If you have an ELEMENTARY aged child... School talk?

My child is 7 in 2nd grade. He has 1 two sided page of math homework and 20 minutes reading every night.

ETA: We're in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, not sure if regions vary significantly.

2nd and first graders in my house. They each get a math packet for the entire week. 4 or 5 pages. They probably only spend 20-30min a night on it (if that, but math is the strong subject for both of them, they struggle at reading). Then reading each night for 20 minutes, plus the 2nd grader has to write a sentence on what she read. So probably 40min a night at the most, less some days.

My son is 6 and in 1st grade. He gets weekly spelling words to practice, 1-2 worksheets per night (30-45 mins), plus is supposed to read 20 minutes per day. It might not seem like a lot but for a family with 2 working parents, I feel like it's excessive for a 6 year old.

In my experience it has depended on the teacher. I have kids in 6th, 4th and K, and teach the after school program at their (private) school, and have for 7 years.

The 3rd and 5th grade teachers at our school gives TONS of homework. A big part of my position is making sure all of the kids in our program get their homework done, working with the 3rd graders is not much fun AT ALL.

Also, some of the homework that our kids bring to "After Care" is worksheets that they could have/should have, finished in class, making more homework.

I have a first grader and a second grader. They have weekly spelling lists, otherwise there is no homework. On Fridays they bring home a reading packet for the weekend which is one book with a journal for them to write as they choose about the book.

I used to teach elementary school.....my opinion is that much homework at that age is too much....there is nothing wrong with a little bit so that children develop good study skills, working independently etc...because you know down the road that the workload is going to increase.....nightly reading is important to reinforce comprehension and build vocabulary....unfortunately it seems that the only homework given is in the core subjects, especially math and language arts....but at the elementary level these skills are so important to grasp because each year builds on the skills learned from the previous year....when I was teaching....the only homework I gave at that age, was to reinforce what was done that day in class....and also a way of showing the parents what we were working on....that way, the parents were involved and any issues or concerns that came up could be addressed early on....at age eight, I would try not to assign any more than half an hour of homework and 15 minutes or so of reading....

that sounds excessive. My oldest is in the 6th grade and has one sheet of homework on average per night plus his reading. He also has a study hall period too where using his time wisely can complete most and not have to do it at home. When he was in 3rd grade he would usually have a worksheet plus 10 - 20 min of reading per night. Granted sometimes if they do not finish their work in class it too becomes homework.

My kids both get a packet a week. About 4 pages? Typically they take about an hour to complete. That and 20 minutes a night reading.

But I think it does vary because I have heard others complain it is too much. I think for anybody in grade school anything more than 30 minutes is excessive. Unless it's "extra credit"

Mine gets several worksheets (usually math) on Monday that are due by Friday. We usually take an hour or two one night a week (I think it's designed to be done one at a time, but whatever, I knock that junk out) and get it done. She also has reading assignments, but I'm never involved in that, because she can read to herself (5th grade).

Our kids school doesn't give homework over the weekends (I think they finally figured out the whole kids go to dad's house on the weekend thing) and light on the work for weekdays (which I am so thankful for, I work a full time job and am a single parent, it's a miracle if I cook, clean, give everyone a bath, and eat dinner at the table.)

Odus that seems like way too much. You'd literally have to sacrifice food or work to get it done, not worth it.

I know each child has different mileage (some learn faster than others) but it doesn't seem to me that multiple hours nightly should be required.

I'm a teacher in Ireland..for an eight year old here the general rule would be 20 mins written homework plus reading/spellings/tables on top of that. However, I am currently tutoring a child outside of school and the homework she is given, for an average child should take 20 mins, but takes us over an hour to complete together.

What might seem achieveable for the teacher, can, for some children and parents, prove much more of a struggle. But 2 hours for an 8 year old? Way too much in my opinion.

That's horrible. I'm in Canada. My kids had essentially no homework (maybe a worksheet once a week or so) until 4th grade except for occasional projects and daily reading (which we would have done anyway). They're given time in class and have to bring home what they don't finish. But even then parents are instructed to stop them after 30 minutes or so for little kids.

My 5th grader now has about 20 mins/day, mostly spelling and math.

My 8th grader has up to an hour a day, plus longer-term projects that take a few hours on the weekends.

As an ex-teacher, I do think tracking your kids' work daily is a good thing. It's the best way for parents to truly engage in what's going on in the classroom and identify problems early. Now that my oldest is in middle school and he's responsible for his own planner, I struggle to get enough information about what's due when. Some kids aren't ready to handle all their own deadlines without support until as late as high school.

Kids your son's age need other activities - physical activities, organized sports, time with friends, art, music lessons, etc. And play! Kids need to play! Plus 10 - 11 hours of sleep every night. The schedule you're describing sounds pretty destructive.

My son is in 5th grade and he does a lot of it in class, so he only has to read for 30 minutes when he gets home. If he had to do both, I'd say it would be under an hour. Your little man has an excessive amount of homework; wtf are they doing all day that necessitates all that?

My younger sister is in 8th grade and has 4-5 hours of homework a night. I kid you not. The girl is in a gifted program and due to all of her extracurricular commitments, she gets to bed around 11 pm every night--and wakes around 5 AM to get ready for school. It's insanity.

It was less work in elementary school, but she still never had time for much play or free time. Nowadays, if she has half an hour to eat dinner with the family instead of eating it in her room while doing homework, she calls that a relaxing evening.