Son in K, 10 minutes of "homework" + 10 minutes of reading every night. The bedtime reading is something we've always done anyway, and way more than 10 minutes each night. We now have a reading log where we write down the books read each night, and record any new words he has learned. Very simple stuff.
The "homework" is really easy & designed to be fun. My child loves it! He feels very important to have this work to do. One night he had to find as many numbers in the house as possible, and draw a few of the items he found; my job was to explain what the numbers do. Another night he was to fill up different sized containers in the bathtub & notice differences in volume; he observed that the same volume of water can fill containers at different levels & take on different shapes, etc... A third night he put together a "book" from worksheets provided by the teacher, colored them, and then "read" them (they only had pictures); he spent about 30 minutes coloring w/ his markers, his choice, b/c he loved doing it. A fourth night he filled out a worksheet about letters; his favorite thing is to write his name at the top of the worksheet, and the date. Other things he had to do were count the steps from the car to the front door, and guess how many groceries were in our grocery bag (& then count them).
So you can see, it's engaging stuff for a 5 year old & not really homework as known by older kids. And kids really do learn this way, it creates a parent-school-child connection, and the K child develops discipline to focus on "work" at home for a given period of time each night.
.... edited to include our location, Seattle.
The "homework" is really easy & designed to be fun. My child loves it! He feels very important to have this work to do. One night he had to find as many numbers in the house as possible, and draw a few of the items he found; my job was to explain what the numbers do. Another night he was to fill up different sized containers in the bathtub & notice differences in volume; he observed that the same volume of water can fill containers at different levels & take on different shapes, etc... A third night he put together a "book" from worksheets provided by the teacher, colored them, and then "read" them (they only had pictures); he spent about 30 minutes coloring w/ his markers, his choice, b/c he loved doing it. A fourth night he filled out a worksheet about letters; his favorite thing is to write his name at the top of the worksheet, and the date. Other things he had to do were count the steps from the car to the front door, and guess how many groceries were in our grocery bag (& then count them).
So you can see, it's engaging stuff for a 5 year old & not really homework as known by older kids. And kids really do learn this way, it creates a parent-school-child connection, and the K child develops discipline to focus on "work" at home for a given period of time each night.
.... edited to include our location, Seattle.
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