Jump to content

How much homework do your kids get?


juniper

Recommended Posts

Was lucky enough to take my boy to Barcelona for a soccer tryout/ camp. I was shocked that after almost 2 weeks of homework and class work missed, he only had about 7 hours of work to do when we got back..In your experience is this normal? He's only in the fifth grade and has been in a immersion school since he was 5, am I being over critical? Just doesn't seem like its enough work. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems about right.  The only type of homework I ever see my kids doing are large projects.  When I was in school, the only work I turned in was what I did in class (mostly incomplete).  Still got decent grades and graduated.  What I turned is was correct, so I understood the lesson. Doing more work may be more practice,  but  I honestly don't think there is a need for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been several years but my kids used to be absolutely buried in homework.  They'd work on it till they just about fell asleep.  It seemed that each teacher had absolutely no regard for the work load that other teachers put on them.  Thinking back though, maybe that was middle school.  If they spend all day with only one teacher it isn't nearly as bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a 4th and a 6th grader right now - the homework load is hit or miss.  Some weeks there is a lot other times there isn't.  But that does seem about right for being gone a couple of weeks.  It is interesting - some of the elementary schools in our same system have a "no homework policy" but others don't.  Though the no homework kids I hear get a bit of a jolt when they get to the upper schools.

 

I'm more impressed your fifth grader went to Barcelona for a tryout of sorts.  Congrats - he must be quite the player.  My boys play soccer but we are not in any danger of traveling over state lines much less out of the country for tournaments/tryouts, etc.  What position does he play?  Sorry for the questions but that is just really interesting to me.

Edited by tom1066
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the responses! tom1066 he plays right striker, taught him to kick with both feet but he is left footed..... only made sense to me, if you have two feet, learn too use them,  the weak one, as much as possible....watching the level of some of the best in the world in Barcelona was eye opening to say the least..My boy plays mostly in south american leagues in Minnesota, meaning, most of the  kids are from the south of our border, about 90% i would say. the other 9% are from Africa or Asia.The people are so kind to him, even after what has happened recently with our faux border disputes, it gives me hope at some level ..they do call him "blanco" which upsets me a bit........heck we are all just people..... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators
37 minutes ago, Schu said:

Kids... what's that?

It's what happens when things are going to well, it's like a test.

 

Can't complain I have good kids, but I will still complain.

 

One kid is an RN now working in hospice,  always has homework but part of the job. Another kid finished school to become a teacher, now in her second year, still has homework but it's other kids homework.  

Grandkids have homework which I love, it slows them down, it's about the only thing that does. I don't know why they have homework, they already know everything.

 

1 hour ago, juniper said:

they do call him "blanco" which upsets me a bit........heck we are all just people..... 

Yes, we're all people, but constantly being separated by color and class, EVERY side does it, it seems a way to control everyone, pit them against each other, such a waste.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a just turned 5 year old and he gets the usual writing of Cap and small case letters of Alphabet weekly and writing numbers out from 0-100.  They have been doing this for a year now and just started multiplication which he is doing quite well with.  Don't get me wrong, we play hard, but if things are idle, I pull out more of the same and have him get to it.  On weekends I breaks out the paint and canvas and let him do exactly what he wants.  Im not going to count on any school system in these early years and he will definitely learn cursive writing if I have to teach him myself, which likely will be.  The boy is going to have a signature and hopefully better penmanship that his pops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Was lucky enough to take my boy to Barcelona for a soccer tryout/ camp. I was shocked that after almost 2 weeks of homework and class work missed, he only had about 7 hours of work to do when we got back..In your experience is this normal? He's only in the fifth grade and has been in a immersion school since he was 5, am I being over critical? Just doesn't seem like its enough work. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
Based on my two girls (16 & 18), I can recall one of them spending more time than that for a similar situation where my youngest went to NY for a week. She was 7th or 8th grade at the time. So that might be a factor to consider.




Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/21/2019 at 8:44 AM, CECAA850 said:

It's been several years but my kids used to be absolutely buried in homework.  They'd work on it till they just about fell asleep.  It seemed that each teacher had absolutely no regard for the work load that other teachers put on them.  Thinking back though, maybe that was middle school.  If they spend all day with only one teacher it isn't nearly as bad.

This is my current experience with my 12 and 15 y/o.  There entire weeknights are homework.  It spills over to the weekend.    Add-in some after school activities....then ALL the time is gone.  We took the TV's out of the house some time ago as it is useless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kids are just amazing, if they have interest they can learn almost anything! Find their interests and help them pursue them and they will figure it out. My boy had a weird passion at a very young age, listening to cathedral bells, he was obsessed with them. Many of the largest bells are in Germany and he would watch videos of them and try to mimic their sounds verbally and with a bell rack that i made with bells. When he was 5 we asked him if he wanted to learn German, he said "yes" so we put him in a German pre school just to expand his brain, after that and going to an immersion school he speaks almost perfect German now. He saw a bunch Bruce Lee movies and asked if he could do that, off to TKD 3 days a week 5 yrs later he became a black belt. We gave him a roll out piano when he could first sit up, he loves the piano now, he taught himself to play some fairly complex classical pieces by watching drop down note videos on the net. My favorite is when i had to teach him how to catch a ball when he was around 6, it was a lost cause, he had no natural ability. I got on my knees and from 5 feet away we passed back and forth over and over, i swear he dropped 90 percent in the beginning. Now he can catch a football with one hand, either hand 80 percent of the time. Kids are just raw wonderful clay, they can learn whatever they love! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We home schooled our three kids, and after working with them on math (mostly), and making sure they really knew how to read, more than anything, we encouraged their curiosity. When they were still grade school age, we told them they could stay up as long as they wanted, just turn out the lights when you go to bed.

 

Looking back, we didn't spend that much time with them where it would be like being in a school setting. All three graduated with honors of some kind, and are working to follow their passion. The curiosity part means they will get interested in something and research to learn about a subject, or more completely to learn the subject. Not even sure how they got from point A to B, but life is interesting.

 

Daughter went to College of Santa Fe (changed to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, but now closed), studied film (moving images), but after graduating realized  that she could write, so she's been working for a few years on being an overnight success. Has an agent, and beginning to be published.

 

Older son, who is on here occasionally, went to Full Sail in Orlando, and studied computer graphic design. Although he works in IT, he uses the skills he learned to do web design, and all kinds of graphics stuff.

 

Youngest went to Valparaiso U., degree in music composition. He works on he music but has been working as a bartender since graduating.

 

Bruce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/21/2019 at 12:40 PM, Ceptorman said:

I think the schools allow more time to do the work while they're at school.

My 11 year old's middle school has this mentality. He's brought work home just a handful of times this year. 

 

On 2/21/2019 at 8:17 AM, tom1066 said:

Though the no homework kids I hear get a bit of a jolt when they get to the upper schools.

That's been in my thoughts a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/2/2019 at 4:05 AM, jwc said:

We took the TV's out of the house some time ago as it is useless.

Years ago my wife and I started No Screen Wednesdays. It's great to have a day where they know it's off limits.

Still, your example of none in the house is very tempting!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, dirtmudd said:

the new common core math..

 

is ridiculous... 

 

what are they teaching kids these days...

Who knows!  I was speaking with a family friend who couldnt help his daughter with her math homework. She came for a visit and out of curiosity, I wrote down a simple problem that added up in the millions. it took me a very short time to add. I asked her how she would do it, she said, "thats old math, we just use calculators" after my jaw dropped, i just said they have been doing math this way for a very long time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/2/2019 at 7:43 AM, Marvel said:

We home schooled our three kids, and after working with them on math (mostly), and making sure they really knew how to read, more than anything, we encouraged their curiosity. When they were still grade school age, we told them they could stay up as long as they wanted, just turn out the lights when you go to bed.

 

Looking back, we didn't spend that much time with them where it would be like being in a school setting. All three graduated with honors of some kind, and are working to follow their passion. The curiosity part means they will get interested in something and research to learn about a subject, or more completely to learn the subject. Not even sure how they got from point A to B, but life is interesting.

 

We're homeschooling our 4.5 and 7yr old girls with a very similar approach. If you let her, my oldest will chat your ear off about dinosaurs.. or wolves.. or geography.. or rocks.. or chicken breeds, etc. The youngest is quickly catching up on her breadth of knowledge. They both find an interest in something, dive right in and learn everything they can, and then move on to the next topic. And as they grow older, they revisit topics with fresh eyes and learn knew aspects, building on their body of knowledge.

 

We spend a fair amount of time outdoors, going to area museums and nature preserves, watching documentaries, and encouraging them to be kids. They have house chores, and farm chores, and do their part to contribute to the success of the family, but everything is age appropriate and they have the rest of their adult lives for the beat down of forced work in "off hours". I want my kids to be successful adults, but I also want do instill a lifelong desire for learning and self driven discovery.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...