homework... how much is too much?

[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?