Homework and YOUR child

[flyingspaghettimama]

A general survey...

[lauren]

Not many responses in yet but the percentages are interesting so far!

[mata]

DD gets a homework packet once a week-it's up to her to decide how and when to do it. Daily reading, which is something she'd do on her own anyway, and some sort of project (choosing a book character she likes and making a puppet, doing research and writing a report on her favorite animal, etc.) math puzzles, a short history or science reading w/questions, etc. Some days she feels like doing more work, some days none at all-but I would say it averages out to 10-15 minutes a day. She does most of it for herself, but I help with research (she's six,) etc. Oh, she definitely enjoys it and I have no problem with it.

[whitedoyle]

my son

Usually it was work DS was unable to complete during class. I know there was ample time for him to complete it, but he liked to talk or draw or goof off.

[mommy68]

My oldest get homework assigned on Monday as well. It is usually assigned to be turned in on Thurs or Fri each week. They can choose to do it all quick at the first of the week or spread it out each night. They are good about keeping up with it and doing as they please. They also have time during the school day in class when they are allowed to work on their homework and usually they finish it before ever going home.

[Elyra]

Ds has homework nightly except for Fridays. It is something that if he didn't poke around he could get done in just a few minutes, but he takes forever. When he does actually sit down to do it he gets it done very quickly. He hates the homework and tries to scam out of it every night. I think it does help him with his spelling and math, but the reading does do nothing but make reading the book a tedious task rather than an enjoyable past time for him.

[ChristaN]

My first grader has homework maybe once every two weeks and it takes her btwn 5-10 minutes to complete.

My third grader gets all of her homework on Monday and it is due on Friday. She has to work on it nightly b/c she would never get it done in less than the 4 days she has. I sat down with her various teachers last week (she has different teachers for math, literacy and homeroom which includes science and social studies). The literacy teacher says that, if she works nightly, her homework for that subject should avg 45 minutes/night. Science and social studies have peaks and valleys, but if I avged them out would be maybe 5-10 minutes/night at most. Math generally consists of 40-50 minutes/night, so on average she's doing 90 minutes of homework per night. On a busy week (like she had a week ago), it can be as much as 2-3 hours/night, though.

Needless to say, I have some issues with the amount of homework she is being assigned. (I should note, though, that if you are going off the 10 minutes per night per grade, she should be getting 40 minutes not 30 since she's being sent to 4th grade for most subjects.)

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

My first grader has a story to read, a math sheet to complete, and some way to practice that week's 14 spelling words each night. Its supposed to take about 30 minutes and it would if he would do it without whining and complaining. We've been struggling with this lately (and there is a thread further down from me with some good suggestions on approaches for others that are having, um, issues. The title is "Has anyone won the homework wars.")

Homework comes home each day and is due the next morning.

In addition, there is a monthly project to work on, with an assignment sheet sent home with a suggested breakdown of how to approach it over the month. Friday his poster and 5 minute oral report on Australia is due. He is much happier with the project stuff than the everyday stuff. We finished the poster yesterday and are down to just practicing the presentation part.

I don't think the homework really has any impact on his love of learning. He's not keen on homework (says "I wish homework had never been invented") but loves school and really is psyched at all that he has learned. He loves being able to write, so we've tried to help him draw the connection between spelling practice and being able to write stories without so much help. And he's very excited that he can now pick up about anything and read most of it. He does math problems for fun, so thats clearly not causing problems. Yesterday was so funny -- he complained about doing his homework and then turned around and did 5 pages in a math problem book for fun after dinner. Makes me think that his main objection is to the teacher assigning it, not the actual work.

[TiredX2]

I ended up checking almost every box because I have two kids!

DD is in 3rd grade. She gets a homework packet each Friday and it is due the next Friday. It generally takes no more than two hours. She hates specific parts of the homework and there are parts that make me :

DS is in Kinder and has very occasional homework which he loves to do.

Neither of them *have* to do homework.

[LiamnEmma]

I voted for two kids--a kindergarten student and a second grade student.

Both kids receive a homework packet on Monday that is to be returned on Friday.

My kindergartener sits down with excitement, needs some assistance with directions for novel tasks and then otherwise generally completes the entire packet on her own on Monday--usually three to six pages of at-her-level work. She brings home readers once a week that take her about five minutes to read to dh or I. So by Tuesday evening she has completed the week's worth of homework and all is well.

My second grader requires no assistance whatsoever but complains and cringes and requires cajoling at the commencement of each year. He's now back into the routine and it's going well. He usually divides the packet by three days--he is supposed to complete two pages per day, one of math and one related to reading/spelling but instead usually completes three to four the first night, three to four the second night and the remaining pages the third night--thus, he is finished with the packet by Wednesday evening. He also reads 30 minutes daily. The work is well below his ability level.

I do not look forward to the time when homework is assigned on a daily basis because I feel it eats so much into family life. Luckily both children have teachers with young children of similar ages and seem to really understand that life is about more than homework. DS' teacher last year totally did not get that and it was very ugly at times.

[Twocoolboys]

Intersting poll! My child has homework nightly, but I put that it is outside of the 10 min per grade level because his takes him about 2 minutes. It is generally way too easy for him. Now, part of this bugs me, but I'm also fine with it - lol. I know that doesn't make sense. It bugs me in that I wish he had something more challenging to do. I'm fine with it in that I really don't want him piled with homework that takes forever.

He does it pretty happily knowing that it will be done in just a couple of minutes. One thing he needs to work on is SLOWING down and reading the directions. The fact that the hw is too easy for him makes this the real challenge of hw for him.

The reading part of hw, we don't even really count as hw because it is completely open ended. He can read whatever he wants and we read to him as well. We read on non-school nights as well as school nights. We've read to him at bedtime since he was an infant. And, even if it wasn't required for hw, we would do it anyway.

His attitude is good. I'm not sure he learns much from it. I, however, do get to learn exactly what his class is working on and what his strengths and weaknesses are as he does occasionally have something that poses more of a challenge for him.

[Mirzam]

My first grader had homework for the first time yesterday because all the children insisted -- they are in a combined 1st/2nd grade and the 2nd graders get math homework every so often -- so his math teacher made a story problem up for them to do!

My other elementary aged child is homeschooled (3rd grade), although she does do one day a week with a homeschool group and sometimes gets a little homework for the week which is very exciting for her!

[funkygranolamama]

Originally Posted by Elyra

Ds has homework nightly except for Fridays. It is something that if he didn't poke around he could get done in just a few minutes, but he takes forever. When he does actually sit down to do it he gets it done very quickly. He hates the homework and tries to scam out of it every night. I think it does help him with his spelling and math, but the reading does do nothing but make reading the book a tedious task rather than an enjoyable past time for him.

Right on! We have the same issues. The part about the outrageous volume of homework that bothers me is that there IS reading assigned. It leaves dd absolutely NO time for leisure reading. I'm worried that will affect her love of reading.

[TRIBE]

when my boys were in public school last year for 3rd grade they had 30 min-1 hour of homework mon-thurs PLUS 20 min recquired reading each night.

I am against homework, personally. Home is where kids need to have downtime, play, socialize, you know be kids so they can actually absorb what they have been taught. I think making them read really kills the love and joy of reading. When you have to read there is no pleasure and unfortunately has hurt both my boys so they haven't picked up a book since school let out last year. I am hoping they will regain the desire to read just for the heck of it.

[Quindin]

My kids LOVED the tiny private school they attended in the US (4 kids in their class, 30 in the whole school)

They were only given Daily Reading which was 20 minutes of reading aloud to us from Monday to Thursday. Once a month they brought home a recitation which they had to memorize within about 1 month (usually 1 - 2 paragraphas)

They did not receive grades or had tests either.

I truly believe that the fact they were not pressured is why they love learning so much! I went to a very strict catholic school all my life and know how loads of homework + constant testing kills spontaneity, creativity and love of learning