How long does homework take for your elementary student?...

[OpinionsGalore]

The rule of thumb is ten minutes per grade. Common exceptions:

*Most teachers will not give homework on Fridays or over weekends.
*Much of it may be finished in school.
*No homework before or on the day of a test.
*Homework "passes" for good behaviour.

It's certainly not set in stone. I wouldn't be concerned if your child is in fourth grade but gets twenty minutes of homework or on really busy nights, almost an hour.

 

[kyepes479]

my son generally takes about 1 hour to complete his homework.

 

[5bygrace]

My 1st grader takes a little longer, probably 15 minutes tops! unless it's her Tuesday work then drawing her pics to go with her words takes longer.

2nd grader ummm, 5 minutes! We are submitting gifted paperwork for him

5th grader, actual work 20 minutes, studying is at least 30 to 45minutes everyday for three days prior to a test.

My preschooler who is at home I might get to sit down for 3 minutes, but we can do computer work for up to 10!

I will say one thing I don't like is when there is a test on a Monday or Tuesday, and I mean unit tests...:swoon: My daughter when she was in 4th had a teacher who did that regularly it was a pain.

 

[Chrissie]

Depends on the kids, our oldest is 13, just started middle school and has more then the others..but he is really bright..so is our oldest daughter and they are both either done before they get home or they are done within a few minutes of being home. My son who is in 1st is also bright ...he gets done in about 10 minutes or so(usually 2 worksheets)..Our youngest daughter is bright but takes longer to think things through and reason them. So something that all my other munchkins would have taken at the most 10 minutes to do...it can take her 2 or 3 hours. She is in 5th grade. So in my opinion depends on the munchkin.

 

[danielle101282]

My kids had an hour from K on, and it was hard too. Everyone of my kids spent their kindergarten year doing one hour of homework and another 15 to 30 minutes of reading. Now my 4th and 5th grader do their homework on the bus or at school, but my third grader does at least 90 minutes of homework a night. I don't remember doing that kind of homework as a kid.

 

[DaddyNumber1]

My 5 year old gets 30 to 60 minutes of homework per week. I have mixed feelings about it. I think the best justification for homework at this age is to make sure the parents know what the kids are doing in school, and what they might need help on.

 

[juliekm]

My second grader has about 1/2 hour of homework everynight and never any on the weekend. It think this is appropriate for his age. My older kids went to private school at this age and had tons more homework. It was awful and from what I can tell, didn't get them ahead at all.

 

[jessica24]

For my KG child, it is max 10 minutes.. 4 times a week. Homework is generally very easy.

 

[DaddyNumber1]

My second grader has about 1/2 hour of homework everynight and never any on the weekend. It think this is appropriate for his age. My older kids went to private school at this age and had tons more homework. It was awful and from what I can tell, didn't get them ahead at all.

There is no indication that longer school days or more homework have positive results. Kids cannot sit and learn for 8 hours per day. More like 20 minutes at a time, a few times per day. In a perfect world, the school day would have 4 or 6 30 minute classes per day, with everything else running and playing and building forts. But bureaucrats are not creative sorts, so they go for more sitting and staring, with plenty of medication and punishment if that isn't easy for the kids.

 

[Xero]

When I was in highschool we had 30 minute classes, 8 of them per day. Of course there was no fun in between lol but that type of class schedule definitely exists.

 

[DaddyNumber1]

When I was in highschool we had 30 minute classes, 8 of them per day. Of course there was no fun in between lol but that type of class schedule definitely exists.

Interesting. I didn't know that existed. Where was that?

 

[Xero]

Yep, although I know most schools do "block scheduling" nowadays, which have the varying 4 classes per day, each of them more like an hour long. I went to school in the Northwestern area of Pennsylvania. I wont say the exact city, because I still live here and I get a little internet paranoid LOL.

 

[Father_0f_7]

When I was in highschool we had 30 minute classes, 8 of them per day. Of course there was no fun in between lol but that type of class schedule definitely exists.

The high schools here are 45 min each class (6 classes) and they get a 20 min lunch.

 

[IADad]

There is no indication that longer school days or more homework have positive results. Kids cannot sit and learn for 8 hours per day. More like 20 minutes at a time, a few times per day. In a perfect world, the school day would have 4 or 6 30 minute classes per day, with everything else running and playing and building forts. But bureaucrats are not creative sorts, so they go for more sitting and staring, with plenty of medication and punishment if that isn't easy for the kids.

That's an interesting approach. While I agree about the dimished value of longer instructional periods, I also wonder about advocating only 2-3 hrs of instruction a day. I guess I could go for it is the other time was spent opening up other lerning opportunities, or following up on the instruction that was given rather than just running, playing and building forts....so, if it was building a fort with a problem to solve, or with a choice of materials from their science lesson, somthing to allow them to connect with the material taught, that'd be perfect. I have no problem with schools expanding to 8 our more hours a day, and it should go pretty much year around, as long as there's a combination of classroom , and this kind of exploratory lab time mixed in (and then plenty of completely free time to run and play and interact.)

 

[DaddyNumber1]

Yep, although I know most schools do "block scheduling" nowadays, which have the varying 4 classes per day, each of them more like an hour long. I went to school in the Northwestern area of Pennsylvania. I wont say the exact city, because I still live here and I get a little internet paranoid LOL.

Don't worry. I won't look up your grades

 

[cco06]

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.

OH MY!! 45 minutes for your elementary child? That seems like quite a lot. My little girl is about to enter kindergarten and I could not see her down the road, doing that much!!! Do you think that this is too much?

 

[IADad]

OH MY!! 45 minutes for your elementary child? That seems like quite a lot. My little girl is about to enter kindergarten and I could not see her down the road, doing that much!!! Do you think that this is too much?

there's a big difference between kindergarten and 4th grade. I don't think 45 minutes is an awful lot for 4th grade, they can do a lot and they need to be challenged, plus it doesn;t have to be done at one sitting.

 

[FutureDadGT]

There was a NY Times article yesterday saying a high level official was telling their kid to stop doing your homework because it was too much. Be mindful of the context in which this was said. Apparently the child was very frustrated with doing so much homework and this parent agreed it was too much homework. I wonder though how much of the homework is worth to the grade in class. I remembered that as long as I learned the topic well, home work was just to get enough points so that I can get a good A.

 

[ginalfish]

I've learnd it schould take about 10 minuts per grade per day...

I was a high school teacher, and this is what I had always heard.

 

[momat18]

my son is in montessori and from now onwards he has a habit to do some coloring and stuff for 30 minutes.