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This seems absurd to me. My kid is in school from 8am to almost 3:30pm - why the hell do I need to "teach" him anything after all that time in school? I have to cook dinner, clean, and I bring home work, too. We had no problem with the 20 minutes of reading and the 10 minute word study, but beyond that it just seems inappropriate for that age level, at least for a boy. I'm going to have to disagree here - I don't plan to have school in my house after school.
When studies talk about how the long term educational success of students is greatly affected by parental involvement, this it the type of involvement they are referring to. Not PTA meetings, but helping your young children learn how to manage their homework, and being a bit of a tutor sometimes, especially when they are younger. Putting in the time at home, with your child.
If your attitude is that you don't need to teach him anything at home, or help with his education at home, that is your choice. But please know that other parents do not have that attitude, and you will be putting your child at a distinct disadvantage. If that's okay with you, then carry on, and don't worry about what other people do.
Up to 3rd grade I used get so mad at the amount of homework my daughter would bring home. Some of the book reports and projects was way too much for the age/grade range. There is too much inconsistency between grades. For example: they learn nothing in kindergarten here but come first grade your kid better be reading and prepared to write front and back reports. How does that make sense?
This year at the magnet school my daughter is going to, she has not one time had to do any project, not even a book report. However, she literally has not been able to do one math homework assignment on her own. ZERO, none. Her teacher knows I yell and have no patience so she put in the comments on her report card that I need to be more encouraging and be happy with her progress, she never misses school so it's not like she isn't trying etc.
My 2nd grader gets two math assignments a week. They take her less than 5 minutes to complete, whereas our neighbor needs an hour. She also does "Math Super Stars", one worksheet a week that is supposed to be challenging, and it takes her 5 minutes.
Reading is required Monday-Thursday for 20 minutes a night and a brief reading summary must be written, at least 5 sentences. My daughter would read 2 hours a night if I let her, so that's not a big deal.
She is supposed to go on SpellingCity.com twice a week for at least 20 minutes each time, to practice her spelling words for her test on Friday. She used to love this site, and now hates it and grunts whenever I remind her that she needs to log on.
She does GT an hour a day, at school, and their work in there is only in there, no homework. They want her to go to an engineer thing the first Monday of each month. We haven't made it to that yet. There is also an engineering thing for girls at UT coming up that they want us to take her to, but gymnastics meets rules that out.
With all our homework, she still does swim team 3 days a week and gymnastics 3 days a week. Various weekends are traveling for swim and gymnastics meets... I also work FULL time!
When studies talk about how the long term educational success of students is greatly affected by parental involvement, this it the type of involvement they are referring to. Not PTA meetings, but helping your young children learn how to manage their homework, and being a bit of a tutor sometimes, especially when they are younger. Putting in the time at home, with your child.
If your attitude is that you don't need to teach him anything at home, or help with his education at home, that is your choice. But please know that other parents do not have that attitude, and you will be putting your child at a distinct disadvantage. If that's okay with you, then carry on, and don't worry about what other people do.
I agree with you! That is what parental involvement is about. If you want to help your child then have a positive attitude about homework and make a real effort to make the time to help him. You said he is at grade level but just barely....that should be even more motivation for you to want to help him so he is able to improve. No, you're not his teacher but you are his mother/father!
This happens every once in awhile. I went to the teacher after a week like you are describing and the same thing happened. She was adamant on not doing all the homework if my son was so overwhelmed. At 6 years of age that is just way too much!!
I agree with you! That is what parental involvement is about. If you want to help your child then have a positive attitude about homework and make a real effort to make the time to help him. You said he is at grade level but just barely....that should be even more motivation for you to want to help him so he is able to improve. No, you're not his teacher but you are his mother/father!
My neighbors have told me time and time again about how they refuse to help their kids with homework because they don't have the patience. I have very little patience, but with my own kids, I sit down and help, when needed. My neighbor ships her kids, 2nd and 4th grade, to a neighbor's house to do something that takes my daughter 5 minutes. The neighbor kids could probably do it in 5 minutes too if their parents gave a rat's arse to help them sit down and look at it.
My neighbors have told me time and time again about how they refuse to help their kids with homework because they don't have the patience. I have very little patience, but with my own kids, I sit down and help, when needed. My neighbor ships her kids, 2nd and 4th grade, to a neighbor's house to do something that takes my daughter 5 minutes. The neighbor kids could probably do it in 5 minutes too if their parents gave a rat's arse to help them sit down and look at it.
We had a neighbor kid who we used to help with homework. It was really easy stuff so I didn't understand why the mom wasn't able to help her daughter. Then one day the mom needed my help filling out a form and I realized that the mom couldn't read.
This seems absurd to me. My kid is in school from 8am to almost 3:30pm - why the hell do I need to "teach" him anything after all that time in school? I have to cook dinner, clean, and I bring home work, too. We had no problem with the 20 minutes of reading and the 10 minute word study, but beyond that it just seems inappropriate for that age level, at least for a boy. I'm going to have to disagree here - I don't plan to have school in my house after school.
What does gender have to do with the amount of homework? This is a serious question, not sarcasm.
This happens every once in awhile. I went to the teacher after a week like you are describing and the same thing happened. She was adamant on not doing all the homework if my son was so overwhelmed. At 6 years of age that is just way too much!!
That was the way I felt also. Only one(out of three) of my sons became overwhelmed by homework, but I handled it the same way. I sent a note saying he had put in what I considered sufficient time and effort. I never had any push-back from the teachers.
I can't keep up with my 6 year old's homework. At first it was 10 minutes a night (worksheets) in addition to 20 minutes of reading. That seemed reasonable. Now the "special projects" have begun, and if we don't keep up on everything we get behind and then have to work for an hour or two in one night to catch up. For example, this week they had to do a big math project that involved creating something (that they couldn't do alone), plus illustrate their own storybook, plus do Valentine cards for 30 kids (which they were required to hand write). And still had the usual 10 minute worksheet and 20 minutes reading. We did almost nothing, because our time was taken up with crying and whining and threatening, and finally I gave up. He just felt so overwhelmed by the amount of it, that he shut down and wouldn't do anything. I have a full-time job and don't have time to do my 6 years old's homework every night. Is this normal? Does anyone else have this much work? I know some people have kids that can do it easily on their own, but mine cannot. He's working on grade level, but just barely. He can write one or two sentences easily, but not a whole story, and he can't read the directions on his homework by himself.
God, I'm glad I'm not a kid today! How much of an attention span do they expect a 6 year old to have? How late do they think they can stay up? Do they think all parents are sitting home eating bonbons by the pool all day long? Good grief!
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