Out Of My Element Here...Homework 3rd grade

[larksongs]

Hi. I thought you ladies may be of some help to me because I am totally out of my element. I am a 'gold star homeschooler ' lol, my son has never been to school. I have a lovely little girl who comes to my home after school for two hours a day and my job is to help her with her homework before mom gets home, not just make sure she gets it done, but have it done right obviously as well as work with her academically on the side. Light tutoring basically.

Well it feels like homework is almost getting in the way of my job . I think that her homework is excessive. Her teacher gives it nightly and her teacher's idea is to pile it on thick Monday night and slowly pull back less and less until barely anything over the weekend. While I understand the sentiment sort of I think it lacks consistency. I would like to give an example of what she had for homework tonight(I think that each assignment has merit just piled into one evening What do you all think?

*Spelling: 20 'Pyramid Spelling Words' . 20 spelling words written like this:

C
Ch
Cha
Chat
Chatt
Chatte
Chatter

*Math: 20 problems/mixed, ordering numbers in the 10,000's from least to greatest and some two column addition and subtraction

*Reading: Read a paragraph. Write the sentence that is the main idea. Draw boxes around supporting details for the main idea. Create a new sentence for the main idea so that it would be at the beginning of the paragraph.

Language : Rewrite 10 sets of sentences so that they are compound.

Vocabulary: Write 10 sentences for this weeks vocabulary words and draw pictures to accompany each sentence.

So that was this evening. This is about the workload each Monday. What is bugging me is that when we are facing this workload she has trouble maintaining focus . It almost gets in my way of working with her because she is trying her best to get it all done before mom comes and it doesn't leave room for me to work with her on the side or work with her more thoroughly on the topics. It's more try and get this done so I can move to the next thing.

I spoke to another mom whose daughter had the same teacher last year but her daughter is advanced. My son is advanced academically so this work would be a drag for him but he would be able to push himself through with some heavy eye rolls. The one mother explained this teacher's homework policy about the heavy workload getting lighter throughout the week but I feel that for some kids who may not be advanced in the academic area that this is a pretty lousy way to start the week as well as counter productive.

On top of that she loses the 30 minutes recess if it is not done. I have a problem with this for obvious reasons but if she loses recess , and she is all wound up after school it makes it even harder for me to work with her. Her mom is not happy either about the way the workload is and also thinks that she would benefit with a similar workload , but spaced evenly throughout the week so that there was more consistency.

So am I just a completely verdant homeschooling mom baffled by this amount of homework or is this an average workload or policy for a third grader?

[kimellett]

I'm assuming the teacher won't change her hw policies, so let's work with what you've got...

I THINK the "rule" is 10 min/homework per night per grade level (so a 3rd grader should have 30 min). This sounds like way more than 30 min for the girl you tutor.

I would talk to her mom and work out a schedule. Include the girl in the discussion if appropriate. Something like 20 min of work as soon as she's had a snack, used the bathroom, washed hands etc. Then at least 60-90 min break, and tackle another 20 min. Break, work, until mom picks her up. Mom is going to have to do some at home with her--at least on Mon. (I can't imagine not doing ANY hw with my ds...it's kind of fun for both of us, and it lets me know his strengths/weakneses etc). If homework turns into drudgery, the girl will learn to resent it, hate school, drop out, and end up living in a cardboard box begging for quarters. Ok, maybe not that bad, but you don't want a 3rd grader hating school! Good luck!

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by kimellett

I would talk to her mom and work out a schedule. Include the girl in the discussion if appropriate. Something like 20 min of work as soon as she's had a snack, used the bathroom, washed hands etc. Then at least 60-90 min break, and tackle another 20 min. Break, work, until mom picks her up. Mom is going to have to do some at home with her--at least on Mon.

I agree to the idea of a schedule and of working for a set amount of time and then taking a break. You can think through how long each work segment should be.

Explain to the mom that what you guys had agreed to isn't working because there is just too much homework.

Rather than your job being to make sure all the homework is done, your job should be to make sure that she has a set amount of focused time on homework. Since the mom really wants you to tutor, then work on those subjects that she is most likely to need help with. Tutors get paid by the hour, not by making sure that a certain amount gets done.

(I think that the homework load, esp the amount of writing, is too much for most kids that age.)

[LynnS6]

that's about 4 times the amount of homework our 3rd grader gets. He is advanced, but it would STILL be a pain for him to do these things because that's a lot of writing.

I would help her break up the tasks to be more manageable. Give her a snack when she gets there, then set the timer for 15 minutes. Ask her to work as focused as she can for 15 minutes. Then take a 15-20 minute break. Then go back for another 15 minutes of focused work. Then, anything she doesn't get done, you send home for her parents work on with her.

[meemee]

no that is not how much my 3rd grader brings home on monday night. her teacher too does the monday a lot stuff and lighter as you go thru the week with none over the weekend, but that is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY toooo much hw. if that teacher tried that load in our school, the parents would throw a fit and take it up with teh principal and school board.

[mammastar2]

Holy cow, that's a lot!

My third grader gets a package on Monday that's due at the end of the week. It works out to about one sheet of work a day between Monday and Thursday. The sheets are not very complicated: a page of simple math, a page of spelling exercises, that kind of thing. Plus they are supposed to keep track of what they read for pleasure and put down a comment about it each night. What you are describing sounds to me like a full day of school work, and is completely ridiculous. Is it really all due the next day, or could there be some misunderstanding and it's the work for the whole week??

Honestly, I would encourage the mom to get in touch with the teacher and say something like "With the input of my daughter's tutor, I have decided that she will be completing the Monday homework over the course of the week rather than handing it in on Tuesday. This will give her tutor the opportunity to work with her through the week to reinforce the concepts. Given that this is my decision, I expect that she will not be required to miss recess as a result. Thank you for your understanding."

[egoldber]

I think that my third grader gets a lot of homework, but that is more than she gets for any one night.

We do have the problem of the teacher "forgetting" they assigned a packet on Monday and continuing to assign other homework throughout the week, but that's a little different.