if you are pro homework what are your reasons?

[meemee]

first let me say dd gets quite a bit of homework. it is an academically challenging public school, but not really touted as college prep. dd and i had a talk about homework in first grade. and she decided she'd rather put up with the homework than change schools. HOWEVER the teachers were all very understanding and would cut down the busy work if it got too much. one teacher warned parents and students right from the beginning that he would give a lot of extra work, but it would be fun too. he has been so far dd's favourite teacher. and she put up her protest and turned her work in late, but she did it. 

i have found i like a little bit of hw because it shows me what dd can do - esp. stuff she doesnt really work on on her free time. i knew where her holes were, where her concepts were not clear. 

one reason why i have liked homework is developing dd's skill about life. we had a big conversation when she was in first grade about well this is life. there is always the fun side - the teachers and friends, but usually there is also an un-fun side too. like homework. it helped dd see that ok. i will have to live with homework. so she made hw fun for her. she created an afterschool hw club. while waiting for their parents to pick them up, the kids would all sit together on the bunch and finish off their homework.

today dd does hw at home with her other friends joining her too. so i have a 5th, 6th, 7th and sometimes a 11th grader do hw together. they help each other out. it is a fun thing to do together. they exchange notes about what teh others did in 5th grade, or tell dd - wow that's a great project idea for 5th grade. 

so i find my attitude towards hw before dd started school, and my attitude towards it now is a little different. 

if parents want to do something fun together why not over hw. actually there is a lot of fun - perhaps too much fun over hw since 4th grade because researching in one area takes us off in another direction. 

2 days a week dd gets 2 hours of hw. other days half an hour or none. sometimes over the weekend too. but some of it is work she didnt finish in class. 

Please dont turn this into a debate thread. I am well aware of Alfie Kohn. 

[alaskanmomma]

I'm not necessarily pro homework, but not against it really, either. I do find it ridiculous when kids have 3-4 hours of homework, that eats up a LARGE chunk of their evenings, and may make it hard for them to do extracurriculars, spend time with family WITHOUT school, staying up later to finish if they have other things to do, etc. etc. However an hour or two? Sounds do-able and appropriate(depending on the grade of course).
 

Neither of my kids are in school, but I can't wait to help them with science fair projects, or seeing firsthand how they deal with different areas. Of course without homework I could see their progress through grades, but watching them learn and work gives me better knowledge of how they are really doing/what they struggle with.

[Linda on the move]

I think some homework, esp. for older students, is a good thing, but it is overdone and poorly done more often than not.

I think that independent work to reenforce learning is good. I think that working on papers and projects can build skills. I also think that homework keeps parents in the loop about what their kids are learning and doing and how easily (or not) that is going.

Most schools seem to miss the mark though -- too much work is assigned, it's assigned at too young of an age, the parent becomes responsible rather than child (because what is required is beyond what is reasonable for the child). Too much of the work is busy work -- worksheets. Kids struggling the most with the class are overburdened.

For example, one of my kiddos, who has special needs, was sent home work she couldn't complete in class plus homework. Yet it took her longer to do the work that a regular child, so realistically, she was sent home with what was 5 or 6 hours of work *for her.*  (It wouldn't have taken most kids that long).

None the less, I still think some homework is a good thing. But not the way the school she used to attend (and no longer does!) handled it.
 

[JollyGG]

I resent the assumption that my kids have a stay at home parent who can devote time to helping the kids with homework. Realistically by the time I pick my kids up from daycare it's 6pm. My kids go to bed at 8pm plus have several nights a week of activities they are involved in. So until this  year homework was a very overwhelming thing to get accomplished in the 2 hours a day I get to spend with my kids, and it just didn't get done at after school care. This  year my son is old enough to go home and spend an hour or two alone before I get home. He does his homework during that time and all I have to do is check that it was done.

I do however feel that completing work that wasn't done in class is reasonable. My son tends to daydream or visit during class time rather than working industriously. He's getting better at time management. However, I feel the logical consequence of not doing his work during class time is that he will have homework. 

[mamazee]

I hate homework. It seems like busywork and a way to make parents think the kids are learning more. I think kids should have the opportunity to take home things they don't get finished at school, and I think there should be an expectation of reading for pleasure at home, but I don't like worksheets and that kind of thing.

[philomom]

Some homework is fine. To practice what you learned at school. To prepare for tests. The key is balance. Excessive homework makes everyone frustrated.

[JollyGG]

I'll add a question to yours -

If you are pro-homework, do you work outside the home?

[whatsnextmom]

A little quality homework can be a good thing. If I had kids that struggled or kids that involved me in their homework at all, I might feel differently I suppose. Honestly, I rarely see it and when they ask for help, it's when they need special supplies or something signed. There have been many projects that were valuable learning experiences (and enjoyable to the kids) but just not realistically done within the school day. A few math problems to cement a new concept has always been a benefit. Homework can help a child develop some time management skills, learn how to prioritize, and how to be responsible for themselves. Do they HAVE to have homework to get that? No. Plenty of kids get it through outside activities and home responsibilities. Homework is just one way. Through elementary and middle, homework really was more benefit than negative for us though.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Well, I LOVE Alfie Kohn - LOVE him. However, I think no-homework in theory and no-homework in practice are two very different things. I know, because DC's school was no-homework until this year. Despite my DC's school's wonderful and effective efforts to facilitate parent-teacher communication, there were holes in what I need to know to help my DC do her best in school. I don't think Kohn addresses the benefit of parental homework support. With the new homework policy this year I am seeing where she needs some extra work or a different perspective. I regret that she didn't have homework in years past. I think carefully selected, age appropriate, and, perhaps optional homework assigned in reasonable amounts is a wonderful thing.  I suspect that we will also be finding some additional benefits of time management, preparation for middle school and etc. as the year progresses. 

JollyGG - I do not work outside the home and I do agree that getting home at 6 would be a hardship to getting homework done. Because homework is new to our school, we have not yet heard the perspective of parents who work out of the home. However, many of the parents who requested the change in favor of homework were families who use aftercare.  

[CatsCradle]

Originally Posted by JollyGG 

I resent the assumption that my kids have a stay at home parent who can devote time to helping the kids with homework. Realistically by the time I pick my kids up from daycare it's 6pm. My kids go to bed at 8pm plus have several nights a week of activities they are involved in. So until this  year homework was a very overwhelming thing to get accomplished in the 2 hours a day I get to spend with my kids, and it just didn't get done at after school care. This  year my son is old enough to go home and spend an hour or two alone before I get home. He does his homework during that time and all I have to do is check that it was done.

My DD is in an afterschool program (due to my work constraints) and fortunately for us, she gets all (or most) of her homework done between 3:30 and 5:00 pm.  On days that she is involved with sport, however, she doesn't get it done and it is sooooo hard to get her to focus later in the evening.  I don't mind special projects (we have loads of fun with cooking and science projects) but I loathe worksheets! 

Like others have said here, though:  I do value the positives of homework (review; self-discipline, etc.).  Considering the long days that elementary students have, though, I sometimes feel like the added work at the end of the day is a bit much.  If I feel thatthe  homework is getting to burdensome to be productive, I usually talk to DD's teacher about it.  So far, so good, this year.  One of the things that I appreciate about DD's present teacher is that she assigns homework based on the individual student and their need to improve in certain areas.  It's not just the same homework for everyone. 

[meemee]

Originally Posted by JollyGG 

If you are pro-homework, do you work outside the home?

yes i do, and dd finishes her hw at daycare (well off and on i have been both sah coparent and woh coparent). the good part about that is there are older kids there as well as the daycare staff who help with homework. in fact i am shocked that it is otherwise. i thought this was the norm in all afterschool places. in all 3 schools that i know of, one of the scheduled time is to finish hw. so when the child goes home, parents dont have to deal with hw. and thankfully the 'i forgot' no longer is a problem - because the dc copies the other classmates hw or they share the book. now we have to get to school early to get the book or the hw for dd to do on her 'forgot' days. at dc i had dd circle those problems where she needed help so that i could glance at her hw and see where she needed help.

as she has gotten to higher grades i have kept in touch with her teacher through email AND thanfully the teacher has sent a project outline and deadlines home for parents to sign - to figure out where my help is needed for dd. not to help her do her stuff - except glue and stick, but to plan and keep her on task.  

dd is not an organiser and last year in 4th grade where the teacher decided to do projects instead of hw - i became more involved making sure dd stuck to her deadlines. she is not very good at managing that kinda stuff so i helped her.

one other thing i have discovered with my dd. in the beginning the idea of hw meant a HUGE protest. so maybe half hour work took her two hours. didnt mean the teacher was giving her too much work. then in first grade we had a series of talks and experiments which gave dd a handle on hw. how she looked at hw was different. i reviewed her hw and took out all the busy work.

in fact i recall dd really enjoyed the challenging hw in first grade. it was too easy for her so spoke to the teacher who gave more challenging work.

so really dd's protest was not against hw, but against busy work.

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by meemee 

yes i do, and dd finishes her hw at daycare (well off and on i have been both sah coparent and woh coparent). the good part about that is there are older kids there as well as the daycare staff who help with homework. in fact i am shocked that it is otherwise. i thought this was the norm in all afterschool places. in all 3 schools that i know of, one of the scheduled time is to finish hw. so when the child goes home, parents dont have to deal with hw. and thankfully the 'i forgot' no longer is a problem - because the dc copies the other classmates hw or they share the book. now we have to get to school early to get the book or the hw for dd to do on her 'forgot' days. at dc i had dd circle those problems where she needed help so that i could glance at her hw and see where she needed help.

After school care involves the same issues that result in him having homework in the first place. He is much more likely to help someone else with their work than he is to do his own. He needs a quite place to do his homework. After school care is just not a realistic place for him to accomplish it. He is easily distracted. After a full day of school there is no way he's going to focus well enough to get work done when there are other people around. As I said, he's doing great now that he's old enough to go home alone after school. But before that homework was a nightmare for our whole family. I want to spend the few hours I get to spend with my kids during the week doing something other than school work. I'm not against homework. I do feel that he should complete work that he didn't finish in school at home. It's just not as easy as some people seem to think it is when the parents both work full time.

[meemee]

JollyG i am sorry that dc would not work with kids to help them be able to complete their hw.

in our afterschool program, the first thing kids do is go out and play, eat snacks and then sit down to do hw. they have a LARGE room so those kids (there were 2 of them) who needed quite time would be separated from teh other kids, they'd play music and the kids do hw. in fact in our ps/dc adn afterschool care there were audio cds with headphones to help the kids if they could use it.

one time (from tv) dd requested doing hw outdoors. all teh kids including dd loved it so much that they would do it regularly (unless they found the kids couldnt concentrate - surprisingly they did).

i am so sorry hw was such a nightmare for you. i can totally understand why. at one point it was starting to get crazy for us too, but i was able to talk to teh teacher and have her cut down on dd's hw. that is always an option for us (which isnt the norm either).

but i also think your case is not the norm. all the moms i know work. and none really have to deal with hw on a regular basis.

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by meemee 

JollyG i am sorry that dc would not work with kids to help them be able to complete their hw.

I'm not. He's a fantastic kid.

I just think that homework is an unwelcome intrusion on the limited amount of time I get to spend with my child a day. We would much rather go to scouts, and mandarin lessons, Lego league, church group, etc. then do homework. I just really don't think that the assumption that all kids will have an available time after school is necessarily realistic for all kids. It sounds like your area has some great after school programs. Perhaps these types of after school programs are the norm where you live. Here it really isn't. My family is most definitely not in the minority where I live with our efforts to cram homework into an already jam packed evening that is already too short. And I could talk until I was blue in the face about the amount of homework my son had, it wasn't going to change the amount he brought home. Perhaps the issue is our prioritization of other activities over school work, however, my family is entitled to our priorities.

Doesn't the kid doing the work with someone else defeat the supposed benefit of homework as a communication tool between school and home?

Once again I'm really not against homework that is work he didn't complete in school. He is learning better focus and time management skills in order to have less.

But I am against the assumption that I want to spend the majority of the limited time I have with my child working on school work.

Edited by JollyGG - 10/8/12 at 2:08pm

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I think JollyGG said her son would rather help other kids do their work instead of doing his own - this seems an admirable trait! I suppose it's no longer an issue but that would be something I'd look into parlaying into my child also doing their own. 

Homework isn't for every family and I don't think it's right to assume anything for anyone else either! 

My DC has some unique learning issues that make homework something that we really appreciate. There are kids in her class who opt out of HW - either because it's a hardship or because they simply don't need the extra help at home. Individuated HW would be AMAZING but I don't think the teacher is up for that. 

It's too bad that it's such a contentious issue and that schools aren't doing better to meet the needs of their families  - it's not such a hard thing, it would seem. 

[meemee]

Originally Posted by JollyGG 

I'm not. He's a fantastic kid.

sorry by dc i meant daycare not dear child.

and yes someone else helping with hw DOES defeat the purpose which is why i had dd circle her problems which i would check in the middle of preparing dinner and having dd get her things ready for the next day.

in K and first our struggle was with those simple books. the teacher would insist we had to read them 10 times each. and note it in the reading logs. the teacher wouldnt listen (i think its the school policy) so we ended up signing for each day and yet not doing that reading.

i recall in k and first the teacher felt 15 mins of review was ok. in fact some of the teachers feel the same and almost every grade they set some time aside for hw. so the child finishes most of his hw and leaves the questionable ones for home.

in the city i live in none of the school districts allow opting out for hw. the districts have blanket rules for hw because we have a large migrant, ESL and homeless population, who i've been told need the extra practise of hw. usually teachers dont expect them to get help at home. i think our districts hw policy stems mostly from meeting the needs of these population groups. which is why some of the schools have afterschool volunteer tutors. it is interesting to see their viewpoint towards hw. they cant wait to get more. they welcome hw.  

[whatsnextmom]

Originally Posted by JollyGG 

I'll add a question to yours -

If you are pro-homework, do you work outside the home?

I hate to call myself "pro-homework" because it's not generally handled they way I've seen it work well often. I said earlier that I have seen some value and I work part-time during the kids schooling hours.

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by meemee 

sorry by dc i meant daycare not dear child.

That makes a lot more sense.

[beanma]

I have mixed feelings about homework which I went into a little bit on the homework thread I started. 

I do think it is valuable for us, but it can quickly become burdensome. Dd1 has some focus and processing speed/momentum issues. She has a hard time getting started, staying focused, and keeping up her speed, especially on homework she's not interested in or feels overwhelmed by. However, because she also has these same issues in school, it is actually really helpful for us to reinforce the school lessons so we can be sure she understands. She's pretty bright, but especially in math she can space out and miss a concept and then have a hard time catching back up. So math homework really helps us to keep her up to speed. However, because of her focusing, etc, issues, we do need to be directly involved in much of the homework. She does the work, but we have to be right there beside her to act as coaches to keep her on track. She just can't go in her room and do it on her own. Dd2 can easily.

Dd1 is not in an afterschool program, but with her history I would not expect her to get her homework done there if she was. She does dance, but it's on Saturday this year (and I'm grateful for that). I work at home. My dh works out of the home. We get home from dd1's school about 4pm if we don't have to stop anywhere. Her school gets out at 3:30 and it's a 20-25 minute drive away.

[aim4balance]

I am definitely not pro homework, but I went from being no-homework to not minding what we get. In my reading about no-homework though I found that there are NO classes being taught at the bachelors or masters level that instructs teachers on what amount or how to give homework related to their lessons. Most of the time, homework that is given is just what has always been given. So what work your child is doing may or may not even be useful. Just something to think about. Because my kids get enough activity during the school day (we are really lucky to have it), I don't mind the 5-15 min they have a night, and it doesn't stress them out either.