Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 1st Grade Homework

I am hoping others here could share some words of wisdom about reasonable homework for a first grader and best path to go down to address the situation. DD5 was skipped to first at the winter break. I had expected the amount of homework to go up in first, but I am having a hard time with the amount of increase. DD has homework from her regular classroom teacher and from her daily GT pullout teacher. I'll address regular teacher first with expected time to complete. Regular teacher assigns the following weekly

Writing Composition -20 min
Reading Comprehension (1st and 2nd enrichment) 7 min and 10 min
Math Enrichment (is not reinforcing what is taught in class) - 20 min
Spelling (1st and enrichment) 10 min and 15 min
Reading 15 min every day

GT teacher assigns 4 nights of homework each week.
Two printouts supporting classroom activities - 15 min ea.
IXL (DD's choice) 15-20 min
Math game (seems to compliment class activity) 15 min.

Of the above the optional activities are enrichment reading comp and spelling and regular teacher assigned math. All other activities are mandatory. DD is the sort of child who rises to expectations beautifully, so telling her she doesn't have to do some activities is not ideal. Plus all the enrichment pieces, except the reading comp, are some of the best and most appropriate. Even if DD doesn't do all enrichment her load is still quite significant.

This load just seems excessive for a first grader to me, but DD is my first so I don't have any recent experience. I asked another mom who has a girl in the same situation and she was dismissive of the load saying something like "it would take my daughter like 5 min to complete everything if I could get her to focus. And you know we do give our girls more work on top of the assigned classroom homework." Needless to say I am feeling a bit alone in addressing this issue. However DD stopped reading or asking to learn anything new after school. New library books used to be the absolute highlight of her day, and now the reaction is more bleh. This is the beginning of a pattern I have seen before which leads to increased anxiety and I'd rather be proactive rather then reactive.

DD is the first child to be skipped prior to 3rd grade in my very large district. Our efforts have started a slew of activity in the district. This fact has, I believe, contributed to the hostility I am experiencing from the classroom teacher. However the principal is squarely on my side, and seems to understand many of the challenges we are facing. In a very casual conversation with the principal he said homework should take no more than 30 min a night.

I feel that the real issue here seems to be the excessive math homework from the GT teacher, but I feel asking for a change this late in the year is asking for a whole policy change and I am skeptical of success. DDs regular classroom teacher made it abundantly clear ALL required homework must be completed to assure there are no holes. So far the only hole I have been made aware of was DD was not holding her scissors correctly, but was able to correct her position once the failure was pointed out - sorry, I am so tired of the holes argument.

I am having a hard time picking my battles. I am already meeting with the regular teacher about the LA curriculum and book selection / physical access issues. I will soon have to start advocating for subject level acceleration in math to 3rd next year.

I know the proper path is to start with the teacher and then go up the food chain, but I am having a hard time getting return e-mails from the teacher. Last time I had to mention to the principal that she was not returning my e-mails and, surprise surprise, I got a response that day. Speaking to the principal seems to work, but I only want to take things to him that he should be involved in, like policy change etc. So, I'd love to know your experiences with hard teachers and homework.

Sorry this is so long. As always your wisdom is greatly appreciated.