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The research is pretty clear on the limited value of homework for kids in elementary school. Even in HS, I believe only math HW has been shown to have learning benefits. Of course, if they aren't learning anything IN school, then that's frustrating, but sort of different. I agree that the HW policy shouldn't disallow you from getting the spelling words early to accommodate for your DS's needs, of course!

My DD8 has an average of an hour and a half of HW a night, often two hours, and it's nearly killing us. She is somewhat slow, but not excessively so. Even if you did everything at a very brisk pace, there's no way it would take less than an hour. I suspect part of the reason she gets so much is that she is at a gifted magnet and some of the parents are pretty Tiger Mom-ish (and then many are not at all--interesting mix).

Two hours a night of homework for an 8 yo??!! Yikes! That sounds super painful. I am glad I guess that my kids get little homework right now. My son had been in kindy in a private school- he had like 30 minutes a night of homework, much of it stupid. It was things like, write this word ten times. Well, after writing it 3 times, he had the hang of it but they insisted the full 10 times!

Funny you should mention that--she does have to write her spelling words 4x each...

I consider ourselves pretty lucky that dd in 1st has less than 5 min. of homework (yes, that is how long it takes her to do the Everyday Math worksheet). And dd usually only 10 min. or less, just depends on how much she is struggling with it. So I don't see a problem with adding a little extra to help dd#1 where she is struggling, and a little enrichment for dd#2 to challenge her a bit.

Remember, one of the points of education is to instill a sense of repetition in students.

When you are assembling 18 wheelers in Detroit, you don't get to say to the manager, I already know *how* to tighten the azimuth thruster on the new Ford Avenger Caravan, I don't need to do it 1,000 times a day!

Remember, America's manufacturing strength is built on a highly trained and educated workforce.

When they emerge from their high school chrysalises students have to be ready to do what they are asked to do.

And sometimes they have to do it 1,000 times a day.