I don't think that's a lot of homework.

OP here. Reflecting on the amount of work they get, somehow i'm quite amazed at the amount of time it takes. Writing down some words in alphabetical order should really be a snap -- but it is not. And if there are mistakes in her independent work during after-care, then we have the uphill battle of having to erase and fix. Somehow, that review process is fraught with tears and emotions. Similarly, the reading assignment should be a breeze for a child who has consistently read for meaning since the early days of K. Yet extracting fully formed sentences, written in a good handwriting and pin-pointing the exact paragraph that supports the argument seems like a much bigger task. Math is hit or miss -- easy-breezy on some days, and a bear on others. No relation to the real difficulty of the assignment.

I guess I'm not as stumped by the sheer amount of work. But I feel like my child should not have such a difficult time with it. I also feel that if they had started with some of the word study in the early years, when they were so open to understanding how to read the harder words, they would have achieved a very similar result, without the struggle to memorize. They had to memorize sight words before, now they memorize spelling lists. Nowhere have I seen nary an explanation of how these letters work. My kid has a better memory than most, and she's capable of learning this way, but when reliance on memory is the name of the game, it stunts her flexible thinking in so many other areas. And it takes o much more time...

Example: they worked on long, multi-digit multiplications. Double-digit, to be precise. She got it and it was easy. Then they introduced the concept of multiplying numbers ending in many 0-s. She got that. But when asked to do that in a combined worksheet, she ended up combining the two strategies to get a completely wrong result. These are the nuances that seem to get lost in the classroom, while everyone is bent on memorizing strategies. The children seem to be expected to magically understand when to use one strategy vs another -- and if they don't, I hear either the "don't worry, it will come year", or "we expect our inquisitive children to become experts at choosing the right strategy. No choice is really wrong. They should be able to explain. Show your work" All these edicts simply tell me there is no direction provided to children on how to think about math, even though they are expected to do it.

The PT conferences are coming, and I would like to have an intelligent solution by then, without asking for a smaller homework or glossing over the poor quality of her work. On one hand, thank you forl letting me vent. On the other one, if anyone has a constructive idea, I'm all eyes. Right now, I feel like my child is floundering, despite working really hard.

Since homework is no longer graded for achievement, the amount of homework seems to have gone down.

That's a lot. My son is in 4th grade in FCPS (AAP at a Center, if that matters) and he generally has one math sheet every night M-R and Caesar's English every night, but only every other week. He had more homework in 1st grade which was nightly math sheet, plus word study, plus read for 20 minutes.

We are at KG and my son is in advanced math:

20 minutes of reading (usually a handout and questions about the reading)
20 minutes of math (usually about 2 handouts).

Mon-Thursday

Hey, OP, I can't give you stats on nightly homework, as I don't currently have a 4th grader. But we're an FCPS family, and I can tell you, now that we're a couple years removed: 4th grade was a TON of homework in our household!

It was just a jarring shift from 3rd to 4th. And then in 5th, there was so much less homework--it was great! Even in 6th grade (currently), there's nowhere near the amount of daily homework compared to 4th grade. So I hope this year goes OK, and that your experience mirrors ours so that the next couple years are better!

Anonymous wrote:After a number of very leisurely homework years, my child has started to come home with a significant load of HW in 4th grade. I'd lke to compare notes -- can anyone share their typical 4th grade workload ? (We are n FCPS, but 'm interested in answers all over the area.)

- one -two math worksheets a day
- 4 sheets with reading material followed by questions -- 4 sheets a week
- About 20 new words to study -- order the words alphabetically, write them down, create sentences, find antonyms to some words, and figure out synonyms.

What do others get?

This is what we have, and my dd is in 3rd grade. Just this week, she also had to prepare for a math test, a social studies test, and a vocabulary test. Next week, she has a science test and a spelling test. And the following week, she has a big project due - 10 pages of writing different things, plus decorating a pumpkin. She has to present this project to the class in addition to her spelling test and usual homework that you have written out above. That plus, she has been sick for 2 weeks. I am going out of my mind.

Reading-20 Min
Math- online games- no set time
Strings-10 min

My son is in APS and he usually has 1 math worksheet each night as well as a sheet of times table practice, and he has to read for 30 minutes. That's usually it unless there's a test to study for.

Is this amount of homework really out of line? Unless I'm reading your post wrong, it sounds like three worksheets and around 5 spelling words per day. If the worksheets are an appropriate length and level for the kids, that would probably take my kids around half an hour to 40 minutes. Depending on how difficult the spelling words are, 5 would probably be around another half hour especially if they actually had to use a dictionary to look up meanings, synonyms, and antonyms. Around an hour to 1 hour 15 minutes of homework. Not a small amount, but I always assumed it was to be expected.

I heard 10-15 minutes per grade level was considered typical for homework, so if your DC is feeling overwhelmed I would just cut homework time off at around 40 minutes to 1 hour and write the teacher a note to try to reassess what's going on if it is consistently taking longer than that.

There's no sense stressing a young child out about homework after a long day at school, and if that's what you see happening I would hope your DC's teacher would be open to working with you to improve the situation.

Anonymous wrote:I teach fourth grade. I don't teach all subjects, but typically my students have about 20 minutes of reading each night (Monday -Thursday) and a small task to go with it. For example, I might ask them to write what they feel was the most important and why it was important. They may also get a few math problems each night. I would guess that it takes about 30 minutes for most to complete.

They really don't need more than a few math problems. Listing words alphabetically and creating sentences sounds like busywork to me.

Really? As a teacher I'm sure you know best about effective ways to educate that age group, but I am surprised to hear this. This is how we did spelling & vocabulary (considered one subject) when I was in school and I thought it kind of made sense. Listing the words alphabetically forces the child to write them spelled correctly, thus learning the spellings, and I always thought having to use the word in a sentence that shows you know what it means and how to use it was a good way of expanding vocabulary and making sure kids can actually use the words they learn to spell. Is it really ineffective? What's a better way of doing spelling?

Anonymous wrote:After a number of very leisurely homework years, my child has started to come home with a significant load of HW in 4th grade. I'd lke to compare notes -- can anyone share their typical 4th grade workload ? (We are n FCPS, but 'm interested in answers all over the area.)

- one -two math worksheets a day
- 4 sheets with reading material followed by questions -- 4 sheets a week
- About 20 new words to study -- order the words alphabetically, write them down, create sentences, find antonyms to some words, and figure out synonyms.

What do others get?

Do you mind telling what school this is? Thanks.

I teach fourth grade. I don't teach all subjects, but typically my students have about 20 minutes of reading each night (Monday -Thursday) and a small task to go with it. For example, I might ask them to write what they feel was the most important and why it was important. They may also get a few math problems each night. I would guess that it takes about 30 minutes for most to complete.

They really don't need more than a few math problems. Listing words alphabetically and creating sentences sounds like busywork to me.

After a number of very leisurely homework years, my child has started to come home with a significant load of HW in 4th grade. I'd lke to compare notes -- can anyone share their typical 4th grade workload ? (We are n FCPS, but 'm interested in answers all over the area.)

- one -two math worksheets a day
- 4 sheets with reading material followed by questions -- 4 sheets a week
- About 20 new words to study -- order the words alphabetically, write them down, create sentences, find antonyms to some words, and figure out synonyms.

What do others get?