How much homework do your elementary kids get? (boys, play, son)
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I've actually done a fair bit of research on those places that "don't start school until age 7", namely Finland. And to say they don't start school until age 7 is greatly misleading. What actually happens is that they are not REQUIRED to start FORMAL STATE schooling until 7. But in places like Finland, they have free daycare and preschool from early toddlerhood until formal schooling starts. They have something like 97% of their children starting preschool by age 3. Most of them know how to read well already before entering "formal school" at 7.
And yes, it's true that they don't have a lot of homework, but they also have highly paid elementary school teachers with rigorous advanced degrees from very selective colleges, and a huge system of state funded special education and remediation teachers. Over half of their kids receive some sort of special ed or other remediation help at some point. Those that can't read when coming in get lots of help, really quick.
Their system is a lot different than ours. We'd have to change a WHOLE lot of other things in order to make "start school at 7 and don't do any homework" actually work.
In fact, if your kids are at Montessori, and private academic schools, that is actually quite similar to what it's like everywhere in Finland. We'd have to provide that to everyone in the US at all public schools before that could work here.
Preschool doesn't start until 6 in Finland (and its compulsory now). 97% of kids go to daycare (not free unless you're on the lowest income or in special need like my kid) before that which is high quality early years education and entirely play-based. I got a letter back last winter about "homework" for the holidays - the homework was to spend time together to talk about our days, go outside every day, play games together, things like that.
A lot of kids learn to read in preschool but its not an official part of the curriculum, its only if the child's individual learning plan says to learn reading and even then its just done at the child's pace and at their interest. But they learn very quickly in 1st grade but its a much easier language for native speakers than English - no need for spelling tests or anything that. The 1st grader I know can read and write anything now after just a few months of school.
You are absolutely correct about the huge system of special ed, I think its one of the most important things, it starts even in daycare if needed - my kid was assessed by a special ed teacher recently because she's bilingual and so they wanted to make sure she doesn't need extra help with language skills before starting school. I never had to request it or get a referral for it or anything, I didn't even know about it until afterwards! Teachers aren't highly paid but they are decently paid and, more importantly, highly respected.
I think this would have worked years ago. My child is doing common core math, and you might as well be asking me to teach Greek at this point. It has no relation to the concepts we were taught and I am loathe to confuse the issue further.
I don't know if your child has come across the break apart method of problem solving yet, but it is the seventh circle of hell for those of us who are not mathematically inclined.
Yes, but I guess I have an advantage. I was on math team when I was in school and they taught us that method because it was faster at competitions. I'm sure if you didn't learn it as a child it must be harder.
Preschool doesn't start until 6 in Finland (and its compulsory now). 97% of kids go to daycare (not free unless you're on the lowest income or in special need like my kid) before that which is high quality early years education and entirely play-based. I got a letter back last winter about "homework" for the holidays - the homework was to spend time together to talk about our days, go outside every day, play games together, things like that.
A lot of kids learn to read in preschool but its not an official part of the curriculum, its only if the child's individual learning plan says to learn reading and even then its just done at the child's pace and at their interest. But they learn very quickly in 1st grade but its a much easier language for native speakers than English - no need for spelling tests or anything that. The 1st grader I know can read and write anything now after just a few months of school.
You are absolutely correct about the huge system of special ed, I think its one of the most important things, it starts even in daycare if needed - my kid was assessed by a special ed teacher recently because she's bilingual and so they wanted to make sure she doesn't need extra help with language skills before starting school. I never had to request it or get a referral for it or anything, I didn't even know about it until afterwards! Teachers aren't highly paid but they are decently paid and, more importantly, highly respected.
So the daycare there is like preschool here and the preschool there is like Kindergarten here. Sorta. Except more people go to daycare there than go to preschool here. Cool thanks again!
So the daycare there is like preschool here and the preschool there is like Kindergarten here. Sorta. Except more people go to daycare there than go to preschool here. Cool thanks again!
Yeah preschool would be the equivalent of Kindergarten I think . No formal academics though, the curriculum just talks a lot about providing opportunities for children to learn about things while playing by providing different literary materials and different kinds of games that use maths and that kind of thing http://www.oph.fi/download/153504_na...ation_2010.pdf Really looking forward to my kid starting next year!
But I don't think our daycares are like preschools over there, not as formal as some anyway. A normal day for my kid goes like this - arrive and play outside, go indoors and free play for a while, do something somewhat structured like drawing, playing with modelling clay, doing a specific art or craft with instructions, learning a song or a dance, or playing a group game, lunch, story time, nap/quiet play time, snack time, then its back outside for the rest of the day. Sometimes instead of the structured activity inside they'll go for a walk to the forest or the lake or visit the library or go sledge on a nearby hill/build a snowfort/just go nuts in the snow. All in all there's just half an hour of structured activity a day.
Yes, but I guess I have an advantage. I was on math team when I was in school and they taught us that method because it was faster at competitions. I'm sure if you didn't learn it as a child it must be harder.
Which makes it all the more important for schools to make sure those concepts are fully understood in the classroom, and not left to parents who may be at a loss to help their struggling child.
I'm not sure that it's beneficial to have kids practice stuff they aren't solid on yet. At this level anyway. It would be nice if there were more choices and homework was more of a guideline than mandatory. Parents are always free to pursue study after school if that's what they'd like to do, regardless.
I teach 4th grade. I ask my students to read for about 20 minutes a night M-Th. They have a reading log that is completed and submitted online. Sometimes they have an additional task that is tied in to what we are practicing in class. Right now we have been practicing inferencing, so they have two pictures from which they need to make an included as part of the log. It's just a matter of making an inference and supporting it with clues seen in the picture. Sometimes they get a few math problems, but that's about it.
The guideline in my district is no more than 30 minutes up through grade three. We are not supposed to grade homework, so I think that helps to limit the amount of hw assigned.
Which makes it all the more important for schools to make sure those concepts are fully understood in the classroom, and not left to parents who may be at a loss to help their struggling child.
I'm not sure that it's beneficial to have kids practice stuff they aren't solid on yet. At this level anyway. It would be nice if there were more choices and homework was more of a guideline than mandatory. Parents are always free to pursue study after school if that's what they'd like to do, regardless.
As teachers, we are told that hw should be independent practice for the child. We in turn tell this to the parents. Starting at Back To School Night we ask parents to let us know if their child is struggling with any hw we assign. I don't want it to be an exercise in frustration.
My girls are in 3rd and 5th grade. Their homework is not much at all. Excluding the 20 minutes of daily reading, which they do for pleasure anyway, I don't think total WEEKLY homework exceeds an hour. Not a big deal at all. I am glad that my kids have time to run around with the neighbors after school, and still participate in extracurriculars, and while they are busy, they are not stressed out. They are both doing well and are pretty happy kids. They attend our local public school
Last edited by sonderella; 02-11-2016 at 10:35 PM..
Reason: typo
My girls are in 3rd and 5th grade. Their homework is not much at all. Excluding the 20 minutes of daily reading, which they do for pleasure anyway, I don't think total WEEKLY homework exceeds an hour. Not a big deal at all. I am glad that my kids have time to run around with the neighbors after school, and still participate in extracurriculars, and while they are busy, they are not stressed out. They are both doing well and are pretty happy kids. They attend our local public school
I'd say that sounds about right compared to my child's experience and to what we assign as teachers.
As teachers, we are told that hw should be independent practice for the child. We in turn tell this to the parents. Starting at Back To School Night we ask parents to let us know if their child is struggling with any hw we assign. I don't want it to be an exercise in frustration.
I appreciate that immensely. I think that's what the philosophy should be too. In third grade here the homework accounts for 10% of the grade (it doesn't have to be correct, just done) and if any of it is missing it is logged in a progress report as "missing assignments", which is part of their school record. I think this is too much, especially given that the homework for math, which can be more than 30 - 40 problems (yes it seems simple on its face, say 42 / 6, for example, but they have not learned their times tables yet and instead need to support the answer with grouped dots or arrays, which entails drawing 42 things on the paper, grouping the by sixes, making it long and tedious) is an issue when they are expected to do all that after they've gone over it only once that day in class. It's not long enough to have the concept sunk in at school. Couple that with 30 kids and not much one on one time, and the kids are frustrated and unsure at home. It moves fast and they use a bunch of different concepts to get to the same conclusion. I'm sure there are some kids who get it and it's not a problem, but it's confusing to a lot and the parents are flummoxed mostly.
We have got to the point where our counselor has just advised to do 45 minutes absolute max and then stop. We're all worried about how it reflects on her attitude toward school as a whole. They really are willing to work with us but we're counting down to a month of standardized testing, which starts in third grade. I don't think this is a coincidence.
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