For our family, hw in 4th-5th grade was all about establishing a routine of recognizing and fulfilling expectations. For ds (now in 9th grade) especially, who has a certain, um, rigidity in his mindset, I believe this was a really important. The hw consisted of a half page math worksheet. Every. Damn Day. It took 5-10 minutes to do, tops. But ds resented doing it, because he never had to before. The teacher, who handed them the worksheets right at the end of the day, and the parents worked together to make sure he didn't weasel out of it. At first, he often "misplaced" his worksheet by the time he got home, so we'd make a photocopy for him, as conveniently, his twin sister brought home the same daily worksheet.
This really paved the way for good study habits when they started Alg. 1 Honors in 6th grade. Ds tried to slack off in 7th grade and got a B in math one quarter. The B was a wake up call for him and provided another important lesson: personal investment = results.
