If you have an ELEMENTARY aged child... School talk?
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My daughter is in 5th and this is the second year they do not send homework home. They have work time in class. It is only make up homework, or if they want to do an extra practice run on spelling words. New words are done on Monday, then they practice all week at school and test on Friday.
I have not seen a decline in my child's grades in those two years...she still is getting A's and B's.
I think it is great and let's family balance work, school, activities, family, etc. It's great to go to swim practice, come home, eat and relax. To not make her go go go from 7 in the morning to 9 or10 at night.
Edited to say PS...yes, I'm in the United States.0 -
When i was in elementary school we rarely had any that i can remember, we ususally got it done in class. Middle school starting with 5th grade though was about 2 hours and this was in the early 90s.0
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I have a second grader who is 7 and a third grader who is 9. The second grader doesn't usually have a lot of homework, just spelling word review and once a month a project that maybe takes 20 minutes or so a few days a week. His teacher also wants them reading half an hour a night, but I don't really consider that homework. The third grader has a daily math worksheet which usually takes him about 90 seconds to do and on Thursdays a word search. I'm sure that he is sometimes given other things but he finishes them while still at school. Both of them had more homework in first grade than they do now.0
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malavika413 wrote: »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.
Seriously, that just breaks my heart... We have 45+ years as working adults ahead of us to hate *LOL* Shouldn't kids be having some fun in life still?
I agree with you. My sister is very very driven, and her extracurriculars (student body president, choir, musical, newspaper reporter, business classes) mean a lot to her. At her age I would've collapsed from exhaustion, but she handles things well.0 -
malavika413 wrote: »malavika413 wrote: »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.
Seriously, that just breaks my heart... We have 45+ years as working adults ahead of us to hate *LOL* Shouldn't kids be having some fun in life still?
I agree with you. My sister is very very driven, and her extracurriculars (student body president, choir, musical, newspaper reporter, business classes) mean a lot to her. At her age I would've collapsed from exhaustion, but she handles things well.
Right?? LOL Maybe I'm just especially lazy, but reading that just makes me want to crawl into bed ;-)
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malavika413 wrote: »malavika413 wrote: »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.
Seriously, that just breaks my heart... We have 45+ years as working adults ahead of us to hate *LOL* Shouldn't kids be having some fun in life still?
I agree with you. My sister is very very driven, and her extracurriculars (student body president, choir, musical, newspaper reporter, business classes) mean a lot to her. At her age I would've collapsed from exhaustion, but she handles things well.
Right?? LOL Maybe I'm just especially lazy, but reading that just makes me want to crawl into bed ;-)
I know! I mean, I'm a premed student at a top 20 university and I get more sleep than her! Granted, my grades aren't spectacular, but still.0 -
i'm not a parent, but i remember in highschool we complained about the amount of homework and they told us to expect 1-1.5 of work per class per day. so that was 4-6 hours a night! i had a job on top of that. its a miracle i didnt drop out. i cant figure out how people did after school activities/sports. there is no time!0
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zero homework policy in my kids school when she was in elementary and Jr. High0
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Man, this is all over the map! It's really hard to judge. I guess, personally, I'm struggling. I get home with him at about 6pm (he's in after school care until I'm done w/ work at 5:30. He works on homework for 30 minutes there.) At 6, it's an hour for dinner prep and eating - if he's not cooking with me, he's eating some fruit and either starting homework or playing outside.
So, now it's 7:00, we've eaten. Homework time, usually until about 8:00-3:30.
8:30, Bath, Teeth, Jammies...
9:00 Bed, Read for 20.
Here's the problem. WHEN is there time for basketball? Karate? Music Classes? TV Time and play time??? I fell like his life is work and it sucks. I'm not even going to lie, it's just... NOT fun. And shouldn't life be some sort of fun when you're 8 years old?
What if we want to grocery shop, or go out to dinner with the family? Forget it...
We've had to quit karate... no time. I'm a huge advocate for music and sports, but they're not offered at his school (private). Sure, we do basketball on the weekends right now, but games are coming and that's on a school night.
I realize I"m whining *LOL* But where's the school/work/life balance?
What time does he get out of school? Bath every night? Hour for dinner every night?
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He gets out at 4. He's in after school care until 5:15-5:30 when I pick him up. from 4-4:30 it's quiet study there. After that it's pure and utter chaos *LOL*
Yes... generally takes me an hour each night to cook/eat. Mind you, he does other stuff during this time if he doesn't want to hang in the kitchen (but he does love cooking).
Bath every night. He's a stinky sweaty active kid.0 -
RavenLibra wrote: »zero homework policy in my kids school when she was in elementary and Jr. High
I'm moving to wherever this is...
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reception age child (yep British system - equivalent to kindergarten in terms of what they're learning but the kids are a year younger) - just gets reading/phonics as homework, plus a list of "challenge" tasks that include things like sitting and reading a book with a family member, that kind of thing, and we're also supposed to practice counting to 100 with her. There's no fixed schedule to it, apart from she's supposed to practice reading and phonics each night (there's no set amount but my daughter insists on reading the whole book).
year 4 child (same age as USA 3rd grade) - reading each night (no fixed amount), and each week she gets 2-3 sheets stuck in her homework book, mostly times tables and English exercises (mostly grammar), plus a list of spellings to learn, and there's a creative project each term that they have to do too. The work is set on a weekly basis, except for the creative project which is done each term (their school has a 6 term year). Other than the reading, she usually does all her homework at the weekend (but sometimes Tuesday nights as it's due in on Wednesdays).0 -
slickmickey wrote: »i'm not a parent, but i remember in highschool we complained about the amount of homework and they told us to expect 1-1.5 of work per class per day. so that was 4-6 hours a night! i had a job on top of that. its a miracle i didnt drop out. i cant figure out how people did after school activities/sports. there is no time!
Yep, that was high school for me. Except, since I had 8 classes (7 APs my senior year), I had close to 7 hours of homework per night. I couldn't have a job, no clubs, no sports. It's a miracle I got into college at all.0 -
School has changed a lot since my day, I didn't have homework until about the third grade, and then it was only about 10 spelling words to learn.
I read to both of my children every night for about 20 minutes. They get to choose two books and I choose one. They have their own library of over 450 books from when I was a child.
My oldest child is in Kindergarten this year and he has a list of 20 "sight" words each week as well as a web-based learning system that, fortunately his teacher is not using. I say fortunately because I cannot get him to understand that he is supposed to pick the right answer when he knows it. He would rather explore all of the other options first to see what response the animated characters do.
The shameful fact is that the United States is continuing to fall farther and farther behind other industrialized nations when it comes to educating our children. Our education system is broken and the answer to fixing this is NOT throwing more work at them at a young age. Just earlier this week I read that Sweden, ranked as one of the top countries in early education, does not give elementary school children homework under the premise that children should spend time away from school being kids! Imagine that!0 -
He gets out at 4. He's in after school care until 5:15-5:30 when I pick him up. from 4-4:30 it's quiet study there. After that it's pure and utter chaos *LOL*
Yes... generally takes me an hour each night to cook/eat. Mind you, he does other stuff during this time if he doesn't want to hang in the kitchen (but he does love cooking).
Bath every night. He's a stinky sweaty active kid.
Chaotic time = play time.
Eat sammich while doing homework...oh wait, I forgot you don't make sammiches.
I think showering every other night is reasonable for my kids, and they are very active. 7th and 4th grader have travel and premier soccer, and school sports for the 7th grader. Including drive time, soccer alone takes up 1.5-3 hrs per day (weekends too).0 -
My boy is in the 2nd grade and his nighly homework can be anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour (plus the 20 minutes of reading time). Depends on his mood, though, when he actually sits down to do it, it's on the shorter side. He's really good and complaining and whining.0
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I'm a single parent of a 6 yr old in 1st grade. He gets a homework packet (4 pages front and back) of math/sentence structure/spelling to complete in a week, 1 page front/back of g/t homework 2x a week and is "encouraged" to read at home.
He's in after-school care at the Y everyday until 6. Luckily, he loves it there and has an hour of varied sports each day with an hour of homework time 2x a week and art/cooking/wii games thrown into the mix.
I'm fortunate that the after-school counselors make sure he does his homework so that all I need to do is check over it with him when we get home. He's an avid and focused reader, so I have no problems in that area, either.
The window of time we have together during the work/school week is so narrow that I am grateful for the Y for taking care of his active play and homework time. When we get home, it's dinner and together time (usually reading together or me watching him play minecraft), bath and bedtime. Fridays are our date days: easy take-out dinner and park play time.0 -
3rd grade
15 minutes reading
a front and back worksheet for math, usually takes 20-45 minutes. It's been leaning towards 45 here lately. Unfortunately with the Common Core, I cannot help her. I'm horrid at regular math anyways...but this is ridiculous. Even this ding dong can't figure it out.
Then another sheet for reading?? Something with words.
So about an hour all together. Do we get it all done. Sometimes. Sometimes we just write questions for the thing we couldn't figure out, and I think my daughter gets to do those in the morning.
And sometimes they can kiss our @ss. We live in a single parent home, and do the best we can. No pity. Just stating facts.0 -
I'm a PE teacher... All of your kids are insane. That is all I have to add.
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_dracarys_ wrote: »
Haha, I'm sure you do. In all honesty, they're super crazy and it makes my day. I love kids.0 -
He gets out at 4. He's in after school care until 5:15-5:30 when I pick him up. from 4-4:30 it's quiet study there. After that it's pure and utter chaos *LOL*
Yes... generally takes me an hour each night to cook/eat. Mind you, he does other stuff during this time if he doesn't want to hang in the kitchen (but he does love cooking).
Bath every night. He's a stinky sweaty active kid.
Chaotic time = play time.
Eat sammich while doing homework...oh wait, I forgot you don't make sammiches.
I think showering every other night is reasonable for my kids, and they are very active. 7th and 4th grader have travel and premier soccer, and school sports for the 7th grader. Including drive time, soccer alone takes up 1.5-3 hrs per day (weekends too).
I personally would not put family dinners on the cutting block.
I would put my job on the cutting block before the dinners, but I'd put that private school (are you paying for this personal hell?) on the cutting block before any of it.
It is not at all uncommon with these busy lives for the 20-30 min we sit at the table eating to be the only bonding time we have until the weekends.
Besides, you teach your children how to be healthy in the heart, body and soul by doing that yourself. Families need to un-wind and bond, talk about each others day, sit around in a circle and eat together.
Working to death while cramming a sammich down our throats in the office might cut it when you have work demands as an adult, but it is absolutely no way to raise your children. Sure, it happens sometimes, when the busy "performance" season of the school picks up, but it's not expected day to day.
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_dracarys_ wrote: »
Haha, I'm sure you do. In all honesty, they're super crazy and it makes my day. I love kids.
My kid looks SO forward to PE. His "favorite class." The best chance for them to burn all that energy and go psycho on the teachers *kitten* *giggle*
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AsaThorsWoman wrote: »He gets out at 4. He's in after school care until 5:15-5:30 when I pick him up. from 4-4:30 it's quiet study there. After that it's pure and utter chaos *LOL*
Yes... generally takes me an hour each night to cook/eat. Mind you, he does other stuff during this time if he doesn't want to hang in the kitchen (but he does love cooking).
Bath every night. He's a stinky sweaty active kid.
Chaotic time = play time.
Eat sammich while doing homework...oh wait, I forgot you don't make sammiches.
I think showering every other night is reasonable for my kids, and they are very active. 7th and 4th grader have travel and premier soccer, and school sports for the 7th grader. Including drive time, soccer alone takes up 1.5-3 hrs per day (weekends too).
I personally would not put family dinners on the cutting block.
I would put my job on the cutting block before the dinners, but I'd put that private school (are you paying for this personal hell?) on the cutting block before any of it.
It is not at all uncommon with these busy lives for the 20-30 min we sit at the table eating to be the only bonding time we have until the weekends.
Besides, you teach your children how to be healthy in the heart, body and soul by doing that yourself. Families need to un-wind and bond, talk about each others day, sit around in a circle and eat together.
Working to death while cramming a sammich down our throats in the office might cut it when you have work demands as an adult, but it is absolutely no way to raise your children. Sure, it happens sometimes, when the busy "performance" season of the school picks up, but it's not expected day to day.
I have to agree. The time I have to laugh and bond w/ my kid each night over dinner or whatever is priceless. His stories of how he started a "Dragon Club" in his after school program made me laugh my butt off the other night
Sadly, work time can't be cut into as a single parent, but... you never know. Maybe some good will come out of this meeting.
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_dracarys_ wrote: »
Haha, I'm sure you do. In all honesty, they're super crazy and it makes my day. I love kids.
My kid looks SO forward to PE. His "favorite class." The best chance for them to burn all that energy and go psycho on the teachers *kitten* *giggle*
You put favorite class in quotations like Its not even a real class Come on now... Dodge ball goes a long ways in life. Haha 0 -
LOL Well "favorite class" was more in quotes b/c it does change weekly. He once got "out" in dodgeball and suddenly hated gym. He's like a fickle little GIRL!
I kid! I kid!0 -
Man, this is all over the map! It's really hard to judge. I guess, personally, I'm struggling. I get home with him at about 6pm (he's in after school care until I'm done w/ work at 5:30. He works on homework for 30 minutes there.) At 6, it's an hour for dinner prep and eating - if he's not cooking with me, he's eating some fruit and either starting homework or playing outside.
So, now it's 7:00, we've eaten. Homework time, usually until about 8:00-3:30.
8:30, Bath, Teeth, Jammies...
9:00 Bed, Read for 20.
Here's the problem. WHEN is there time for basketball? Karate? Music Classes? TV Time and play time??? I fell like his life is work and it sucks. I'm not even going to lie, it's just... NOT fun. And shouldn't life be some sort of fun when you're 8 years old?
What if we want to grocery shop, or go out to dinner with the family? Forget it...
We've had to quit karate... no time. I'm a huge advocate for music and sports, but they're not offered at his school (private). Sure, we do basketball on the weekends right now, but games are coming and that's on a school night.
I realize I"m whining *LOL* But where's the school/work/life balance?
Could he work more than a half hour on his homework at the after-school program?
Because honestly, it sounds like a lot of the issue with the "work/life" balance for him is that you get home so late because of your work schedule. That's totally not a judgment - my schedule is almost EXACTLY the same, and I understand that it stinks. But a lot of the that stuff you mention - basketball, karate, music classes, etc, usually take place a lot earlier in the day. So if you're working and not getting home until 6, those things wouldn't really fit into your schedule, anyway.0 -
RavenLibra wrote: »zero homework policy in my kids school when she was in elementary and Jr. High
Mine, too, and it drives me nuts. I make my son read for at least an hour a night, just so he has SOME study habits going into high school.
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I am a teacher. Generally, we aim for *approximately* 10 minutes per night, per grade level. It's not a rule, just a general guideline. So, kinder and 1st would get about 10 -20 minutes of homework. 2nd grade would get about 20 minutes. 3rd grade, about 30 minutes, etc. This doesn't include the reading (most teachers recommend 20 minutes per night, which is so very important). While it is important for the kids to continue their learning at home for enrichment purposes, it is also important for them to play and socialize after school, so there has to be a healthy balance. Just my 2 cents.0
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I have an almost 11-year-old in 5th grade. He has one 2-page math assignment or Kahn Academy (online math practice) assignment each night; he has one reading response journal assignment each week that they have all week to work on and it is due Thursday; and he is supposed to read 20 minutes each night. In total, he spends 30-60 minutes at the most (it's usually closer to 45 minutes) on homework each night. I really like his school's approach to homework. This is the most homework he has ever had, which is appropriate since he is now one of the older kids in school. Homework is meant solely as a practice of concepts learned in class and does not dominate the kids schedules for the students at his school. In Kindergarten, he did not have homework. In first grade, he had about 10 minutes/night and it has increased slightly each year to get to the 30-60minutes/night he has now.0
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