I am wondering how long homework takes for most elementary students, I remember when I was in school i didn't have any homework until 5th grade, now kids have to prepare for standerdized testing in KINDERGARTEN!!!!! ugh, how long does your child do homework every night?
How long does homework take for your elementary student?...
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My son, who is in 4th grade now, has about 45 minutes of homework. BUT, this is a big but, he is very bright and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort for him to complete it. I would imagine it takes the other kids in his class between and hour and a half and two hours to complete the same work.
He started getting nightly homework in second grade, and it has gotten more and more each year.
Standardized testing....I have very mixed emotions about this kind of testing. I don't think that most schools use it properly. I believe it should be used to judge where kids are at, where they need more help, and to catch and 'holes' in the schools teaching methods. Prepping for a standardized test seems stupid to me. Cramming a bunch of information into a little kids head so they can get good marks so the school looks good/gets more funding, doesn't seem like a good plan to me.
He started getting nightly homework in second grade, and it has gotten more and more each year.
Standardized testing....I have very mixed emotions about this kind of testing. I don't think that most schools use it properly. I believe it should be used to judge where kids are at, where they need more help, and to catch and 'holes' in the schools teaching methods. Prepping for a standardized test seems stupid to me. Cramming a bunch of information into a little kids head so they can get good marks so the school looks good/gets more funding, doesn't seem like a good plan to me.
I've learnd it schould take about 10 minuts per grade per day...
sam, in 6th grade never neads more time than half an houer... but she is realy bright and often finishes them in school
sam, in 6th grade never neads more time than half an houer... but she is realy bright and often finishes them in school
Children here don't have homework in primary school (age 4-11)however they do have reading books, normally one a fortnight. They do have two standardised tests in this time however revision is not undertaken and it is to test the success of teaching methods rather than the stage of the students.
The general rule is that no more than 10 minutes per grade level should be assigned. However, some students will take longer than that and some will not take that long.
My child is not in school yet, so I don't know yet how long she will take.
I have a friend with a child in middle school at a local private school. Homework has become the defining issue for that family, and she will not be attending the school next year. She feels there is too much homework assigned, though I'd guess there are parents out there who think there is not enough assigned.
Homework should be designed to practice a skill, not to complete work that can't be completed during class. For example, my daughter is taking a pre-writing course through her daycare offered by an occupational therapist. She brings home homework that includes little exercises she can do, such as using tongs to grab small objects, etc. This is appropriate homework, in my opinion.
My child is not in school yet, so I don't know yet how long she will take.
I have a friend with a child in middle school at a local private school. Homework has become the defining issue for that family, and she will not be attending the school next year. She feels there is too much homework assigned, though I'd guess there are parents out there who think there is not enough assigned.
Homework should be designed to practice a skill, not to complete work that can't be completed during class. For example, my daughter is taking a pre-writing course through her daycare offered by an occupational therapist. She brings home homework that includes little exercises she can do, such as using tongs to grab small objects, etc. This is appropriate homework, in my opinion.
I'd eccho those amounts. In general, my third grade has 10 minutes of math facts, a minimum of 10 minutes of reading, although we generally do between 15 and 30 minutes), spelling which probably takes 10 minutes. So, 30 in general, then a little more if there's a study guide for a test or something.
I agree with you.MomoJA said:
There are also instances that students are given way too much homework.
How much homework can elementary school students expect to have? That's a tough question. A lot of people argue that kids should have ten minutes of homework for every grade. So first graders should have ten minutes, second graders should have twenty minutes, third graders should have thirty minutes, and so on. How long your child's homework takes depends so much on your child. This is one of the things I find frustrating. Parents will come in and complain that their child has two hours of homework, but you watch them do it and they are daydreaming for at least an hour and a half of those two hours, so its really only thirty minutes of homework. I would say that kinder, first, second: thirty minutes of homework. Third, fourth: forty five minutes of homework. Fifth, sixth: about an hour of homework, but that's concerted doing homework time. It's not homework in front of the TV. It's not homework in the kitchen while you are chatting between problems. So if you find your child doing more homework than that, and they are concertedly working, and they are really trying then that is probably time to talk to the teacher and just try to figure out whats going on. But some teachers are going to give more than that and I think its one of those things you roll with and try to survive.
Oh, I forgot that part! The 4th graders also have to read for a minimum of 30 minutes every night as well. Then, if there are any tests, like spelling, studying for that is in addition to the regular homework.
I tend to let my son's teachers know if there was a lot of homework or if any of it was particularly difficult. Occasionally he has something that he seems to know absolutely nothing about. So I check to see if it is a 'new to me' skill or something they learned about in class (and he wasn't paying attention).
I tend to let my son's teachers know if there was a lot of homework or if any of it was particularly difficult. Occasionally he has something that he seems to know absolutely nothing about. So I check to see if it is a 'new to me' skill or something they learned about in class (and he wasn't paying attention).
I would say it depends on the school and teacher. I saw a news report that the home works are getting tougher and taking longer. Mine attends a very competitive elementary school (so competitive that school report cards basically don't tell you anything unless your child falls behind). She is a second grader. Every day, she has to read minimum 20 minutes, and usually math fact practice or worksheets, and writing for 20 minutes. When the homework is reading + writing, that's minimum 40 minutes. When it's math facts, it's up to the parents to choose what math facts to practice and how long. We end up doing at least 30 minutes of math fact practice. That is 50 minutes when you add 20 minutes of reading. Given the short attention span and easy distraction of second graders, it's often an hour and longer.
I personally believe home work should be easy enough for the kids to do it by themselves, but I can't let my child fall behind. The school in fact encourages parents to do homework with the kid. I'm practically a single parent, and get often overwhelmed by this parenting demand.
I personally believe home work should be easy enough for the kids to do it by themselves, but I can't let my child fall behind. The school in fact encourages parents to do homework with the kid. I'm practically a single parent, and get often overwhelmed by this parenting demand.
wow, 30 min of math facts for a second grader, it seems like that woul dbe hard to keep productive for that long. By the time we get to the end of 15 min of math facts, I can tell I'm losing attention and I'm not really sure how productive it is.
You're doing 30 minute of addition and subtraction facts? That must be full sets of 1-20 facts about 4 times through...
I can see maybe we're being too lax on the reading time, we're doing like 15-20 on top of any reading time he does at school. School really only encourages him to do a min of 10 min, they have a 30 day challenge to do 300 min and they get extra recess time, or some such.
You're doing 30 minute of addition and subtraction facts? That must be full sets of 1-20 facts about 4 times through...
I can see maybe we're being too lax on the reading time, we're doing like 15-20 on top of any reading time he does at school. School really only encourages him to do a min of 10 min, they have a 30 day challenge to do 300 min and they get extra recess time, or some such.
Yeah.. My kid had a 1000 minute reading challenge last month and I am pretty sure she will bring a 1200 minute one this month. The truth is, I don't know what the expectation is and therefore always push for more. My kid reads 3 times as many words as the grade level requirement on the reading test with 100% comprehension, but never gets a compliment for it from the teacher. I see some of her classmates reading even more advanced books than she does.
As for the math, the anxiety coming from not knowing what to expect plays a role. I asked the teacher, after months of frustration, what math facts would be appropriate for my kid. She suggested multiplication. I freaked-- I was giving her additions....So, I sat down with my kid and gave her multiplication facts from that day on. The first day, I gave her from X2 all the way to X12, stressing out she wasn't fast enough. Giving in, I gave her only X2 the next day, and X3 the day after etc all the way to X12s and mixed ones, only hoping she was not falling behind.
This closed communication kills me... especially because I'm not from this area. This is a school district with the high school that ranks within top 10 in the nation. And most families have at least one PhD parent. So, the academic achievement must be high and standards extremely high. I believe my child is doing pretty well in school, but she almost never gets any compliments for her school work. That makes me wonder how she is doing in compared to others... and freak out every once in a while.
As for the math, the anxiety coming from not knowing what to expect plays a role. I asked the teacher, after months of frustration, what math facts would be appropriate for my kid. She suggested multiplication. I freaked-- I was giving her additions....So, I sat down with my kid and gave her multiplication facts from that day on. The first day, I gave her from X2 all the way to X12, stressing out she wasn't fast enough. Giving in, I gave her only X2 the next day, and X3 the day after etc all the way to X12s and mixed ones, only hoping she was not falling behind.
This closed communication kills me... especially because I'm not from this area. This is a school district with the high school that ranks within top 10 in the nation. And most families have at least one PhD parent. So, the academic achievement must be high and standards extremely high. I believe my child is doing pretty well in school, but she almost never gets any compliments for her school work. That makes me wonder how she is doing in compared to others... and freak out every once in a while.
It is common for the rigor of an academic program to be judged by how much time is required to complete a task. And it certainly does take more than fleeting moments to work through tasks that require the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. But really a time expectation is generally arbitrary, and what an elementary school student can practice in 2 hours could be just as effectively practiced in 30 minutes to an hour, in most cases. For the most part, homework is an issue in which "quality over quantity" makes the best sense.Dr. Nora said:
Now, as an English teacher, I wouldn't count the time reading into the "time limits" for homework. Reading is a life skill. Also, the more texts you are exposed to, the more you learn, whether or not the content is related to a school subject. But I would hope that the goal of the challenge would be for the child to learn to love reading. If not, it sort of defeats the purpose.yeojungi said:
Wow, I'm sorry if my 2nd grader ever came home with multiplication, I'd start homeschooling. It's just too young, I'm sorry. I didn't START multiplication until i was IN THE MIDDLE of 3rd grade. And I'm only 21 years old!
Also, YeoJungi, if you feel like it is too much, you may want to consider school of choicing your daughter, I'm not sure if you have that where you live but it basically means if you are able to get your child to the school district, you can have her go to a different school than the one in your district. Especially as a single parent and being new to the area, it might not be wise to put so much pressure on yourself and your daughter.
That's just my personal concern for you though, not trying to say you or your daughter CAN'T do it, just saying you should probably sit down and consider if it's more help than hurt for you or your daughter.
Also, YeoJungi, if you feel like it is too much, you may want to consider school of choicing your daughter, I'm not sure if you have that where you live but it basically means if you are able to get your child to the school district, you can have her go to a different school than the one in your district. Especially as a single parent and being new to the area, it might not be wise to put so much pressure on yourself and your daughter.
That's just my personal concern for you though, not trying to say you or your daughter CAN'T do it, just saying you should probably sit down and consider if it's more help than hurt for you or your daughter.
Luckily, my child loves reading and the reading challenge doesn't mean a thing to her. She just read for 30 minutes to an hour daily because she enjoyed it so much. I at times have to stop her and tell her to sleep. But other kids may read more to win a reward (breakfast in the classroom). I hope my child continues to enjoy reading.MomoJA said:
As you can tell by all the posts, homework and how much to assign is a controversial topic. The experts seem to change their minds regularly on what they feel is the correct amount or even if there should be any homework. Most studies on homework are not consistent. Some say homework makes a difference and some don't.
I think that homework should vary depending on the grade, type of school, and need of the child. I have a problem when the amount of homework each night interrupts quality family time. Homework traditionally was really designed to reinforce a skill, not teach a skill. However, with schools being graded on how well students test, homework has gone a little over board and has become an extension of the school day.
I think that homework should vary depending on the grade, type of school, and need of the child. I have a problem when the amount of homework each night interrupts quality family time. Homework traditionally was really designed to reinforce a skill, not teach a skill. However, with schools being graded on how well students test, homework has gone a little over board and has become an extension of the school day.
I can already tell I'm going to have a hard time when my son brings home homework.
Particularly through elementary school, I grew up in a system where homework was all the stuff you didn't get finished during school. It was rarely assigned specifically to be done at home.
In my opinion, a system that has too much directed learning will yield citizens and academics who are very good at being told what to do. Having worked my way through graduate school, I've seen many students who are VERY good at solving problems and accomplishing tasks assigned to them. They have top marks and great scholarships. But when they get to a level where they can only succeed by generating new ideas, they hit a brick wall. Worse, when they have to leave academia, they get frustrated because no one hands them jobs.
Home time is for learning through independent exploration. It's quality family time and play time.
I know on some level most teachers recognize this, and that they're stuck balancing an ever-expanding cirriculum with a finite period of time. I also know that some of them have come up with some pretty ingenious ways of tackling these issues. Hopefully through my parenthood, I'll meet more teachers like that.
Particularly through elementary school, I grew up in a system where homework was all the stuff you didn't get finished during school. It was rarely assigned specifically to be done at home.
In my opinion, a system that has too much directed learning will yield citizens and academics who are very good at being told what to do. Having worked my way through graduate school, I've seen many students who are VERY good at solving problems and accomplishing tasks assigned to them. They have top marks and great scholarships. But when they get to a level where they can only succeed by generating new ideas, they hit a brick wall. Worse, when they have to leave academia, they get frustrated because no one hands them jobs.
Home time is for learning through independent exploration. It's quality family time and play time.
I know on some level most teachers recognize this, and that they're stuck balancing an ever-expanding cirriculum with a finite period of time. I also know that some of them have come up with some pretty ingenious ways of tackling these issues. Hopefully through my parenthood, I'll meet more teachers like that.