How much homework is enough?

[Zguy28]

My 6 year old son has been coming from school with 5 homework assignments per night. This includes two math, one science, he has to record the weather every night for a month, and read one book (on a first grade level) a night.

What is up with that? He was doing homework for over two hours last night!

And he's only in first grade. When does he have time to be a kid?

How much is enough? This is ridiculous. Anybody else have any experiences or gripes to share on this?

Home schooling is looking better and better...

[Predicto]

That is nonsense. Sounds like that teacher is using homework as a substitute for actually teaching during school time. Many elite private schools have very little homework until the upper grades.

[Raub]

When I was stationed in Oklahoma, we had the same problem with my daughter in I believe 4th or 5th grade. She would be doing homework from the time she got home until 7 or 8 at night, with a short break for dinner. It was ridiculous. Kids should be able to be kids. In elementary school, 30 mins to an hour of homework is plenty.

[HOF44]

Homework before Jr High is a joke.

[Zguy28]

That is nonsense. Sounds like that teacher is using homework as a substitute for actually teaching during school time. Many elite private schools have very little homework until the upper grades.

That is what I thought.

I am going to write a very nice and professional, but firm, letter to the school about it.

It sucks because we really love his school and so does he. Its a little school back in the country away from all of the traffic and sprawl.

[Zguy28]

Homework before Jr High is a joke.

That's what I say. I don't think they should even have homework before 6th grade.

[endzone_dave]

I agree with everyone else. Pounding little kids with homework isn't a good thing.

[Destino]

The worst part is how heavily weighted homework is towards the final grade. My cousin had a highschool class where the homework was worth 50% of the final grade. I don't see how a class in which the student can ace every test, quiz, and paper... but get a C for doing poorly on homework. The purpose of school is to LEARN not to keep kids as busy as possible.

[TMK9973]

I agree -

But before you send a letter to the school - that will come down to the teacher from the top down,

Go talk to the teacher directly. My son is 6, had the same issue last year. I went and talked to the teacher and frankly said, my son is not going to do this. She worked with my wife and some other folks and came to a more reasonable standard.

If you go directly to the school, and the school then sends the letter to the teacher, she might hold it against your son. Not on purpose, but human nature is human nature.

[Zguy28]

The worst part is how heavily weighted homework is towards the final grade. My cousin had a highschool class where the homework was worth 50% of the final grade. I don't see how a class in which the student can ace every test, quiz, and paper... but get a C for doing poorly on homework. The purpose of school is to LEARN not to keep kids as busy as possible.

We're also finding out that they won't tell you anything is wrong with your kids handwriting until report cards and then give you a "Needs Improvement". Yet they say nothing about it during the term?

[Predicto]

Homework before Jr High is a joke.

Well, a little homework is useful. If nothing else, I think all kids should read for, say, a half hour every evening.

[China]

The worst part is how heavily weighted homework is towards the final grade. My cousin had a highschool class where the homework was worth 50% of the final grade. I don't see how a class in which the student can ace every test, quiz, and paper... but get a C for doing poorly on homework. The purpose of school is to LEARN not to keep kids as busy as possible.

:laugh: Reminds me of when I was in high school. One term in algebra I didn't do any of the homework. I got 100 on all of my tests. The homework was supposed to help you prepare for the tests. So I figured why bother, I obviously don't need the preparation. Try explaining that to the teacher. It was still required. I got a C for the term. :doh:

[Destino]

We're also finding out that they won't tell you anything is wrong with your kids handwriting until report cards and then give you a "Needs Improvement". Yet they say nothing about it during the term?

That doesn't seem smart though you can always look at it for yourself and see if it's terrible or not. On the bright side terrible handwriting might mean your child will grow up to become a doctor.

[Sticksboi05]

Dude, I have less homework then that now and I'm a junior. That's terrible. Two hours.

[China]

Well, a little homework is useful. If nothing else, I think all kids should read for, say, a half hour every evening.

That is all the homework my son has now. He's in second grade. The amount of homework he's had has seemed to vary over the years. Last year there were a couple of times when he had homework that was time consuming and difficult and would have been even had he been much older. A couple of times the homework didn't have instructions that made any sense to him or me so I said don't worry about it.

[mojobo]

That's what I say. I don't think they should even have homework before 6th grade.

I don't think there should be homework in college either but apparantly when you try to explain this idea to a proffessor your suddenly viewed as "lazy" and need to "stop falling asleep in class and take some notes". What is this world coming to:rolleyes: (btw I remember going through that in elementary school and the teacher is likely very lazy and will make the kids feel really guilty if they miss any assignment)

[GrapeApe]

My daughter usually gets one home work assignment a night (1st grade also). It usually takes her 15 minutes to do it. It gets her used to doing after school work which is good, but not so much that she dreads it. With her after school activities (diving twice a week at VT and gymnastics one day a week), it's a proper amount. Not too much, not too little. Lets her still do her thing.

[No_Pressure]

I remember I had a lot of homework in elementary school...I never really did most of it. As a result, I have a lot of great memories of playing games and stuff with friends and having fun when I was little. It isn't like not doing the homework for 1st through 4th grade classes left me clueless when it came to the material. I did pay attention and learn/do the work in school. If the teacher is good at that level you won't need much homework...of course when you start getting into middle school and high school where a lot of the stuff you are learning requires some memorization and practice, homework makes sense. For little kids? They should be allowed to have fun childhoods cause you don't ever get that back.

Of course the function of homework for little kids is to give them a good work ethic for when their homework actually matters...I always got in trouble in elementary school for not doing my work, and personally it had no bearing on how I worked through middle/high school, currently in college, or at any summer job I have had.

[Darth Tater]

When I was stationed in Oklahoma, we had the same problem with my daughter in I believe 4th or 5th grade. She would be doing homework from the time she got home until 7 or 8 at night, with a short break for dinner. It was ridiculous. Kids should be able to be kids. In elementary school, 30 mins to an hour of homework is plenty.

When I was in elementary school, my parents did NOT let me do homework over the weekend and would get very upset with the teachers if I got more than an hour of work a night. Of course, in junior high it began to transition but by the time I got to HS they really only cared if I got good grades.

[boofMcboof]

School is for FOOLS.

[JosephGibbs]

I somewhat disagree here with the general tone. Although I believe 2hours per evening is highly excessive for that age. American children and youth are falling further and further behind intellectually to peers in other countries. I had lots of homework, projects,and reports before 6th grade and it was a good stepping stool (not sure if a private school has anything to do with it). By 7th grade, I was much further ahead of my peers in other schools. Maybe my response is more directed toward junior high and highschool. I had a study hall every other day and still had over an hour of work to do every evening. The habits you develop young will stay with you throughout higher education. Highschoolers in general are not challenged enough and if they can go through a whole week of school without doing homework something is wrong. I just finished grad school in a fine institution and I can see standards dropping there as well. Back to the point , for that age, I think no more than 30 minutes a night is appropriate

[alexey]

Yeah teaching to work hard is not the same as teaching to work smart.

[Blondie]

Face it people.

School is different now than when you were in elementary.

NCLB is here.

It is different.

What we expect from our children is MUCH MORE than what was expected from us.

Homework is for enrichment with the parents.

It is to get the parents involved in what learning is taking place in the classroom. It is to allow the class independent practice after having been taught, guided practice, reteach and then comes independent practice.

Remember, what takes one child 45 minutes may take another 25 mintues. Nothing to do with "smart" but to do with pace, concentration and focus.

Life is different now. We expect more for children in each grade. What we were taught at the end of 3rd is now taught in the middle or end of 2nd. There are standards by which all children are measured.

It is what it is.

our elementarys give homework according to grades.....like Monday Wed 1,3, 5 get homework....while 2, 4, 6 get it on Tues Thurs.

As I said.......this is for enrichment. Allowing parents to read with the child.

In my Pre-K class, my teacher has a journal for the children. She draws a pic of what they learned that day. She asks the child to go home and try to sign to the parent what happened. Then, the parent draws something.....stick figure or whatever, to talk about the night activities. The next day, the child talks about the pic.

These are 3 year old children. They have no language and are learning to communicate. This is important.

Just as reading and math are important.

Educator rant.

[kevin11]

Im a 10th grader and all i have to do is math homework.

It takes about 20 minutes.

But then, all i have for my classes are

Keyboarding

Programming

English 10..This class is a joke. I dropped my Honors English cause Honor classes that give no extra GPA credit are useless, plus i ended up with a 78 C. O well, if i dont slack off, i should get an A.

Adv. ALgebra II.Picky teacher. I can questions wrong because i dont write the orginal problem or i put it in decimal form instead of fraction form.

[Henry]

My son still doesn't have that much homework and he's in the third grade. This year is the first year he's had homework every night of the week, and it takes about an hour.

Sounds like you might have an overzealous educator up there, Z.