3rd Grade, Nominal homework - Is this the norm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why 4-5 hours of homework for teenagers is considered appropriate.

Our DS is a senior and up through this year never has had more than 10-15 minutes of hw most nights. We're fine with that.

These are the parents that are fighting to have less homework. Really 15 minutes of homework in high school is not appropriate. Neither is 4 hours.

We aren’t fighting for less homework. Where did you get that? It’s just the way it has played out.

There are other parents who point to this and say they approve of this level of homework. It played out this way because of pressure from other parents. It is not happenstance that TJ has 4-5 hours and your child's school has 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

You are always welcome to buy a cheap workbook at barnes and noble and assign your kid a few pages. For us, 1/2 hour of reading, a short (one to two sentence) summary of reading, and short math sheet is more than sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a current 3rd grader. Since Kinder, she has had nominal homework. By nominal, I mean 20 minutes of reading book of choice each night (reported on calendar), a rather simple math worksheet on T/Th, and DreamBox (computer program) on M/W. That's it. She had similar assignments for 2nd grade. 1st grade was only reading and a 1x week journal entry. The math seems pretty remedial and appears to be a repeat from 1st/2nd grade. I was initially very patient with the school thinking that at some point the workload and subject matter would start to get more weighted, but I've yet to see any changes. I'm incredibly frustrated. Is this the norm? My daughter loves school and says that it's fun, but I don't actually see that she's learning anything.

I sent an email to the teacher to see if the homework, or lack thereof, was normal. Her response: "The homework should be easy for students to complete, and serve as a chance to hone skills already learned. We want the kids to get the hang of having homework to do every night, but we want to be sure it doesn’t become frustrating or too time-consuming."

While that sounds nice, I don't think that one math worksheet every other day is "honing skills". I've looked into supplemental math classes after school but ideally I'd like for the kid to learn something during the day, too.

We're in FCPS. Move to new school or wait it out?

Homework is a waste of time and not an indicator of the rigor of X grade. Relax. I have 3 kids in AAP and they are EACH swamped with homework and it's ridiculous. I think homework before MS is pointless and there is research that agrees with me. I wish I had your "problem."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t feel hw is necessary at third grade. Most of their 6 hour 40 minute school day is structured. HW isn’t graded. If you are going to have 30 minutes of hw you may as well extend the day by 30 minutes instead.

+1

Test and see if you can get your kid into AAP. I have an AAP 3rd grader. She gets tons of homework. Personally I hate it but sounds like just want you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why 4-5 hours of homework for teenagers is considered appropriate.

Our DS is a senior and up through this year never has had more than 10-15 minutes of hw most nights. We're fine with that.

Now this is also ridiculous. 15 mins in HS is too little. There has to be a happy medium between 15 mins and 5 hours. I think in HS, 1-1.5 total (all subjects) should be enough. I'm stirctly talking homework assignments, not studying. Studying will add extra time of course. I know in AP and IB this is a pipe dream but it would be my ideal.