Do you want your elementary school student to have homework?

Question

Ok, here is a question for parents from a 5th grade teacher who is also a mother of a 1st grade student. I used to complain and complain about parents that did not make their child complete homework, but boy have things changed. Ever since my son started 1st grade, homework is a never ending battle. I know I am a teacher, but that does not make me a miracle worker when reasoning with a 6 yr old. I happen to hate homework, and I hate correcting it since I am not allowed to record a grade. Reasoning behind no grade is a school rule that says we don't know if the kids actually completed the work, and honestly parents tend to complete projects and such just to get them done. Most of the time I am begging students to even turn it in. What is a parents take on this. Would you be upset if our 5th grader did not get homework? Not that it matters, becasue I have to send it, but I wanted to hear the opionion of other moms out there.

Or dads, sorry I excluded you. Your opinion is important too.

Answer 1

I think it should only be one or two pages per night. Kids are getting bogged down with so much homework so I think this is the reason most of them don't want to do it. My husband and I are seriously considering homeschooling our son because of the way that public schools are ran. People keep saying that family time is important, but when is there supposed to be family time when the kids are doing hours of homework everynight? In grade school 1 hour of homework is plenty.

Answer 2

My third grader gets to much homework, about 1 hour most nights. My first grader does not get any homework, his teacher does not believe in it ( I am terrified about next year) I think some homework, practicing spelling words and reading in normally enough. Children need time to unwind. It's really hard in the beginning of they year and the end of the year when the weather is good and all they want to be doing is playing outside. The flip side to that is if some children did not have homework they would spend more time on the computer or playing video games. I do think homework takes away from family time. I would like to see the school day a little longer, my boys are in school from 8:15 until 2:30. I think another half an hour would be good.

Answer 3

I want my kids to have a little homework just to get in the habit at a young age. I don't think it should be page upon page but enough to let me know what they're working on at school and to re-enforce self discipline. For me, it accomplishes two things. I know if my kid needs to work on something when I check their work (I never do the work for my kids...ever). It lets me explain things that the teacher might not have gone into enough detail about or they just don't seem to get (long division comes to mind). When kids reach college, there will always be home work and study time. My parents were never very strict about homework or studies and when I got to college I had no sense of self discipline. I had to learn on my own and quick! I will tell you what I do like when it comes to homework. I love the teachers that don't assign weekend homework, it's a total pain. I think Monday through Thursday is fine. I also hate when they assign projects that are "arts and craftsy" and seem to be a little beyond the age of the child. I've spent countless dollars at craft stores buying feathers, material, sequins etc and this stuff starts to add up with a few kids in school. While these projects might be fun for girls, my son could care less about gluing something together, boys just don't care. Make it educational but assign projects that can be made with easily recycled household items. Would I be upset if my 5th grader didn't have any hw? Yes. That would be an entire year of them missing out on skill building in the self discipline department and I would have no idea of how to help them or if they were having issues until grades came out. Hope this helps! :)

Answer 4

I'm not upset if my child doesn't have homework.

What does upset me is: being told there will always be homework on a Thursday and then some weeks my child comes home and says, oh there isn't any. I have no idea whether he's trying it on or not.

And make-work. Being given spellings to write out which my eight year old knew when he was five. Read out loud for ten minutes, for a child who's been reading silently for years. Write out and learn the 2x table, again, stuff he can do in his sleep. I won't make my children do make-work, and have consistently told the teachers so. With my older child, if she was given something trivially easy, I used to have her explain it to the younger one. Then it was handed in with his name on and a note from me saying she had spent the homework time teaching her little brother (3 years younger) how to do it. The teacher started giving her homework more appropriate to her ability.

I'm disheartened to see a teacher say they don't want to correct homework because it doesn't get a grade, though. Come on! The important thing is for the kids to learn! It doesn't matter what you write in your little mark book, it matters whether you notice which kids are confused about punctuation and need some extra help!

Answer 5

Homework should be a necessity. You cannot possibly complete all work in school, and really, homework is a good disciplinary exercise for future studying and focusing.
Our sixth grader rarely has homework of any kind - - if he does, it's filling out a photocopied worksheet, or bringing in a bag of dirt for science class. Personally, I think public school is becoming a joke. I don't blame the teachers - - being unable to record grades and unable to fail students ties their hands.
But I do think homework is part and parcel of going to school. How are these same children going to react when they get to junior high or high school and suddenly have more than one assignment due at a time, or have genuine homework to do?

Answer 6

I like the idea of "enrichment" homework, especially for children who need a little extra practice, or those who want to learn more deeply about a subject. I'd be happy to skip homework altogether for topics my children are doing well in. It doesn't bother me if homework is graded or just checked off as "done" if the testing is fair.

My biggest complaint with homework is that if there is a lot of it due with short notice, we often really struggle juggling after-school activities and completing it. I like to get a homework packet and have the children have a week to turn it in.

With your son, have you tried separating his homework into small chunks for him, and having him do just a little at a time with breaks in between? I had success with this strategy with one child who really hated to sit for very long, and would get angry if faced with a big assignment. With smaller chunks, I could compliment him on work well done more often, and I think that helped too.

Good luck to you!

Answer 7

I hate home work, going to school is like a full time job, kids need a time of slowing down, relaxing, just like adults. I home schooled my 3 children, after trying the school system. I now have 2 grandchildren with me for a year, and they go to a charter school. Home work is sent every day, and of course done.....but I still hate the fact that even after a full day of school, they still need to continue working. Don't get me wrong, these kids do not watch TV all the time. They have to read a book for the same amount of time they would want to watch tv.
Another thing, I love teachers! Theirs is almost a thankless, low paying job. How foolish is it to not pay our teachers what they deserive...they are in charge of traning our future!

Answer 8

i have a son in head start, hes 3. and a daughter whos 8 and in the 2nd grade but doing 3rd grade work. my son loves pretending to do homework and they do get one assignment a week that the parent has to do with the child. my daughter has on the average of one assignment to do at home a day. sometimes they get enough class time and she gets it done. but i think its good that they give a lil homework to do at home at this young age to prepare kids for their future as a student. it gets them in a routine and they know what to do, the time it takes and it creates good study habits for them to do at least 30-60 min of homework at night.

Answer 9

well i have a 2nd grader who has had homework since PreK. it is a hassle at times, however i am glad that kids are learning to do work at home it helps them get ready for higher grades.
the homework should also reflect the age, for instance when my daughter was PreK she only had to draw pictures based on a book we'd read. now she is doing spelling etc.
it doesn't take very long, but it helps her learn to have a schedule.

Answer 10

no . I beleive the kids work hard all day and then to have to come home and do more wprk is ridiculous. They are so concerned over child hood obesity but pile the kids with so much homework they can't go out to play