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How is your son's school day 8 hours? Is he in a private school? I think all public schools are 6.5, maybe you should consider switching to public school if you think his day is too long.
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My son goes to a charter school. I do value his education. Just not worksheets. Schedule as follows:
6 am wake up
6-7:15 breakfast and getting dressed
730-345 school
4 PM snack
415-545 homework
545-6 wash up for dinner
6-630/645 dinner
630/645-730 freetime playtime
730 bath and book and bedtime
8 PM bed
Does that seem normal? Enough playtime? Or almost scheduled to the minutes with 45 minutes of "freetime"? That's not how you nurture growing children
My son goes to a charter school. I do value his education. Just not worksheets. Schedule as follows:
6 am wake up
6-7:15 breakfast and getting dressed
730-345 school
4 PM snack
415-545 homework
545-6 wash up for dinner
6-630/645 dinner
630/645-730 freetime playtime
730 bath and book and bedtime
8 PM bed
Does that seem normal? Enough playtime? Or almost scheduled to the minutes with 45 minutes of "freetime"? That's not how you nurture growing children
Gosh no! That seems like an abnormally/arduously long school day! Ours is 0800-1430, which is plenty long and includes lunch and 2 recesses. Why does your charter school have a full 8.25-hour adult working day for elementary students?? Do you not have any better choices for schools? All the public schools I know only run 6.5 hours.
I mean, if you want to stick with that school, you could probably knock the 15 minutes "washing up" time down to a minute or two to wash hands. I didn't know anyone washed their face (or took a shower or whatever with those extra 12 minutes) before supper anymore. That'd bump you to a full hour of playtime. Maybe see if you can cut the morning prep from 1.25 hours down to 45 minutes or so. Then you can claw back another half-hour, which is the most you can possibly hope to get from pressure his teachers for homework modification. Now you're at 1.5 hours of playtime.
However, best advice I can give, is to switch to a school with a reasonable schedule. That alone would increase your kid's free play time by 150%, to at least 2.5 full hours, without having to cut back on education, face-washing, or morning calisthenics or whatever.
It's likely not the teacher but the state school board. They set homework standards.
The sheep parents who go along with this are part of the problem.
The state owns your kids - there is no question about that.
There is no respect for downtime, family time, rest, play, fun, sports - even church - nothing but "let's open your head and pour some propaganda in."
Studies have been done that rote homework does not enhance a child's learning or education (au contraire - probably makes many hate school) - it's just a power play, and in the big scheme of things - if everyone is busy and tired then they won't pay attention to politics. It's all just mindless corporate, drone training.
I have never heard of a state requiring levels of homework. They do set number of hours of instruction, and standardized testing.
Gosh no! That seems like an abnormally/arduously long school day! Ours is 0800-1430, which is plenty long and includes lunch and 2 recesses. Why does your charter school have a full 8.25-hour adult working day for elementary students?? Do you not have any better choices for schools? All the public schools I know only run 6.5 hours.
I mean, if you want to stick with that school, you could probably knock the 15 minutes "washing up" time down to a minute or two to wash hands. I didn't know anyone washed their face (or took a shower or whatever with those extra 12 minutes) before supper anymore. That'd bump you to a full hour of playtime. Maybe see if you can cut the morning prep from 1.25 hours down to 45 minutes or so. Then you can claw back another half-hour, which is the most you can possibly hope to get from pressure his teachers for homework modification. Now you're at 1.5 hours of playtime.
However, best advice I can give, is to switch to a school with a reasonable schedule. That alone would increase your kid's free play time by 150%, to at least 2.5 full hours, without having to cut back on education, face-washing, or morning calisthenics or whatever.
You're awfully snarky. He is a slow starter in the morning which is why he gets up early. The point is that I shouldnt be trying to cut a few minutes here and there to be able to squeeze an extra 15-20 minutes out of his day. Too much homework too young affects how everyone life functions. The "washing up" before dinner includes hand washing, putting things away, taking the dog out. And we dont live in a good school district right now so a charter school it is, he gets out 3.5 hours early every Friday but by Friday hes not doing all his homework in the afternoon.
In 4th grade in the 50's we had homework we could do after school on our own. We had to learn 20 spelling words a week. M-Th our homework was to write out 5 of the spelling words and write a sentence using the word. Then we had some arithmetic that took about 15 min on our own. Plus of course we were supposed to read a little every day. I can't imagine what teachers are assigning these days that is such a big problem.
Did I already register by agreement with the tenor of this thread that that is just too much homework? If not, here it is. Personally, I don't see the point to homework at this age at all. The rub is what to DO about it that does not otherwise negatively impact your child? I don't see it. It is going to depend somewhat on the teacher. But I have my cynical doubts about the conversation with a teacher who assigns this much to begin with. And so continues the battle between parents and teachers which is oft laid at the feet of parents where it often belongs but not always.
Did I already register by agreement with the tenor of this thread that that is just too much homework? If not, here it is. Personally, I don't see the point to homework at this age at all. The rub is what to DO about it that does not otherwise negatively impact your child? I don't see it. It is going to depend somewhat on the teacher. But I have my cynical doubts about the conversation with a teacher who assigns this much to begin with. And so continues the battle between parents and teachers which is oft laid at the feet of parents where it often belongs but not always.
do you think that we as parents have the right to say this is too much? if our children are otherwise doing well and we are putting in an effort to get as much work done as well, do we have the ability to decide how much time we are willing to sacrifice to school outside of school?
do you think that we as parents have the right to say this is too much? if our children are otherwise doing well and we are putting in an effort to get as much work done as well, do we have the ability to decide how much time we are willing to sacrifice to school outside of school?
I guess I take this mindset. We have the right to do what we need to for our kids. We have to look at the effect on the kids of any action we take. The homework absurdity did not start for us until 5th grade. And only for our eldest. By the time our younger was in middle school they had adopted a no homework assignment policy. The only homework was that which you did not complete in class.
For our eldest, we talked with him about it. He was absurdly frustrated with the assignments. First, was logging reading. No one had to make him read. The librarian held aside books he might like for him, and he devoured them. But having to log every time he picked up the book made him crazy. So we discussed options. Don't log. He did not want to be singled out as a slacker. Estimate your log? Ok that worked. He probably did 80% more reading than was logged. But he satisfied the spirit of the requirement. We looked at each other assignment type, and evaluated the effect of it. He decided himself that he ought to do the spelling assignments as his spelling was bad. The rest, he simply didn't do. I never had a sit down with his teachers. Heck they never even brought it up as a problem even in our conferences. His grades never suffered since the material was not hard for him.
He was happy with the solution because it was of less benefit to him for me to go in and make a stink at the school about it. I offered him that solution. He gave me a hard NO. Ok.
I guess I take it like every other problem. Work the problem with your kid.
I guess I take this mindset. We have the right to do what we need to for our kids. We have to look at the effect on the kids of any action we take. The homework absurdity did not start for us until 5th grade. And only for our eldest. By the time our younger was in middle school they had adopted a no homework assignment policy. The only homework was that which you did not complete in class.
For our eldest, we talked with him about it. He was absurdly frustrated with the assignments. First, was logging reading. No one had to make him read. The librarian held aside books he might like for him, and he devoured them. But having to log every time he picked up the book made him crazy. So we discussed options. Don't log. He did not want to be singled out as a slacker. Estimate your log? Ok that worked. He probably did 80% more reading than was logged. But he satisfied the spirit of the requirement. We looked at each other assignment type, and evaluated the effect of it. He decided himself that he ought to do the spelling assignments as his spelling was bad. The rest, he simply didn't do. I never had a sit down with his teachers. Heck they never even brought it up as a problem even in our conferences. His grades never suffered since the material was not hard for him.
He was happy with the solution because it was of less benefit to him for me to go in and make a stink at the school about it. I offered him that solution. He gave me a hard NO. Ok.
I guess I take it like every other problem. Work the problem with your kid.
Did you see any difference with your children between lots of homework and none at all? I dont take my work home and i still get it done. Schools should be that way too.
i think your approach is the best way to do it and as the parent you should have the final say. if the kid is struggling with something, then obviously he needs help. but if not then he should be able to play and relax instead of doing busy wrok
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