wtnhunt Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Just kind of curious and probably could post this in the lounge, but think it is a debatable topic that might better belong here, but if it gets moved that would be ok. How much homework is too much for kids at an elementary level K-4(thirty minutes, an hour worth, two hours worth), and should parents be responible for HAVING to check ALL that homework before kids return to school the next morning without having any sort of key, explanation, or quick way to check, or is that the teachers responsibility? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnf Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) I think 2 hours of homework (total) is not too much for kids. As far as responsibility, I think both parent and teachers are not doing thier job if the child is not doing the work. The parents should check to see if thier child is not doing it and the teachers should let parents know in a timely manner if the work isn't getting to them or if it's not being done correctly. When I do written work, yes I do written work in band, parents have to sign it befor and after it has been graded. This way I know they have seen it and know that they are aware their kid has homework in band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagnoliaHunter Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 too much 2 hrs of homework for K-4grader is too much after being in school all day. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be insulting to you as a teacher, but that is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) [ QUOTE ] elementary level K-4 [/ QUOTE ] I'd say 1-1/2 hours tops and yes the parents should definately be on top of whether the homework gets done or not. JMO. I think homework, above all, teaches kids the responsibility of working at something unsupervised. That's the biggest lesson to be learnt from it, besides what the homework is actually about. Too much isn't good for elementary students, IMO. They spend all day at school, so they shouldn't be spending all night at school. They still need time to be kids before bedtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) Don't remember ever having more than 30 minutes to an hour's worth at that grade level. What I do remember, and I hated it at the time, was when the teachers didn't coordinate their homework so on some days we wouldn't have any and on other days we might have 5 assignments that would take an hour each from 5 different teachers. That made for some long nights. Especially since I had to do chores first thing when I got home before it got too dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) Good point texan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnf Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) I require 30 minutes practice 5 days a week (any 5) documented by parents. In order for students to progress indiviudal work MUST be done. I would suspect that similar amount of time on math, spelling and reading (any subject) would make for a succesfull learner. What's wrong with expecting progress and success? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VermontHunter Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) OH BOY !! This could be a real sticky one.... I remember my father having plenty of meetings with teachers about this very subject, when we were growing up.... If I remember right he was totally against 2.5 - 4 hrs of homework each night considering I was raised on a farm and had plenty of work to do before and after school... He understood that a good education was a must,, but the reality of it was he had a hosehold to support and farm work is a 24hr. 7day a week 365 day job.. And he needed every able hand on deck to help out around the farm... Now that Im an adult, I think 2.5 to 3 hrs. each night for a kid to do homework ( especially at the grades of 1-6 ) is way too much. Now from the grades of 7-12 I think that 2-3 hrs. should be able to be accomplished easily... Just my take on it folks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebeilgard Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) grades k-4 should be very gentle. 1 hour tops. these kids should play, not work. then up to two hours till 8th grade, then maybe 3-4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian_Goose Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Homework?(parent/teacher responsibilities) Kids are becoming more obese, so is more homework really the answer? .02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much [ QUOTE ] 2 hrs of homework for K-4grader is too much after being in school all day. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be insulting to you as a teacher, but that is wrong. [/ QUOTE ] Thanks for the great replies here. I also think it is way too much. My kid used to love school, now she is growing to hate it, not good for a 10 year old. She has no free time while school is in through the week, and has homework over most weekends as well. I do think that parents should make sure that homework is being done and that if the child needs any help that they should be there to help and encourage. My 10 year old does her homework after getting home from school before doing anything else outside, we do live on a farm and she would love to go out everday and be around the horses and have some play time. Sometimes it takes her more than 2 hours with her weekly reading assignments and she does not get finished up before we eat supper. I think that is just too much for a kid, they do need some play time. The homework seems to me to be just too much. This past year though really got me. Parents, at least of the kids in my daughters class, were supposed to be responsible for checking and correcting their childrens homework(primarily math) before the kids returned to school the next morning. Checking 30 math problems with word problems without a key takes a few minutes, my wife or I had to actually work them out too, and you are not supposed to give the kids the answers, but send them back to fix their errors then check it again until they get it right. I did not agree with this method, but the part that really got me was that this teacher used the homework assignments as a portion towards the childs grades, she also gave "homework tests" that the kids were supposed to look at their homework and find the answers to the problems and this counted as test grades . To me this is testing the parents not the kids. I dont need homework nor do I need tested. If teachers are going to expect parents to grade their kids work, seems the least they could do is give the parents a key Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much An hour a night, tops. We have one elementary teacher that my son has now. Last year was her first year, and she buried my daughter with at least 2 hours of homework a night. That lasted about a week. I complained and I'm sure other parents did too. Homework dropped off considerably with this particular teacher. My son has her now, and in my mind, she's not the best teacher. Homework is OK if it's directed and has a purpose. In a lot of cases her homework was busy work. I let her know at every instance with notes written in my son's daily ledger or calls to school, or at conference time. I guess I have the advantage of being a teacher myself and I know what the standards are for a particular grade. If something steps outside of those standards, I contact the teacher or simply have my kids skip the work, and in such cases I write a note stating why. As long as my kids keep pace with the curriculum, I'm happy. In most cases they are above the pace. I'm sure Miss Kutayli hates me, because I call her out on the carpet all the time. As long as I know she doesn't have a leg to stand on, I don't worry about missed homework assignments. As far as checking the homework, sadly, that's mom and dad's job. I get home every day around 3:45 and first thing I do when I get in the door is ask about homework, supervise homework, and check homework. Most times it's a real drag because nobody plays, including me, until the work is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much With you having three in school, that has to be quite time consuming Chris, cannot imagine getting a meal ready and checking homework for 3 and dealing with everything else that has to be done and getting done by bedtime. This particular teacher has taught since before my wife was in elementary school. She should retire, but she wont. I let her know on several occasions my thoughts and her reply was always that it should not be taking Christina as long as it did,once even suggesting that Christina must be doing homework for other kids. I also requested that Christina be tested for gifted as she seemed to me to be losing interest(not challenged) in her school work. The teacher agreed and never follwed through despite my asking on several more occasions. BTW, she made it all the way through this school(k-4) with never having been given an IQ test or tested for gifted, that goes against what I read in something somewhere. Sadly the school where she was going is very political believe it or not at the elementary level. The kids belonging to particular churches have their clicks, kids who are teachers kids have their clicks, and those kids tend to get more attention focused on them by some(not all) teachers. Really irritates me that my kid can score in the 97-99 percentile on the yearly achievement tests since she began school, and the school never recognizes that she may be gifted and even after I make a suggestion they still never tested her. Back on the subject, Chris are you just checking to see that the homework is done or actually going through each question and making sure they are all correct? Could not imagine working out and correcting 90 math problems every night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horst Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much We had a teacher when my oldest son was in 3rd grade that would send home on average 3 hours of homework every night.Nothing got done during class, everything came home.Now my son was going to school from 8:30 till 4:30 or 8 hours a day.Throw in 3 hours of homework and he was doing more then we expect out of most adults in thier jobs.His grades dropped, he lost interest in school or even trying to get all of the work done and his whole attitude was pretty bad.The following year the homework was lessened, his attitude improved and his grades improved again.He just got burnt out. Parents and teachers both have a responsibility.We check our kids work but honestly since I graduated 15 years ago a lot has changed.The 5th grade math has questions in it I cant answer, my 6 year olds been using phonics to learn reading which seems to work good but I have no idea what shes talking about a lot of the time. And if the teachers noyt communicating with the parents as well its pretty well a lost cause.Parents really have no way of knowing when, what, or how much of anything is supposed to be getting done at home if the kids/teachers not telling them.A lot of times nothings said till report cards come out or theres a regularly scheduled conference and then its to late in a lotta cases to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much [ QUOTE ] Back on the subject, Chris are you just checking to see that the homework is done or actually going through each question and making sure they are all correct? Could not imagine working out and correcting 90 math problems every night [/ QUOTE ] Nope, pretty much check it for content too William. It's not every night, but some nights I'm checking close to 100 problems. Joe rarely brings homework home; he usually gets it done at study table at school. I remember early in the year when he as a 6th grader was adjusting to 7th grade math (they bumped him up a grade) was bringing home simple linear equations. Man, I haven't had algebra in close to 15 years, it took me awhile to see if he was doing stuff correctly. I had him bring the book home because to be honest I needed a refresher. When it comes to English and spelling words, that comes easy 'cuz I do that all day here at work. The strongest bullet any parent has in his or her gun is something called the course of study. Somewhere, doesn't matter what state you're in, you have some sort of booklet that outlines what is being taught. If you want to whip a teacher into shape, set up a conference and ask him/her to produce the academic content area, or course of study and then ask them how a particular lesson applies to that content area. If it doesn't pertain to the content area, don't worry about it, or let them know you don't appreciate them teaching outside of the content area. If it is in the content area, well, that's back on you, and if it were my child, I'd know it and make sure it got done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dg Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much I think it really depends on how the teacher teaches during the class. Some teachers do nothing during class and expect the parents to do it all at home. Some teachers are really creative during class and pushes kids to want to learn and the acceptance for doing homework is there. But for K-4, I'd say 30-60 minutes each night to instill the "school isn't over when the bell rings" mentality. Once homework becomes the norm, it becomes just a part of life. But the elementary, middle, and high schools should be in snyc with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much [ QUOTE ] Some teachers do nothing during class and expect the parents to do it all at home. [/ QUOTE ] Unfortunately I think this is very true. I keep hearing about how teachers have so much to do with kids nowadays due to parents not disciplining them, and even posts in here there have been comments about how teachers have to act as parents to kids by teaching them discipline they should be learning at home. Not sure, but maybe too much of a teachers attention is not focused on teaching like it should be. Then too, maybe some teachers think all kids need a lot of busy work to occupy their time to keep them out of trouble . As far as a curriculum Chris, we get an agenda and a syllabus of sorts at the first of the school year. We already have a book with expectations to what they will learn in kindergarten for Nicole for the upcoming year that we got when we registered her. Will have to remember about the course of study and be sure to ask during conference time. I took Nicole for pre screening tests yesterday, she was the youngest child I saw there. Christina will not have orientation until about 4 or 5 days prior to school starting, think August 2nd is her orientation. She will be switching classes at the middle school. Should make for an interesting start to the school year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heathcoerracin Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: too much well im a high school student and i have usually 2-4 hours of homework a night and most of it my teachers dont even teach! And when you ask em a question they flip out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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