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[quote=Anonymous]I just opened a website for the elementary school I attended from 1985-93 and school website that my kid attends in DC. Found a class schedules for all 9 grades back at home, but can't find one from DC school website. Not only did I find the subject for each class, I found the times too. School starts 8:15 end each class lasts 45 minutes. Recess or we call them breaks last 10 minutes between each class. There is a longer break for lunch that lasts 20 minutes. on 3 days the 1st graders (7 y olds) have only 4 classes (done by 11:55 am), on 2 days they have 5 classes. Subjects- mother tongue, math, music, PE, art, computers. Mother tongue and math are clearly the main subjects with others just filling time.
     Tell you the truth I've never seen a class schedule or even a book they use here. I have no idea what they study and when or when is the recess. I also have been  asking about textbooks but he never brings one home. I know the website for the textbooks back at home.
School here is one big mystery for me. I don't know what my 3rd grader learned last year. I do know what he didn't learn though. He didn't learn cursive, so I taught him to write cursive in 2 days. 
I also know that he doesn't know his multiplication tables by heart which I expected him to know by the end of 3d grade.
I really don't know what he does in school from 8:45 to 3:15. He is in school a lot longer than kids same age back at home (Northern Europe). 
Our summer break is little over 3 months long but I think there are more holidays here when school is closed.
When it comes to homework, I can only speak about my own experience from 30 years ago.
We had homework on 2nd day of school. We had to memorize a poem that had 6 lines with 3 words in each line. I still remember by heart the first 5 poems we had to memorize.
We were  not expected to know our letters even at 7 years old. We learned our letter in grade 1 and boy we were ready.
Homework was usually done independently. I only asked my parents if I had forgot how to do it. The teacher sure had explained, but by the time I got home, I had forgot. With little help from parents and I was usually able to do my homework. 
We did not have worksheets with multiple choice answers nor any projects in early elementary school. We memorized a lot of poems and retold stories. I remember having to think about the story in my poems to help me memorize them. We also kept a reading journal in 2nd grade.
My 3rd grader has never had to memorize a poem in a few days. They do sing sometimes in school functions, but all together and I think he just moves his mouth.
I do however think that he knows a lot more than I did at his age since information is available to him on the net, in many books and on tv. I wonder if what he learns at school or reads is going to help him in life or it's just too much useless information.
I didn't help him with his homework and I didn't even meet his teachers last 2 years. School days are much longer here than back at home, but that clearly doesn't mean that the kids here know more. Not sure if Pisa test is multiple choice or not, but kids back at home are often in top 10.
IMHO there is nothing wrong with some homework starting  2nd grade or so, but it seems to be all worksheets or projects. Where is the story they all have to read at night and can discuss in class the next day? Where are the textbooks? I've felt like in US things kids learn at school are very random. Well, the worksheets have been at least. 
Where is the order of studying things? Here kids skip Spanish because they already have the credits. You don't skip a language or any other subjects. There's a start and then there's the end. There are no breaks but the summer break.
I'll meet his  teacher this year...

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