At DS's school (he is in 2nd grade), all parents are required to check if homework is complete. The homework packet is very light, and has probably 30 minutes to an hour's worth of work for the entire week. I don't check his answers, but if it is something I can't read, I have him go back and fix it. He is expected to read for 20 minutes, and I don't tell him to read either (he reads a lot; about 80-90 minutes every day. Somedays he reads constantly, when he is in the middle of a very interesting book)
We definitely don't have paragraphs of homework or huge projects. I am actually thankful for this, because I don't really believe that homework at younger elementary ages serves a lot of purpose.
