homework... how much is too much?

[lingovise]

i don't really remember ever having any "real" homework until middle school... and even then most of it could be finished in about an hour or so. in High School I took a lot of AP [advanced placement for college credit] classes and even then, never spent more than 2-3 hours on homework [that i remember] and it wasn't like that was an every day occurrence. my parents were always far too busy working and never had the time to be overly involved in helping me out with assignments. i managed the work load just fine on my own and was a very good student, and went on to do extremely well in college too. and i even had an after school job in high school and had to help work my way through college.

BUT these days... i just don't see how kids could possibly keep up all on their own. i have HUGE issues with all the homework my 2nd grader has. i find it all to be so ridiculous... i totally get the idea of getting them prepared. but he's learning stuff in 2nd grade that i don't remember doing until i was in 5th grade. i'm a SAHM and even with my help/guidance it still takes him about 2 hours to complete all of his homework, every single day!! and that's before the required 20 minutes of reading. i can't begin to imagine how working parents or kids with learning/attention issues get through all of it, every single day. and when you add in any extra curricular activities/sports on top of that mix, it's insane. i hate the crazy amount of pushing and pressure they put on kids at such an early age these days. and when my poor little guy sits at our kitchen table and literally breaks down and cries because he couldn't finish 1 or 2 of the problems on his math fact quiz [24 math problems competed in 2 minutes] seriously makes me angry beyond words. and the fact that we have to practice these damn things everyday [in addition to all of the homework], as they are tested on them every week... is just stupid. he's SEVEN and is very bright, scoring well above his age level in all areas. i strongly feel that learning should be an exciting and FUN experience for him, not something that oppresses him, stresses him out or even worse, leaves him feeling incompetent and full of self doubt.

it's ultra frustrating for me and leaves me feeling incredibly stabby.

[britaneejean]

aw man this makes me scared for my oldest. she's only in preschool but i've heard how much homework our elementary gives & i'm nervous! those afternoons seem to go by so fast when it's all about homework. i've heard from most of my neighbors that it depends on the teacher, not the grade. i wonder if that's the case for your child? have you brought up that concern at the parent/teacher conferences?

[MommaTrish]

I'll tell you how we accomplish Ryan's insane amount of homework with his ADHD... we sit down as soon as we walk in the door and work our butts off in hopes of getting it done before the fall out of his medicine wearing off. Once that happens there's no getting him to do anything.

I, personally, do not believe in homework as a whole. If a kid isn't grasping something, then sure, send home a simple worksheet that night. But overall - no. And thank you baby Jesus Zach's teacher has the exact same mindset this year. Ryan at least will sit and do his homework with no drama if his medicine is still working. Zach won't. Zach hates homework. He'll somewhat put up with spelling (because he knows he's a horrendous speller) but he doesn't have spelling this year. Any other subject he gets mad and says that he already spent all day doing this, he knows how to do it, and he isn't doing the stupid stuff again.

[fifilur]

That sounds like a lot of homework at such a young age. I don't give my students very much homework at all, and they are 13-16 years old. They do get A LOT in some other subjects though.

According to homework researcher Harris Cooper, resonable homework expectations are 10 minutes per grade level. Being in second grade would mean 20 minutes of homework per day.

Talk to your son's teacher, and maybe the other kids' parents to see if they feel the same. I agree with you, learning should be fun!

[carrie1977]

Oh Loni...I could have totally written your post. Homework for us is extremely frustrating. The nights when she only has math isn't that bad but there are nights when I just want to pull my hair out. She is already doing algebra in fourth grade. Some of the kids still aren't getting 100% on their math facts...and I'm talking 5+5 here and then trying to teach them a+b=c...how does that work?

[purple_colourz]

My daughter is in first grade and their school (or her teacher) doesn't give students homework if she can help it, I'm grateful because I don't want her to hate studying or learning. We still do learning exercises at home but that's after she played a little bit or read a book that's not from school. I want her to enjoy her childhood and not be always doing schoolwork.

[YepBrook]

I completely agree, I think its insane... And it is one of the main reasons I choose to homeschool. Kids need to be kids, time after school should be for play. Play is learning, also!

[lingovise]

Originally Posted by britaneejean

aw man this makes me scared for my oldest. she's only in preschool but i've heard how much homework our elementary gives & i'm nervous! those afternoons seem to go by so fast when it's all about homework. i've heard from most of my neighbors that it depends on the teacher, not the grade. i wonder if that's the case for your child? have you brought up that concern at the parent/teacher conferences?

i'm not sure how it is within different districts in different states... but this is def a district/state issue for us. and while i am very grateful to be in such a great school district. i just feel it's often too much too soon. he's had this level of obscene amount of homework since Kindergarten. in K he had to do a 6 page self authored book EVERY week [in addition to spelling and math homework]. no joke. with either a picture or illustration and 1-2 sentences per page. most of the books required doing some level of research/fact findings and he had to do an oral presentation on it and be able to answer questions. INSANE. so far, this year is slightly better than 1st grade... as he doesn't have a 20 page workbook to complete each week ontop of daily homework and his teacher this year really tries to not assign work over the weekend. but kids should be allowed to be kids. they have their entire lives ahead of them to work, work, work and i don't understand the rush to have them be inundated with adult issues.

AND i just learned at our last parent/teacher conference that this next quarter will be all about preparing our kids [2nd graders] for ESSAYS. and in addition to the normal homework load, he'll be required to do two essay style book reports each week. in 2nd grade??? like i said. angry beyond words.

and while i'm sure, in the long run, this crazy, stupid amount of work will better prepare him for higher education... i simply don't agree with it. i strongly feel that people/kids will learn/acquire the knowledge when they are ready and at their own individual pace. pushing them to feel such extreme pressure to compete only sets them up for failure in grade school [or in any experience in life], and in my opinion, will only help in suppressing their desire to learn and to squash the full amount of joy and exhilaration they would otherwise experience on their own, given the opportunity to find their own drive to strive for success on their own merits and accomplishments.

[MommaTrish]

I will say I was astounded at the fact that the majority of the people in my college classes didn't even know the basics of how to write an essay or report - and the fact that most of my teachers couldn't explain how to them. That made me so glad that I took AP classes in high school.

But what the ****??? Essays? In second grade?! Pfft. Screw that. Zach's in 4th and I just went over the very very very basics of writing an essay for a report he had to do.

[Beebo]

This is why I think the Common Core should be eliminated! Our school system here in Huntsville goes by it. They believe every child should be on the same level in all the subjects! I also believe every child does not develop the same. But according to the Common Core every student should be developing at the same rate! Some are slower to learn and those students are being penalized because of it and it is not fair!

[YepBrook]

I am not a fan of Common Core, either.

[Misty Cato]

Wow Loni, I say that much is too much. My son (now in third grade) had to do one essay/research paper last year. It was pretty extensive, but it was his end of the year project and they spent the last quarter working on it. I'm not sure churning out essays that fast in second grade really helps with the complete writing process (prewriting, ordering ideas, editing, etc.)

I have to give our school props in this department. In third grade each night my son has; 1 worksheet (either math or English and takes 5-15 minutes), 20 minutes reading and then usually something that involves discussion with us regarding something they are studying like, "Tell your parents three differences between a fruit and a vegetable." Those are fun and usually become part of dinner conversation.

I think they have found a good balance.

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by lingovise

AND i just learned at our last parent/teacher conference that this next quarter will be all about preparing our kids [2nd graders] for ESSAYS. and in addition to the normal homework load, he'll be required to do two essay style book reports each week. in 2nd grade??? like i said. angry beyond words.

and while i'm sure, in the long run, this crazy, stupid amount of work will better prepare him for higher education... i simply don't agree with it. i strongly feel that people/kids will learn/acquire the knowledge when they are ready and at their own individual pace. pushing them to feel such extreme pressure to compete only sets them up for failure in grade school [or in any experience in life], and in my opinion, will only help in suppressing their desire to learn and to squash the full amount of joy and exhilaration they would otherwise experience on their own, given the opportunity to find their own drive to strive for success on their own merits and accomplishments.

Yeah, all of that sounds crazy to me. Like you said, it sounds more like a way to put kids off education and learning than to help them get ahead later. We're in a district that's well ranked and has highly educated parents with similar aspirations for their kids, and it's not that bad here.

My oldest is in an advanced classroom. Toward the end of 3rd he had some essay-type writing assignments, and they were a lot for him to handle. He's in 4th grade now and is managing them better this year. He spends anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours on homework, but I'd say his average is about 45 minutes with the longer nights happening when they're working on a long term project in addition to their regular homework. (They seem to have 3 weeks of "regular" homework for every 1 week of longer nights, but we've only been in school for 6 weeks so it's hard to say.)

My 2nd grader's class does various types and lengths of in-class writing assignments, but homework writing rarely requires more than 5 sentences (plus math and 20 minutes of reading). His teachers have said the kids shouldn't spend more than 30 minutes on the written homework assignments. That's 30 minutes of real work, which means that for Ben (who has ADHD, a sleep disorder that makes afternoons tough, muscle fatigue from writing, and autism) we often put in an hour to an hour and a half of effort to get to 30 minutes of real work. At that point he's allowed to stop whether or not the homework is done. I'm sure we have to use the 30 minute limit more than most kids in Ben's class, but the rule applies to all of them. Maybe you could talk to your son's teacher about putting something like that into practice?

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by YepBrook

I completely agree, I think its insane... And it is one of the main reasons I choose to homeschool. Kids need to be kids, time after school should be for play. Play is learning, also!

haha... yeah, we heard so many "horror" stories of the amount of homework coming home that was one of our reasons for homeschooling too... if I'm going to have re-teach J by doing homework, why don't we just school at home and teach him the first time around....

When do kids have a chance to be kids anymore? I didn't have that much homework through school and yet still managed to graduate college with 4 credits short of a double major in 4.5 years... and that was coming from a barely accredited school system prior to college...

[farrijc]

My 2nd grader generally spends 10-20 min on a math/ language arts worksheet, plus 20 min. of reading each night. I think that's fairly reasonable, but it's still like pulling teeth sometimes. I can only imagine what you're going through I think kids need downtime outside of school, including time to have a hobby whether that be sports, music, etc. With all that homework, I don't see how that's possible!

[MommaTrish]

Originally Posted by farrijc

I think kids need downtime outside of school, including time to have a hobby whether that be sports, music, etc. With all that homework, I don't see how that's possible!

Yes! Zach opted out of afterschool EXCELL this year because he said it was just too much last year. It was fun, but he still had to do reading when he got home, and generally had a worksheet (he usually got half his homework done during EXCELL). By the time he got done with even those few things it was time for dinner, and on Tuesdays he went straight from dinner to Scouts. It was seriously stressing him out.

[mummytothree]

I can only speak for my kids and my school but I will tell you I think we are not the norm because I read on FB all the time about how much homework other kids have!! Just some back ground I live in Pennsylvania in a medium-ish town (15, 000 and then we have a college and when that is in session we bring around another 15, 000 people). But I'm like you Loni, I remember homework just like you do (but that might be because we are around the same age I think). Ok on to my kids....I have 5, only 4 are int he public school system in grades 10, 6, 3 and K. Here is the break down of my kids homework (all my kids get straight A's) and both my girls test in the advanced range on state tests (Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSAT's) and Pennsylvania Keystone Exams).

10th grader - homework maybe twice a week - rarely 3x a week. Takes her about an hour or two (and I don't know how much of the time is wasted on her phone picking songs and texting friends!! Hahaha!!)

6th grader - 1 to 2x a week!! Maybe an hour at most

3rd grader - 2x a week!! 30 minutes TOPS!!! I'd say more like 15 minutes.

K - NONE!!!

And just for reference my sister lives in a suburb outside of Cleveland, Ohio and nephew (also in K) brings home 2 pages a night!!! Crazy!!!

[Kara]

My 1st grader had about 10 minutes of homework a night and my 3rd grader about 30 minutes. We just pulled the 1st grader out of school for various reasons, having little to do with the school itself, and I am homeschooling him. He is a 6 year old boy with lots of energy and I really believe strongly that kids need unstructured play time. I am all for excellent academics and both of my boys are advanced for their age, but there needs to be a balance. We are able to do school for him in about 3-4 hours a day and that gives him lots of times to hunt bugs, play outside and just be a kid.

[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

[Lizzy257]

Wow, 2 hours sounds like a lot for that age. I don't remember doing that much myself until I was 15/16!

My 1st grader spends about 10 minutes doing written homework, learning spellings and tables. They are also supposed to spend another 15 mins reading (they get two books sent home each night), but reading is her strongest point, so it literally takes her 2-3 minutes to read through the books as they're still pretty basic ones at the moment.

My 5 year old, who just started school last month (not sure if that's kindergarten equivelant?) spends about 25 mins on homework, and this includes me reading through a short book with him. He does a lot of tracing letters, recognising words, colouring and practising cutting out shapes, so he's still trying to master all of that!

[erica zane]

I know a single WAHM who refuses to let her elementary school kids do more than 30 minutes of homework each night. She let the teacher know that homework was not going to interfere with family time & kids being kids time...she lets them do their half hour and signs off on whatever isn't finished after that.

My 2nd grader had more than my 5th grader last year...it was awful - I feel your pain! This year, the third grade homework is much better but the 6th grader's is crazy...so many projects already, ack!!

[Sherri Tierney]

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

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.

[dana]

my daughter is in first grade - and we have a book/night (i usually try to have her read it in the car on the way home from school - takes about 10 - 15 min), two pages of math homework and 10 spelling words. we practice spelling each morning at breakfast (doing some oral work plus she writes them all down). she also does extra math work at the russian school of math - that's 1.5 hours per week + about 4 pages of homework. in addition, on thursdays she brings home a special "project" that she does related to a book - this week she just had to read the book and select 20 words to put in order by length.

i think that's a pretty reasonable amount of homework for her - it's probably about 30 min/day if you add it all up, but since we do the spelling at breakfast and the reading in the car, it's really broken up.

[mariewilcox]

Cheyanne is in 8th grade now and some nights has an hour but usually less. That doesn't count studying for tests when she has them. Through the years she's always had homework but no particular year stands out as being excessive. She's always had plenty of time to play saxophone and be a 3-season athlete (and that was being on 2 teams for most seasons once she hit 3rd grade). But she is organized and a bit OCD about getting things done. When she asked to play on the extra sports teams I allowed it with the rule that school came first and she started good habits then that have paid off now that she's older. A lot of projects/papers are done during school so that helps. Also, we moved to a 7-hour school day last year instead of 6 hours and it has made a difference in the amount of work coming home.

[monia13]

I have a 3rd grader and she has word study exercises every day that prep the students for the spelling test on Friday. She also gets a math sheet each night. She just did her first ever book report. The kids are required to read about 15 min each night. There is no homework on weekends. I think our homework load is well balanced.

[lovely1m]

I have heard a lot about this and am so thankful our school district is not like that. In kindergarten, he had none. Now in first grade, we do 1 worksheet most nights that is supposed to take no longer than 15 minutes (he does it faster) and read for 5 hours a month. Honestly, if we were assigned 2 hours a night, I would be flipping out. I get off work earlier than the normal person, but then we need time to cook and eat supper, go to the gym or sports and get to bed at a decent time. It normally leaves about 30 minutes of downtime as it is.

[pewtertm]

When I was teaching in Texas, we had a 10 minute per grade homework rule...1st grade--10 minutes, 2nd grade--20 minutes, etc. That doesn't include work that SHOULD have been finished in school and wasn't.

Rachel's in second grade this year and the only homework that has had is 15 minutes of reading each night. She had homework 2 or 3 times a week last year, but I've yet to see anything other than reading this year.

[Keely~B]

My oldest daughter has always had a ton of homework, now she's in high school so that's expected, but her elementary and middle school years were homework filled. No homework nights just didn't happen unless it was a special case once in a blue moon. Sometimes the quantities were just ridiculous and it's horrible to see your kid that stressed and burnt out.

My younger daughter who is going through the same schools has a much more reasonable amount now. She pretty much has homework every day but it's doable and doesn't take up the whole night. She has 20-30 minutes of reading, maybe a worksheet and she gets a worksheet on Monday that needs to be completed and turned in on Friday. There may be odd assignments on top of that but it's nothing like the days when my oldest was in the same grade. Much better and I hope it stays that way.

I'm a firm believer in kids needing downtime as well as the ability to go to bed on time.

[Milmomma]

I have a 1st and 2nd grader. We have just switch to the Core System. I'm not a huge fan.
My 1st grader has homework usually 2-3 times a week(worksheets, usually takes 15-20 mins), plus 20 mins of phonics/spelling words nightly and 20 mins of reading nightly. She also does Ballet once a week. (Thankfully on Friday so we don't have to rush to get homework done first. However my sons activities make homework hard for her.)
My 2nd grader has homework every night. He usually has 45-60 mins of homework on top of his 20-30 mins of expected reading the teacher wants.(combo of worksheets, book reports, flash cards, writing words, and more)
He has soccer two nights a week (2 hours each time). We are fighting to have homework done before sports, so after sports when we get home at 8pm, I can cook while they shower and hopefully get them to bed at 9-930 pm. I hate that bedtime is so late. And I hate that they expect him to have in total 90 mins of work done a night! He's in 2nd grade! He is on par with his grade level, but this is just normal for our school I'm told. (None of this is work that should've been done in school, this is additional.) He loves his sports, and its his way of getting out all his energy/aggression so I won't take it away. He only gets 10 mins of recess a day and PE once a week. He needs to be able to be active, same for my daughter.

[rach3975]

Even with a reasonable homework load, I don't know how families are supposed to fit in sports, too. It's not the school/homework part of it that we've had a problem with, it's the time commitment that the teams expect on week nights.

Jason played baseball in 2nd and 3rd grade. In 2nd it was okay because he was home from school by 3 and the league asked for 1 weeknight practice and 1 weekend game most weeks. It was hard on the weeknight he was gone for baseball from 5-8, but still manageable. But then he moved up to the next age group, and it was awful. They wanted 2 weeknights plus a weekend day, and the weeknights were often games that required him to be at the field from 5:15 until 8:30 or later. Since he was at a different school and didn't get home until 4:30, it seriously stressed him out the entire season. He was so turned off by the whole thing that he hasn't been willing to sign up for an extracurricular activity since.

[littlekiwi]

Originally Posted by MommaTrish

I will say I was astounded at the fact that the majority of the people in my college classes didn't even know the basics of how to write an essay or report .

that was my exact thought with some of my classmates at university, We are between the ages of 18-40's and the 18-20 year olds just have no clue on essay writing - a key skill at university really

[Kara]

Originally Posted by rach3975

Even with a reasonable homework load, I don't know how families are supposed to fit in sports, too. It's not the school/homework part of it that we've had a problem with, it's the time commitment that the teams expect on week nights.

My boys love sports, too, but we're very selective with what sports/leagues we allow them to play. Our lives are just too crazy to add more craziness to the mix. It's easier when they are in early elementary school and there are plenty of low-key options through the city and YMCA. Right now, they play flag football and that only meets for 2 hours on Saturday afternoons. In the winter, they will play basketball and that is one hour during the week and one hour on the weekend. And they play in the same place, so I don't have to be carting them to different places. I know it'll get harder once they are older and the leagues expect more ... but we'll get there when we get there, and make decisions then.

[Lindsay]

Ugh, don't get me started. Parker's biggest hurdle this year is that he has to study for exams. He's been having nightly homework since 1st grade when it was usually 1-2 worksheets a night. Now, not only do the worksheets, but there is so much memorization (spelling, vocab, multiplication) and he doesn't do well with memorization so his grades have slipped and my kid that used to love school is getting a negative attitude about it. No sports activities, but usually a couple of Scouts activities per week.

Devlin on the other hand gets extra time to turn it all in due to his vision issues, but that means that not only does he have the regular homework but he's also bringing home work from class that he couldn't get done. He can't keep up because the class is racing ahead of him. His homework time usually stretches into an hour to 1.5 hours nightly (for 8 years old). I don't see how he'll ever incorporate sports (even if he was interested) or other activities. He requires down time and lots of breaks or his eyes get strained and the double vision flares up big time,which drags homework time out even more.

[Sherri Tierney]

Sports and other activities are what keep us on our toes as opposed to homework.

I work at my son's school. My daughter gets out at 3:15 and rides the bus to our school. She gets there at 3:25 and my son gets out of class (I get off work) at 3:30. We are usually home by 3:38. The kids immediately start their chores which take probably an hour all said. That includes homework. There is always a little bit of goofing off so they usually finish up right around 5pm which is when we eat dinner. By 5:30 we are heading out the door for either Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts or flag football practice. It is typically close to 8:00 when we get home on Scout nights and 7:15 on football nights. Bedtime here is 8pm. The kids come in, shower, and go straight to bed. There really isn't any downtime. I look forward to Wednesdays as that is our one day of the week that we don't have to be somewhere in the evening. On Wednesday they get an hour of computer time and we usually sit down and watch a TV show as a family or play a board game.

[mariewilcox]

[QUOTE=rach3975;1164995]Even with a reasonable homework load, I don't know how families are supposed to fit in sports, too. It's not the school/homework part of it that we've had a problem with, it's the time commitment that the teams expect on week nights.

It's definitely a commitment and everyone is different We've always been a very athletic family and for us there was never any question when it all started 20 years ago with Christopher. He was super athletic and loved football, hockey, and baseball. He played from K up through high school.

Cheyanne has been the same way. She started dance at age 3 and then switched to gymnastics at age 5. Then when she started school she discovered sports and was in her milieu. I honestly don't think she would function without sports She plays soccer, basketball and softball and plays on 2 teams for each sport. She THRIVES on it. Soccer is almost over and in fact she has her 1st basketball clinic tonight from 5 to 8.

Now that she's older (8th grade) it is easier because I can drop her off and go home (been doing that since about 5th grade). School teams have practice right after school so she's home by 5 on practice nights and game nights she's home by 6 or 7 (depending on if it's home game or away game). During basketball season she'll have practice for her travel team 2 nights a week until 8:30 and games on the weekends. It's a crazy season but we both love it - it's a close knit group of parents and kids that have been doing this travel league since the kids were in 3rd grade and we travel together and stay at the same hotels, eat out, etc. It's actually quite enjoyable.

Cheyanne learned at an early age that if she wanted to play she had to manage her homework and she has done well - she knows each day exactly when and where she can study and has always been an honor student even with the heavy sports load - like I said, she thrives on it - LOL

[Zoe Pearn]

Wow! I have been thinking exactly the same thing lately! Glad I'm not the only one!! Josh is in KINDER and has mountains of homework (sums, dictation sentences, phonics, sight words), plus two different home readers every night (so 8 books a week as he doesn't get them on Friday) and then a "news" project each week that he has to "research" on the internet. I seriously cannot remember doing the stuff that he's doing until so much later... I just think it's too much & completely takes the joy out of the first years of school IMO .

They expect them to know so much at such an early age - and it's horrible because he gets frustrated and thinks he's "stupid" if he struggles with things... He's SIX!! It shouldn't be like that at all - they're only babies

[Stacey42]

My kids are 4th & 5th graders. They have always had 20-30 minutes of reading homework, since 1st grade. Now they have to answer questions about what they read, whereas before they just read. They have weekly spelling and always have. 3rd grade seemed jam packed with homework for both but it has eased off now. The 5th grader has math homework most nights but only 5-10 minutes or so worth. They both randomly have science or social studies worksheets and projects.

It's a little tight Sept, Oct, April & May when they have football or baseball as they get off the bus at 4 and have 60 minutes to do homework and eat supper before leaving for practice on Tues & Thurs but they have a 30 minute bus ride and have formed a habit of working on their homework then. Plus they are often given time in class to it if they get their classwork done.

[nikkiARNGwife]

At Avery's old school homework was a nightmare...1st and 2nd grade he would have to write spelling words 5x each every night, 1-2 pages of math, full pages of handwriting and reading and phonics as well.

Thankfully now that he's in the public schools they don't send home as much...we read every night and Mondays and Tuesdays he has Math and Language and Thursdays usually science or SS but each assignment only takes between 10-15 minutes...plus we have to study 15-20 minutes each night for his weekly tests. No homework on Wednesdays except to read AR books and study if needed.

In all we don't spend over half an hour each night which is wonderful compared to the 1-3 hours it would take him at his old school.