Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are about to start a new school year (year round public school, 4th grade) and our teacher is expecting my son to do at least an hour to hour and a half of homework a night. Does anyone else think this is excessive and if so do you have any recommendations for how to broach this with the teacher? We both work full time and honestly by the time we get home after sports practices or rehearsals it’s less than an hour before my son’s Bedtime. If he stays up later he’s a wreck the next day and he does need to eat dinner, take a bath and have a few mins to read/relax. If anyone has suggestions on how to convince the teacher that it’s excessive or how to say no without having him penalized for it I would love to hear them.
If teachers go by the 10 minutes per grade, then 4th grade should have no more than 40 minutes per night, but even that may be excessive.
You might get her a copy of this book:
Rethinking Homework, 2nd Edition: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs 2nd ed. by Cathy Vatterott
Studies show that the benefits of homework for elementary school students are limited, but that the benefits increase as students get older. The quality of homework that matters, not the quantity.
If homework requires more than 30 mins, it a bad teacher, period. The whole purpose of the school is to teach - during the school time! Unfortunately, 99% of teachers out there are nothing more than babysitters. It takes real talent to be a good teacher, and how many are there?
And yes, too many of them prefer to assign "busy work". I was helping my daughter throughout all her school years, and seen way too many examples of that. Especially when they make kids to do some "project" - oh, that's the whole mess always! That's an inexcusable time eater.
A telling joke here:
- Dad, why we have different teacher for each subject?
- Because it's too hard for one person to know every subject.
- They why are they expecting us to know every subject?
Isn't the breakdown about half hour reading and entry into reading diary, 15 minutes math worksheet, 15 minutes spelling or memorization, 0-30 minutes long term project (social studies, book reports, science, memorize lines for play,etc). Do you add in music instrument practice? I guess you can do the long term project and music on the weekend to make weekdays easier.
Sounds normal to me.
I think its hard to memorize during the school day - my kids like to make flash cards or create memory triggers for math facts, spelling, science or social studies facts, poems, etc. but each student is different of course.
Excessive in my mind is having to worry about "sports" during the elementary years through the school week. 30 minutes to an hour of homework is a reasonable expectation for a 4th grader and the child should do the work on their own. Just my personal opinion.
Worrying about sports is another name for valuing many educational opportunities, including physical fitness which is no longer a priority within school time itself.
Isn't the breakdown about half hour reading and entry into reading diary, 15 minutes math worksheet, 15 minutes spelling or memorization, 0-30 minutes long term project (social studies, book reports, science, memorize lines for play,etc). Do you add in music instrument practice? I guess you can do the long term project and music on the weekend to make weekdays easier.
Sounds normal to me.
I think its hard to memorize during the school day - my kids like to make flash cards or create memory triggers for math facts, spelling, science or social studies facts, poems, etc. but each student is different of course.
Science and math are very, very easy.
My daughter was struggling with math at first. And while I'm not a talented teacher, but it was taking me max 5 mins to explain her a concepts and how to solve problems. Yes, I had to be creative, but thankfully, I had good examples from my own time in school. She did not become mathematician, but she went through advanced calculus with flying colors. All of this should have been done in class, but most teachers just can't explain their subject properly because most of the time they don't understand it either Well, at least not to the point to be able to explain it to others.
30 mins long term project? More like 90 minutes minimum. And the key here is this: if you have no interest in what you are doing, it will take much, much longer. Frankly, how many of you really wanted to make any school project? If I want to write a program, and instead I'm forced to write some nonsense essay for social studies, the chance of even remotely decent result is about zero. Wasted time, stress, and nothing positive learned. The only thing your learn that way is that you hate stupid and boring assignments
Any adult can try it on himself. Take whatever you do professionally, and make yourself to do something completely opposite, that you have no interest in whatsoever. Day after day, month after month, carving time from all the activities that you actually want to do instead. Then scratch all the expletives from what you'd finally say, and honestly answer a question - was it useful? Did it worth it? And yet we ask kids to do exactly that.
The only thing I can agree on is spelling. This one takes time, and no way around it. Well, with an exception. Some people have either "natural feel" for language, some others have photo-memory. They don't need to memorize spelling, as they just remember it from the first time
Isn't the breakdown about half hour reading and entry into reading diary, 15 minutes math worksheet, 15 minutes spelling or memorization, 0-30 minutes long term project (social studies, book reports, science, memorize lines for play,etc). Do you add in music instrument practice? I guess you can do the long term project and music on the weekend to make weekdays easier.
Sounds normal to me.
I think its hard to memorize during the school day - my kids like to make flash cards or create memory triggers for math facts, spelling, science or social studies facts, poems, etc. but each student is different of course.
a 10 year old should not have to sit down and study every single subject every single night. reading should be daily or almost daily but thats not homework so much as just something you do, we do it everynight anyway. s 4th grader shouldnt be doing 1 hour and half or more homework a night. Thats ridiculous in my opinion. children arent allowed to be children anymore.
Worrying about sports is another name for valuing many educational opportunities, including physical fitness which is no longer a priority within school time itself.
Growing up in my family we played sports very lightly in middle school and heavy into high school/college. We chose a different path when we had kids. We placed importance on academics and focused on individual activities such as riding (horses, biking), climbing, skiing..etc. that would not compete with school. Our kids are now adults and continue those same activities regularly. They are very physically fit now and show no signs of burnout, no damage to the body and the academic focus gave them great careers.
We've personally seen many kids burn out and bodies damaged (by high school years) by engaging in sports heavily from a very young age.
Last edited by CentralUSHomeowner; 07-24-2019 at 12:13 PM..
I think that's a reasonable amount of homework. I think it's very unlikely that the teacher is going to modify their cirriculum based on your complaint.
Your best bet is going to be reorganizing your own home schedule to make time to do the required work. School is 6.5 hours, with another 90 minutes of homework, that amounts to 8 hours, or just 1/3 of the day.
My son's school day is 8 hours. by the time he gets home, has a snack and did 90 minutes of homework thats 10 hours. Then dinner, bath, bedtime with maybe a half hour of downtime. Do you live your life on only a half hour of downtime a day? Kids arent adults, their schedules should get more full and busy as they get older to prepare them for adult hood. But a 10 year old shouldnt be "working" 10 hours a day.
We are about to start a new school year (year round public school, 4th grade) and our teacher is expecting my son to do at least an hour to hour and a half of homework a night. Does anyone else think this is excessive and if so do you have any recommendations for how to broach this with the teacher? We both work full time and honestly by the time we get home after sports practices or rehearsals it’s less than an hour before my son’s Bedtime. If he stays up later he’s a wreck the next day and he does need to eat dinner, take a bath and have a few mins to read/relax. If anyone has suggestions on how to convince the teacher that it’s excessive or how to say no without having him penalized for it I would love to hear them.
In my public school education, there were some days that we had no homework. 60-90 minutes of homework, in addition to an already 7 hour day, is ridiculous. What are they doing in class, then? How many hours is the teacher working grading these papers? Or are they just taken as a participation grade?
Your child may not be able to answer all that, but a meeting with the teacher might be able to get some transparency on what's going on. I've always been suspect of year round schools (I know, it remedies a summer childcare issue for working parents) but kids need summer vacation. They won't get it working full time, unless they're also in education.
For me, I'd have the foundation to build my case for private school or home school.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, at least not to the point to be able to explain it to others.
