My ds11 is in 6th grade, in a full time gifted program (Middle School). He gets home before me, but always calls me at work to let me know he's home. I always ask if he ask homework, and most of the time the answer in no. Delving deeper, I find out that he gets it done in Directed Studies, or gets the work finished in class (usually math - he's in 8th grade accelerated - is a case of you do it as homework if you don't get it done in class). I know he's supposed to read 30 minutes, and journal every day, as well as write a 1000 word essay monthly in ELA. Social studies and science vary, so once in a while he'll have something to do for them. One time he was doing a group project with 2 others, and they did meet up out of school 3 times to work on it (it was for a C-Span documentary contest). To be perfectly honest, I leave him to his own devices, and thankfully, so far, he's doing a great job of getting it done without my interference. Having said that - and re-reading the original post - in 5th grade (elementary school)- he never had homework.
