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I'm not a believer in homework in the lower grades. Little children, especially, need time to play and explore the world. My feeling is, if they have to keep learning at home, what are they doing in school all day? Also, what about other forms of development that come from playing or helping cook or daydreaming?

I can see the value in doing extra algebra problems or in reading a portion of a novel or history book in 7th or 9th grade, but I just don't see the point in, say, 3rd grade. I also don't get the 2+ hours per night thing in the older grades for the same reasons I outline above.

My prediction: Someday, someone will publish a seminal study (or group thereof) showing that too much homework can be damaging to very young brains.

Val

I think drawing symbols on the drawings work, but she does have to illustrate the weekly poem. Illustrate means more than quick symbolic figures.

Then there was this thing, My Community. She had to draw a picture of our family working together and then write about what she drew. For a 1st grader, that takes a little time. The math sheets are quick. But this stuff is time consuming. Not hours, but vital downtime she needs after a day of school and afterschool stuff.

Chinese homework is about 20 minutes, though we should do it 2X a week, as it is a language.

We shall see this week what the museum gives her for homework from the science program. It starts this week.

Ren

Val, I couldn't agree more.

I do see value in worthwhile homework, but I HATE that school sends home busy work saying that the kids need to "get used to doing homework every day." In my opinion, doing that de-values homework, and shows disrespect for the child's and family's outside of school time. And, like many here, I see more busy-work in the early years than worthwhile work.

While it doesn't usually take long for my DC to do their homework (usually just spelling and math for DS6 in 1st, and math, spelling, and sometimes Spanish for DS8 in 3rd), after a long school day, those 15-30 minutes could be better spent helping Dad in the garden or Mom in the kitchen, or learning to be part of a family by helping with chores, or reading a book or going down to the creek to see what interesting thing he can find. I can think of a zillion things that I think would be more valuable to his education than coloring the row with the most apples blue.

And now that DC have started piano (at their request), I want to encourage them to practice not for a finite time, but until they've accomplished a goal for that day (e.g., play these four measures with the correct notes and timing) but sometimes that gets replaced with "we only have 15 minutes for piano today" because of all the homework that needs to get done. I resent that.

I think schools need to understand that they are a large part of a child's education, but children need to be exposed to more of life than math facts and spelling. They need time to participate with their family, be with their own thoughts, explore their world, and they need time to get enough sleep, which seems highly lacking in most kids' lives around here, as parents try to get everything squeezed in, but that's an entirely different soap box of mine.