Quote:
Originally Posted by catgoddess
It's been a long time since I was in school, but I remember doing homework as early as kindergarten, definitely 1st grade. I still remember a huge dinosaur research project in 1st grade that we had to do with encyclopedias - remember those things? hehe We were writing essays and reports at that age as well (with rocks and slate). Let's just say that was a long time ago...
My nieces and nephew barely have any homework (1 in HS, 1 in Jr HS, and 1 in 6th grade). My sister struggled through school and did the bare minimum and even she thinks the kids need more homework. Same school system we went through as kids, too. It's shocking to me how wildly different it is from school to school. I don't envy any of you ladies. It's difficult to know how much is too much and how little is too little. I hope you can all find balance.
xoxo
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I also had homework starting very early as a kid and was writing essay style book reports and such in 1st grade. In 2nd we started research projects with encyclopedias. Our school focused a lot on writing.
We live in a different state than I grew up in. I have two kiddos, 2nd grade and 6th grade. Here 6th is middle school. Our district adopted Common Core last year so there have been some changes because of the new curriculum.
My 2nd grader gets a sheet on Monday that has instructions for his homework each night, Monday through Thursday. It goes back to school on Friday. This is for spelling only. Randomly throughout the week he will get a math page sent home. Homework never takes him more than 15 minutes. It only takes him that long when we are fighting with him to get it done. He doesn't like to write his spelling words so that is the worst of the nights. He doesn't mind unscrambling the letters, doing the word search or anything else on his list. Homework varies by teacher at our school. One of our 2nd grade teachers give the kids 3 sheets of homework every night. My son flies through his homework, but I know that some kids take a lot longer. Last year I spent about an hour a day working with a 2nd grader on the very same homework.
My 6th grader has homework about twice a week. Usually math. Once every few weeks she has some social studies terms to write out. Sometimes her math homework will take her 30 minutes or more. If she understands the concept thoroughly (and she usually does) it takes less. We had one night where it took an hour, but that was only once in her whole school career thus far. I'm sure more are to come though! The kids can stay after school to do their homework. If she has confusing math problems she stays. She's always done by 4:00 and school lets out at 3:15 so I know it isn't taking her long. She spends time talking to her friends too.
Now... Common Core... I like it! I see a huge difference in what our kids are being taught now vs. what they were being taught just 2 years ago. The transition hasn't been easy on all of the kids. In our district there is a year and a half gap between where the kids were with our old curriculum and what is expected of them now. It isn't affecting the younger kids as much as it is the older ones. What I love is that there is more focus on writing and on essay style answers. The first time my daughter came home with a 'what do you think' question last year she freaked out because she couldn't find the answer in the text. I remember having to answer those types of questions all the time as a kid and having to support our answer with facts from the book. It was a whole new world for the kids in our district last year when they were first introduced to that! I am seeing kids think more instead of just memorizing to learn the test.