K12 school who don't overload on homework (education, teach)

[fnh]

At Awty the homework expectations are spelled out in the handbook. For lower school this means fifteen minutes per night for 1st and 2nd graders increasing stepwise up to seventy-five minutes per night for 5th graders. Middle school students are given approximately 20 minutes of homework per subject per night. Parents are encouraged to think of these as average time limits and have the child turn in incomplete work rather than routinely work longer. Obviously special projects might warrant extra time on occasion, but if a child is needing additional time to complete daily homework, then there is a problem with either the child's grasp of the material or the teacher's presentation of such, and homework 'completedness' provides valuable feedback.

Of course, for the 'involved' (usually American) parents it is extraordinarily difficult to permit a child to stop working with unfinished homework, so that confounds the feedback data...

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Originally Posted by fnh

At Awty the homework expectations are spelled out in the handbook. For lower school this means fifteen minutes per night for 1st and 2nd graders increasing stepwise up to seventy-five minutes per night for 5th graders. Middle school students are given approximately 20 minutes of homework per subject per night. Parents are encouraged to think of these as average time limits and have the child turn in incomplete work rather than routinely work longer. Obviously special projects might warrant extra time on occasion, but if a child is needing additional time to complete daily homework, then there is a problem with either the child's grasp of the material or the teacher's presentation of such, and homework 'completedness' provides valuable feedback.

Of course, for the 'involved' (usually American) parents it is extraordinarily difficult to permit a child to stop working with unfinished homework, so that confounds the feedback data...

This sounds right/good, but I don't think they took into account multiple kids, all in different grades, all with questions, distruptions and distractions. It cannot be done in two hours, not in our house. Really, its like a classroom, one table, and four kids. 'Almost makes us wonder if we should just homeschool!

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

This sounds right/good, but I don't think they took into account multiple kids, all in different grades, all with questions, distruptions and distractions. It cannot be done in two hours, not in our house. Really, its like a classroom, one table, and four kids. 'Almost makes us wonder if we should just homeschool!

I agree, and add in any after school activities and forget about it. Evenings are frankly miserable at our house.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Originally Posted by swopoe

I agree, and add in any after school activities and forget about it. Evenings are frankly miserable at our house.

Besides the homework, I have a son who has soccer practice Mon and Wed, and game on Fri, and a daughter who has practice Tue and Thu, and games on Saturday. It is crazy with four children, our life is not dull.... I always though the saying 'kids will keep you young' was just that, but it is true!

[texasroots77]

IMO homework should be short and its sole purpose to confirm that the student has grasp what they were taught at school during the day/week. It should not involve the parents teaching their kids or standing over them. Kids still need to be kids. They should have time to play with neighbors and be involved in one or two after school activities.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by fnh

At Awty the homework expectations are spelled out in the handbook. For lower school this means fifteen minutes per night for 1st and 2nd graders increasing stepwise up to seventy-five minutes per night for 5th graders. Middle school students are given approximately 20 minutes of homework per subject per night. Parents are encouraged to think of these as average time limits and have the child turn in incomplete work rather than routinely work longer. Obviously special projects might warrant extra time on occasion, but if a child is needing additional time to complete daily homework, then there is a problem with either the child's grasp of the material or the teacher's presentation of such, and homework 'completedness' provides valuable feedback.

Of course, for the 'involved' (usually American) parents it is extraordinarily difficult to permit a child to stop working with unfinished homework, so that confounds the feedback data...

Yes, and that still adds up to at least an hour and a half of homework for a middle schooler, given all their subjects. I still think that's too much each night. Once in while when projects are due or something, that amount of time would be reasonable, but not every night.

FWIW my son has very little homework from Johnston Middle School (HISD). The kids often have two instruments to practice, or other arts work to do, which may be why they go light on the homework. I don't really care what the reason is, I'm just we found a school that assigns so little.

[Meyerland]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

Yes, and that still adds up to at least an hour and a half of homework for a middle schooler, given all their subjects. I still think that's too much each night. Once in while when projects are due or something, that amount of time would be reasonable, but not every night.

FWIW my son has very little homework from Johnston Middle School (HISD). The kids often have two instruments to practice, or other arts work to do, which may be why they go light on the homework. I don't really care what the reason is, I'm just we found a school that assigns so little.

That's interesting about Johnston MS. How does he like it so far?

[houston-nomad]

He likes it a lot. Especially the teachers.

[MumHouston]

Originally Posted by CaroleF

Hi Everyone

A friend's fourth grader in a private school has three hours homework every night! She'd like to move him, understandably. Does anyone know of a good private school in The Houston area where they honor current research says that homework in grade school is largely a waste of time?

I'm a former teacher myself and used to give a lot of homework, but latterly I felt that it was not achieving results and just stressed the students out.

My son attends a good private school, and it takes almost two hours to finish his fourth grade homework at home, but when he attends the after school program his homework is completed in less than 30 minutes.

Maybe your friend's son is a master procrastinator.

[CaroleF]

Update: he's now at St. Francis Episcopal and very happy.