 11 years, higher education alone. Think positively. She will be so used to it by the time other kids of her age try to get used to it.

One of the most regrettable things in my life is that I didn't get to use my energy to learn a skill, say to play a musical instrument or to do some kind of sport. I respect skills of any kind. That's the wings you need to fly and to enjoy flying in life. So I am also thinking, once home work becomes a habit and an easy task for Sienna, she could pursue her own interest as her heart leads her. Having said that, I don't think there is anything that Sienna must do. I am only creating an environment for different possibilities to exist if they do arise.