DD6 is a couple of weeks in to 2nd grade, and the homework expectations have been laid on the table. This has always been my one reservation about Tiny Private School. (There was some homework in K/1, and it was a battle, but the teacher was pretty flexible, which made it workable.)

Current expectations for each week are:
- Half hour of reading aloud each night Mon-Thurs
- Spelling exercises
- Ten written sentences with spelling words (to be increased later in the year)
- Spelling pretest Thursday night
- A few pages of math exercises (haven't seen that yet, but I have a general idea)

I'm not a fan of homework, but even when I try to set that aside this feels excessive to me. But that may be because DD is 6, not 7. Maybe she is just too young for the workload of 2nd grade? On the other hand, I may be reacting based on our homework dramas last year, and she's older and more mature now.

On the third hand, DD has been coming home from school and playing SO HARD. Some days she has gymnastics, and she'll walk in the door and pick up her sketch pad or her paints disappear into her own messy colorful world. Or she'll take off on her bike and find friends to play in the mud with. And then it's bedtime. I just hate the thought of taking that away from her for the sake of more schoolwork.

On the sixth hand, she is in the difficult position of both reading and handwriting being still very laborious for her, and this exact workload will probably be much more managable half a year from now.

On the eighteenth hand, I really have the heart of a homeschooler, and I wish I could give her the gift of all the time she needs to just be herself and explore her interests. But on the nineteenth hand, Tiny Private School does such an amazing job with the "extras," the music and art and science and so on, that I really think they are doing a much *better* job than I could do at home.

On top of this, the teacher is a new hire, and while she seems like a lovely person and good at her job, she also gives off a vibe of rigidity and control. I would not feel comfortable talking to her about how to make this work for DD. It's clear already that her position is that DD needs to follow the rules, period. I'm considering a conversation with the director, who I get along well with. She may be able to reassure me about how kids adapt to the increased work load, etc. Or advise me about DD's position vis-a-vis her grade skip.

One thing that would be useful for me would be ideas for "scripts" for how to talk to the director. I want to come across like I'm soliciting information and wisdom, not like I'm trying to barge in and demand anything. But I also don't want to come across like I have my cap in hand, needing to be told what's what.

Thanks for listening!

You could express concern that the expectations are out of line with the National Association of School Psychologists.

http://www.nasponline.org/resources/home_school/homework.aspx

They advise a limit of 20 minutes a day for second graders.

(To me reading aloud is homework whereas reading to oneself is not quite homework.)

I would drop the "reading aloud" (unless she's behind for her grade) and have her read on her own for 20 minutes before bed. My kids often need to do this to settle down anyway.

Do the spelling "exercises" relate just to the words being tested? Maybe ask if she can skip the "exercises" as long as she is able to pass the tests.

Handwriting is also difficult for my second grader, with his developmental coordination disorder and low tone, so I feel for you. I can't see getting DS to do all that work. The teacher has just been giving one sheet of math which DS could do in about 60 seconds. It was way below his level so now she's sending home 1 sheet of more challenging math. I think they have spelling words each week but no spelling exercises or any other written work. She wants them to read for about 20 min. per day but it doesn't have to be any particular book and we don't have to log anything. She said that if a kid doesn't feel like doing the homework on a certain day that's fine, just send in a note. She said that family time is more important. So the total opposite! I think in your position I would focus on the fact that she still struggles with handwriting and it takes a long time to get it done...can we please have a reduced workload so she has time to play and do other things? I wouldn't go to the director unless the teacher resists hearing your concerns. Of course if she was grade-skipped they may throw it back at you, like clearly it hasn't worked out to grade skip her because she's not ready for the work. So it's a tough position to be in. All I can say is that I don't think that amount of work is "normal" or at least not our experience. DD didn't even get that much in THIRD grade.

DS8 is in an HG 3rd grade now and doesn't get that much homework. Has she actually brought home that much work or is that just the teacher's wishful thinking?

It's too much for a second grade but as a working parent, I'm against homework. If they can't get it done between the hour I drop him off at school and the hour I pick him up, then it's too much for a child. I'd love to homeschool but we also need to eat so... >:(

Oh, we've been through this. But with Everyday Math (go outside and count the windows on all the houses in your neighborhood) (gag! that was FIRST GRADE!)

We had handwriting issues too. My dc's both just were not ready to do that much handwriting, pretty much ever. They still hate it but type really well. If your dc uses a keyboard, could she type her homework? Some first grade teachers still insist on handwritten stuff, but if your dc can already read/write, maybe maybe?

The teacher did let us opt out of spelling exercises once dc tested above the 6th grade level in first grade (topped out the test). You could request an assessment -- these sometimes aren't done till October. But the teacher was an older, seasoned teacher, happy to let dc spend time in the library researching rather than in the classroom.

I wish you good luck. Wish I had more help to offer! We homeschool now, because eventually the busy work and low level work ground us down.

Reading aloud was a favorite pastime while driving to extracurriculars, running errands in the car, and commuting to/from school. The net effect was being able to help with pronunciation/definition of any new words encountered while spending absolutely no time carved out of our day especially for reading: a totally positive experience.

Just a quick clarification, because Tiny Private School is so tiny, it would not be weird for me to talk to the director. In a sense, I wouldn't be talking to "the director," I would be talking to "Debra*." She knows DD very well, and all the teachers (incl. the co-directors) interact with all the students every day, and also with all the parents. I would never "go over the teacher's head" and ask the director to do something about the situation, without making sure the teacher was appropriately involved in the loop. At this point I'm more looking for 1) reality check about my DD, and 2) reality check about whether this school as a whole is just over-the-top about homework and I simply have to buy in or get out.

I'll reply a little later to all your great comments.


*Not her real name.

That amount per week is a bit less than my three children (at a strong public school) were assigned a dozen years ago and five years ago during first grade. Second grade graduated to 15-20 words but didn't take much longer because the kids were better skilled/efficient from their experience in first grade.

First, I think you should adopt the don't ask don't tell policy and disregard the reading aloud "homework" as I assume your DD already reads well. If she is a real rule follower, you can always make it up during the week-end. Keep in mind that some teachers don't consider it necessary to include the "reading" homework under the recommended homework limit.

As to the "written" homework, I think your best approach is to time your DD and then approach the teacher for modifications by explaining that it takes your DD too long. Teachers generally based assignments on how much time it would take the typical child in their classroom. For example, DS11 was very speedy so it took him less than ten minutes on average to do 1-2 math sheets plus one spelling assignment (pre-test, sentences or other exercises). DD11, who is more typical speed-wise, usually took 15-20 minutes on average. On the other hand, their older brother, who was 2E, easily averaged 30 minutes, mostly due to writing issues. If your DD has writing issues, there are ways to reduce her workload. If she can type, then have her type. If not, you can type her sentences for her. It will probably still save her a lot of time even if you have her copy sentences that you first transcribed for her, which is what I did with my oldest 2E.

We have struggled a lot with homework in k and 1st. Ds is now in 2nd. The reading before bed, in the car, or where ever/ when ever your dc will be agreeable. The other homework I tried to divide over the week, but would not spend more than 15-20mins/ day on it. I also offered "free days" if homework gets completed early. (I will admit we are very schedule oriented, so homework routine works well.)

Is your dc happy at school? I only ask, because this year my ds is much more willing to do homework and is happier at (a new) school. Maybe it's just because he's older? I do know giving him some choices about what to do when did/ does help. Also, when we were struggling; I tried to focus on the days that went well. In addition, I would point out achievements/ improvements (in writing for example).

Good luck! Hope this year is not so bad!

We went through this struggle, too. TBH, homework before middle school seems pointless to me. I mean, what are they doing in school all day in second grade that they have to keep working on it when the day is over? Also, I wonder if the current homework craze is simply inertial: they're doing it, so we have to do it.

Children should be playing and painting, not doing math worksheets.

Okay, rant off. As others suggested, we omitted the nightly reading thing. My feeling was that it was going to turn something enjoyable into a chore. I had my kids read aloud at times (still do), but usually in the context of reading a story together: you take a turn, I'll take a turn.

People justify the reading out loud thing (I believe) on the premise that kids miss words, and when you get them to read out loud, you can correct them. FWIW, I remember being chronically frustrated in first grade over reading out loud in school. I would flub things. In my case, though, it wasn't that I was failing to see words. It was because my brain was going faster than my mouth could keep up with. Obviously, I have no idea if this problem applies to other children, but it was certainly my thing, and the cure was time and developing an ability to hold two ideas at once (what I'm saying and what I'm thinking)

From what I've seen, a fairly large chunk of parents have bought into the homework-is-great thing. A few years ago, an administrator told me that only a few parents at the school complained about too much homework. More parents were complaining because the school wasn't assigning enough work --- especially over vacations! This person's cynical theory was that the ones complaining didn't want to be dealing with the kids when school was out, and sending them off to do homework helped in that regard.

My eldest is in a dual enrollment program this year at a local community college. He describes it as "less homework, but more learning," because the assignments he does get are on-target and make him think.

Wait, is it the child who is supposed to be reading aloud, or the parent? Having the child read aloud doesn't make much sense, because the skills for decoding and speaking are different than for comprehending. I can't imagine a child reading aloud for 30 minutes without being utterly exhausted, and still be able to relate what went on in the story. Having the adults read aloud makes so much more sense, because they will read books above the child's level, expanding vocabulary and concepts. But even still, before 30minutes are up I need a glass of water.

There's nothing like turning an enjoyable activity into "homework".

Meg ... my second son was in second grade last year, that sounds about right to me.

Although, I think of the reading as 2 hours a week as opposed to 30 minutes Mon - Thurs. My son would typically spend way more than two hours a week reading, I don't monitor it on a daily.

Spelling exercise and pretest... if they are not required to be turned in, we don't do it. He had fairly challenging words but an great memory so not a tough task. I input them into an app on iPad on Mondays when he gets them and he practices as he sees fit. At the very beginning of the year, I reminded him to practice at least once on the way to school on Fridays. Again, I don't monitor it much, I check occasionally to confirm he has gotten any wrong in the last couple weeks.

That leaves the sentences, 2 a night (but my son prefers to get it all out of the way at once) and the math, I assume they both can be completed in 10-15 minutes a day. She should get faster as the year goes on I would assume.

One small difference is our math is online so that does make it a bit more fun.

Maybe she would prefer to spend 10 minutes before school on homework and then just the reading after school?

The reading is supposed to be by the child. We did reading aloud all summer long and it greatly improved her reading, but she's still not capable of 30 minutes at a stretch. I suspect by the time she is, she will have achieved "lift-off" and be reading for pleasure, at which point I will refuse to make it be homework, and will tell the teacher so.

I don't really have any problem with the *kinds* of work they're assigning, but I do have a problem with how *much*. In a way I appreciate that they are trying to get kids up to speed on writing so that they can go on to do writing for writing's sake. The older grades write stories and essays, and articles for the school newsletter, which I think is awesome, and they want to get the little ones writing as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the teacher wants a reading log for the reading aloud, so there's no weaseling out of that one.

Meg, can you ask to have the 2 hours of reading spaced through the entire week instead of monday through thursday? Your log will just look different thank the other families.

I also think the volume of homework is far too much.

This is less than my DD was assigned in 2nd at a gifted magnet, but the HW is and has always been a major sore point. She had 30 minutes of reading aloud (yes, it was aloud in 2nd, though I eventually asked for and got an exemption--she read silently) and 15-30 math problems every day, plus spelling, writing, science, and social studies assignments throughout the week, for a total of at least an hour a day. I don't endorse it and I don't know if it's typical. But that's what it is. In fifth, we are at about 1.5 hours a day, but sometimes much less or much more--oddly inconsistent.

Vacation homework does not seem appropriate as vacation is an important break from school to enjoy family, friends, hobbies, and self-directed learning.

Some parents are concerned with "no homework" policies and restrictions against bringing books home, as these preclude parents from proactively or concurrently seeing what their children are learning.

When my DD was in K and 1st, they sent us the weekly reading logs to fill out, and we basically told the teachers that we weren't going to be participating, because it would be harder to stop DD reading than to make her begin, her reading ability and her interest levels were not a concern. Both teachers, having already had a look at DD's abilities, agreed with our assessment, and offered no resistance.

What is the point of the homework? Is there a goal? A level of desired proficiency in some area? I am reminded of the story about the Japanese baseball team where the motto was "practice till you die" (and not the more sensible "practice till you are ready for your game baseball game").

You know its very easy for a parent to correct the situation of not enough homework if you really feel that's the case. Just add assignments of your own. Personally, I'm mostly in the camp of reading is enough for most weeks in the younger grades.

I am on team NO HOMEWORK. School should be at school and home at home.

Exceptions can include reading (without a log), make up work if child has been absent, or once in a while reviewing for an upcoming test a specific concept that might need a bit more work.

But 99% of the time I want to hear "no homework mom other than to read!"

DD is in second and has 20 minutes of reading (she reads before bed anyway, and I do the log for her because I want her to read for pleasure), and supposedly a math sheet and spelling work, but the routine is still rather... sputtering this year. The math sheet always takes under 5 minutes. This is the first year we'll have spelling homework. At school DD takes forever and spaces out (copying words ugh) so I'm waiting to see how she does with no distractions at home. If its an issue we'll talk to teacher bc DD always gets 100% on her tests. She loves writing stories and poems using her words. I'm not really adverse to adapting HW. We use a work-based charter; if we used a regular school I'd have no issue just saying no HW for little kids. Mostly the math sheet we've typically had has been absolutely to teach the kids the routine of work, being organized, etc. Busy work, still... But good to get the routine down I guess.

Homework is meant to reinforce the concepts learned in class and for the parents to keep an eye on their child's academic progress. But, when a child is too advanced for their grade level, then the homework becomes busywork.
We had 2 packets in K in a very strong PS. One was the regular packet of math and LA and the other packet was the "challenging and optional" packet of math, LA, critical thinking. We did both packets and we were done in 15-20 minutes per day (DS writes very fast and he hates to color. So, I colored all the Everyday Math kind of "fun" sheets for him and he finished the rest of the packet on his own). DS read any book of his choice for 20 minutes and filled out his reading log to take back to school. They sent home a weekly "book bag" to read - which was a joke because the content was very low level for my son - so he finished them in less than 15 minutes per week.
I suggest that you use your own parental discretion to decide what your child needs to do for homework. And you can either bring it up with the teacher/Director or do the "busywork" part for your child to make more time for the things that you want to do (which is what I did).
What we spent most "homework" time on was the after schooling we did after finishing all the school work. We did math, languages, science experiments, computer programming, robot building etc.

I have no problem with a limited amount of homework.

1) It teaches kids executive function, as they have a selection of tasks that they have to organize and tackle.

2) It gives parents an opportunity to catch and correct things the teacher is getting wrong. So far this year, my DD was told the prime meridian goes all the way around the globe, and that condensation is when a liquid changes into a gas.

3) It gives parents an opportunity to be a different voice and present information in a different way when the kid didn't quite understand it from the teacher. For instance, we once helped DD discard the Dog's Breakfast Method (if it's not the formal name, it should be) of division and showed her how to do long division.

In our household, we DO take issue with homework that has no value and/or takes up extraordinary amounts of time.

I'm going to wait several days and see how things develop before taking any action -- more information-gathering, I figure, to see how she's actually reacting to the homework this year.

I'm really really hoping to get her engaged in thinking up interesting and funny things to say in her spelling sentences, edge her towards real writing. We'll see how that goes.

For the reading aloud, I'm just going to write down what she reads within the limits of her stamina, and if the teacher wants to call us out for it, then we'll address it.

Fortunately, we're not in the position of the homework being soul-destroying busy-work. All of it is at an appropriate level for her.

Update - spoke to "Debra" today and had a really good conversation. First of all, she was open to the idea that there might be too much homework, and said that the new teacher was still trying to calibrate it, and that feedback was good.

But then she also said that DD is at a "wall" that all kids have to push their way through, which is becoming comfortable with writing. She said that DD is exactly at that point, and she would like to see her go ahead and push through it.

Then she gave me some tips for making it easier. She said it was okay to give DD permission to make the sentences as short as possible, and that I shouldn't fight with her about spelling out words that I *know* she knows, I should offer as much help as she wants. The point that they care about is getting the kids to experience success with writing actual sentences.

Then she called DD in and asked her to try an experiment this evening of setting the timer for 15 minutes and seeing how much she could get done. Well, we did that, and she finished almost all of the week's spelling homework in that 15 minutes.

Hooray for sane school personnel!

DD 7 in is public school 2nd grade. Some of the children in the class are likely gifted but many not and it is not a "gifted class". We get a packet of homework Monday that is due on Friday plus she is supposed to read or be read to every day-I think for 20 minutes. I've ignored that because DD reads more than enough through the course of the week.

I think her homework load is more than you are stuck with

Homework packet:
Monday: one page (2sided) math
1 of 2 spelling activities (can be on spelling city or creative things or quiz)

tuesday:
Math worksheet
reading comprehension questions (about 5) about a story they read
that must be answered with a full sentence.

Wed: family experience writing. They have to draw a picture and write a topic sentence,3-4 detail sentences and a conclusion. (this is hated)

Thurs:
Math
spelling

Oh also they have DD read aloud one page of a simple story (about 140-150 words) to see how many words they read correctly in one minute. She does this every night. Or, like today she read it 4 times in a row right before going to school to turn it in -oops. This is actually good practice I think since DD hardly ever reads out loud anymore.

For my DD the math is ridiculously easy, repetitive and tedious. They are doing the same place value worksheets since school started. But they are easy and fast and she would rather do those than the writing assignments. The physical act of writing is still difficult for my daughter so those are disliked and done rather poorly in my opinion. The spelling seems fine to me. The words seem reasonable and with a small amount of review she can get most of them right on her test.

Im not really sure how long it takes her to do it but it certainly varies by her motivation. setting a timer is not at all a bad idea.

The homework my kids get is not related to what they are doing at school. The maths is only ever basic facts plus they have 6 spelling words a week and sometimes a writing assignment and they are supposed to read every night. I just treat it as optional. I have no idea what he gets in spelling tests but am happy to help if he wants to get better. As far as I am concerned I lend them the child from 9 to 3 after that they get no say.