What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

How much is too much? Homework for kids? (1 Viewer)

shader

shader

Footballguy
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.

 
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.
Click to expand...
I don't think there has been a conclusive link between the amount of homework done, and academic achievement. What link does exist does so at the higher grade levels.

5th graders are young enough that the vast majority of their time out of school should be spent "being a kid" and not working, in my opinion.

My first step would be the teacher. If that answer/result isn't satisfactory, then I'd go to administration.

That said, I would never encourage my kid to do less because s/he'd look bad to their classmates (I don't think that's what you were saying, but you seemed to be implying it).

 
2-3hrs every night is friggin' insane. I'd be on the phone ASAP about that too.

I agree with BD - adjusting homework to appease her social standing isn't a good idea.

 
Definitely don't talk to other parents. Talk to the teacher first. Express your concerns and ask for more information about your daughter's day-to-day routine in class. If your daughter has a good teacher then your questions should be answered, even if they aren't necessarily what you want to hear. If you feel the answers are insufficient I'd tell the teacher something along the lines of I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions, but I still think my daughter is being over worked outside of school and I will express those concerns with administration.

I agree that 2-3 hours every day is way too much. Every now and again? Sure, but closer to an hour/day should be the norm.

 
That much homework is a sign of a lazy teacher. You probably need to find out more about what is going on in the class.

 
My son is currently in 7th grade and he has never had more than 1-2 hours homework per night for any grade level as a general matter, and usually closer to one. The occasional study packet or lab assignment stretches that a bit but if you daughter is getting that much homework on a regular basis in fifth grade then there is something hinkey going down at her school or class. Talk to the teachers first and principal next.

 
Is it homework where she is actually learning something or is it busy work? She should be a mini-Einstein by now if it is actually good homework.

 
imo any homework that takes longer than 15-30 mins to complete for grades k-5 is a total waste. Kids are at school all day, they should be able to get in what they need at the school during those grades.

 
My daughter is in the 3rd grade and has about 30-45mins. per night. Below is a portion from the student handbook sent home with her on the first day of school this year.

"As a student advances through school, it is reasonable to expect that the amount of homework will be increased. xxxxx Elementary follows the Board of Education’s recommended average of 30 minutes per day for students in grades 1 – 3 and an average of 60 minutes per day in grades 4 – 5 for all subjects combined. Homework is to be assigned a maximum of four times a week for grades 1 – 3 with no additional written assignments over weekends or holidays. Students in grades 4 –5 could anticipate assigned homework four to five times a week. Work on long term projects may extend over a period of weeks and include weekends if a family desires."

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Vanilla Guerrilla said:
Is it homework where she is actually learning something or is it busy work? She should be a mini-Einstein by now if it is actually good homework.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately it sometimes seems like we are doing too much teaching at home. I'm wondering what is going on at the school.

This is a highly rated school btw.

Advice from all is good. I think a meeting with teacher is first step.

 
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.
Click to expand...
I hate it when people misuse the word literally.

 
Short Corner said:
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.
Click to expand...
I hate it when people misuse the word literally.
Click to expand...
Yep. Apparently she doesn't eat or sleep or shower or shave or use the bathroom, etc.

 
Short Corner said:
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.
Click to expand...
I hate it when people misuse the word literally.
Click to expand...
You also figured out why she takes so much time to get her homework done. ;)
 
I teach fifth graders. 2 - 3 hours a night is insane. There are, however, some nights (once every two weeks) when kids might have that much in my class. The Common Core is writing intensive, and to become good at writing a person has to do a lot of it. By the end of fifth grade a student is expected to be able to produce a fully organized, typed, two page essay (opinion, narrative, or informational) on demand within an hour and half or so. That is a pretty tall order for most kids. I find that in my school (urban/lower middle class) there are around 2 - 5 kids out of 20 who can measure up to Common Core standards in ELA and math, the rest fall below the line, sometimes way below.

It is insane when you compare it to what we had to do as kids. For example, I am pretty sure I did not write more than ten two or more page essays in all of high school, let alone just fifth grade! There are some people who think that Common Core is sort of a long game plot to declare all public schools incompetent and move to total privatization. In seeing the results (even though I am a supporter of CC), I don't know if I don't agree with them. We just did the first round of 'Common Core' testing this past spring. The state averages in both ELA and math were in the basic range (advanced/proficient/basic/below basic), I am not sure how anyone plans on getting the scores up, as burning kids out on work is not going to do it, not to mention the fact that most people are getting dumber and dumber as the years move along.

 
I thought the accepted standard was 10 minutes x grade level. 5th graders should average 50 minutes a night.

 
Nugget said:
I thought the accepted standard was 10 minutes x grade level. 5th graders should average 50 minutes a night.
Click to expand...
That's the "standard" I guess but it really doesn't mean anything. And 80 minutes for 8th graders is way too much. Hell, I'm in the camp that there is no definitive proof that it helps at all.

 
I'm a school administrator. I would be curious to hear the principal's speech about benefits of homework. I'm not a fan/proponent of homework at all. Wasn't as a a science teacher and am not as an administrator. Especially at younger ages. Too much research that calls it in to question.

 
In studies that involve in-class tests, some students are given homework – which usually consists of reviewing a batch of facts about some topic – and then they, along with their peers who didn’t get the homework, take a quiz on that very material. The outcome measure, in other words, is precisely aligned to the homework that some students did and others didn’t do — or that they did in varying amounts. It’s as if you were told to spend time in the evening learning the names of all the vice presidents of the United States and were then tested only on those names.

If you remembered more of them after cramming, the researcher would then conclude that “learning in the evening” is effective.
Click to expand...
It got me through college. :shrug:

 
Meatwad Reloaded said:
I teach fifth graders. 2 - 3 hours a night is insane. There are, however, some nights (once every two weeks) when kids might have that much in my class. The Common Core is writing intensive, and to become good at writing a person has to do a lot of it. By the end of fifth grade a student is expected to be able to produce a fully organized, typed, two page essay (opinion, narrative, or informational) on demand within an hour and half or so. That is a pretty tall order for most kids. I find that in my school (urban/lower middle class) there are around 2 - 5 kids out of 20 who can measure up to Common Core standards in ELA and math, the rest fall below the line, sometimes way below.

It is insane when you compare it to what we had to do as kids. For example, I am pretty sure I did not write more than ten two or more page essays in all of high school, let alone just fifth grade! There are some people who think that Common Core is sort of a long game plot to declare all public schools incompetent and move to total privatization. In seeing the results (even though I am a supporter of CC), I don't know if I don't agree with them. We just did the first round of 'Common Core' testing this past spring. The state averages in both ELA and math were in the basic range (advanced/proficient/basic/below basic), I am not sure how anyone plans on getting the scores up, as burning kids out on work is not going to do it, not to mention the fact that most people are getting dumber and dumber as the years move along.
Click to expand...
5th grade?? WTF.

 
Future father of the year candidate right here but when my kids 9/6 are in those grades and a teacher is insisting on that much homework I'm doing it for them.

 
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it. I think there are interesting concepts and I think it allows my kids to "stretch" a little in how they think about things.

But my daughter is in 5th grade. Currently, she comes home from school and does about 2-3 hours of schoolwork every night.

She's getting quite stressed out. However, she's being used as an example by the school, as many of the kids apparently aren't doing nearly so well with homework. They've been having meetings and even brought the principal in to talk to the kids about the importance of doing homework.

So now my daughter is in the unenviable position of being the girl who "does all her homework thoroughly", which may not sit well with other kids.

Anyway, she's 10 years old. She's not prepping for college exams. I get that you want to prepare kids for life. But literally she does nothing except school and homework from Monday morning to Friday night. It's too much. She's getting seriously stressed, as apparently are most of the other kids.

What's the play here? Talk to teacher? Principal? Other parents? I'm not going to have my ten year old daughter stressed out by school to this degree. She's smart, she's learning and she's doing great. But she's a kid.
Click to expand...
Hire someone to do her homework for her.

 
comfortably numb said:
Future father of the year candidate right here but when my kids 9/6 are in those grades and a teacher is insisting on that much homework I'm doing it for them.
Click to expand...
If it's before high school then I'm fine with my kid getting bad grades for missed homework that I don't feel is helpful to her learning.

 
This is how the millenials became so entitled. They think the world owes them for all the homework and studying they had to do in school.

 
Normally, I'd say talk to the teacher. That being said, in this case, it seems the whole system is going through a change so I don't think a call to the principal would be out of line. If they truly are using your child as an example, you need to let them know how much stress it is causing her.

 
Officer Pete Malloy said:
Hooper31 said:
shader said:
So recently the common core came to town, and in many ways I like it.
Click to expand...
Wild guess here, but I'm thinking you don't know what common core really is if you are attributing it to the amount of homwork your kid is getting.
Click to expand...
An error occurred

You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day
Click to expand...
If it wasn't for Facebook posts complaining about it most parents wouldn't even know it existed.

 
I'll admit I have no idea what the big deal is about common core. Aside from my 1st and 3rd graders (seemingly) doing way more advanced things than I remember doing in those grades, I don't see what the hub bub is about. :shrug:

 
Ned said:
I'll admit I have no idea what the big deal is about common core. Aside from my 1st and 3rd graders (seemingly) doing way more advanced things than I remember doing in those grades, I don't see what the hub bub is about. :shrug:
Click to expand...
In the simplest terms, Common Core is a list of things kids should be able to do at each grade level. Common Core doesn't endorse any specific method in getting students to meet those objectives.

 
Kansas is generally against Common Core. According to Common Core, the Old Testament does not count as a science objective.

 
Hooper31 said:
Ned said:
I'll admit I have no idea what the big deal is about common core. Aside from my 1st and 3rd graders (seemingly) doing way more advanced things than I remember doing in those grades, I don't see what the hub bub is about. :shrug:
Click to expand...
In the simplest terms, Common Core is a list of things kids should be able to do at each grade level. Common Core doesn't endorse any specific method in getting students to meet those objectives.
Click to expand...
I understand that much, but I don't understand why so many parents get bent out of shape if you even mention common core. Are these parents against it because their kids are falling behind?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

CletiusMaximus
Setting up a new Windows Laptop for my Daughter
Replies
2
Views
116
Osaurus
Osaurus
Max Power
Kids travel sports - unreasonable request?
2 3 4
Replies
163
Views
5K
Chadstroma
Chadstroma
Chadstroma
How to Tell Someone is a Good Person by the Small Things
2 3
Replies
117
Views
3K
urbanhack
urbanhack

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top