Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Middle School Homework in middle school

How much homework is typical for middle school? DD11 averages about 10-15 minutes a week, which is less than she had last year. Actually, she had the most homework (45-60 minutes a day) as a first grader. While that was excessive, her current homework load seems light to me, especially since it includes all of the bonus work that students can do when they finish their regular work.

10-15 mins a week does seem light to me. I'm pretty sure I was doing the same up through 6th grade, though, mostly because I had plenty of time to do the homework in class. If that's what's happening in your DD's case, it's probably an indicator that she's not being challenged adequately.

I'd be careful about advocating this, though, because the result is likely to be seeing your daughter loaded down with busy work. Given the choice between no homework and homework for homework's sake, I'd gladly take the former... as would, no doubt, your DD.

DD is in sixth grade. I agree, I don't want her overwhelmed with homework and have no plans to ask for me. However, her homework load has been decreasing since first grade, and I worry that she won't learn good study skills and will be quite shocked when she starts high school or college.

My 7th grader's teachers give homework out regularly - there is math homework every weeknight, science reading most weeknights, social studies reading or project work 2-3 nights per week, and 1-2 large writing assignments per week that the kids work on at school but also are expected to work on a bit at home. On nights where there are 2 or more large assignments due, the work can take 2 or more hours, but most nights the teachers don't want the students spending more than 45 minutes to an hour on homework. In general, ds' school is rigorous about academic expectations but also doesn't buy into the philosophy of giving out homework simply to give out homework; they believe it should be meaningful, not repetitive, and also not terribly time consuming.

There are some programs and schools in our area (public) that really believe in giving kids lots of homework; at one point in time our full-time middle/high school public highly gifted program was known for assigning up to 3 hours homework per night, to the extent that kids had no time for extracurricular activities much less a chance to just let their creative gifted brains do their own creative free thinking.

Personally I wouldn't mind too much if my kids didn't get any homework at all - you can always give them "home" homework in an area that they are interested in and that would benefit them later on. We've done that with our kids in order to get them prerequisites to enable them to take courses that are out-of-grade-level.

I was also one of those kids who was quite shocked at the level of work when I went to college. And i had a ton of homework in high school lol! But, fwiw, I recovered and did absolutely a-ok by the end of first quarter

polarbear

Hello! In our public 7th & 8th grade, math every night. Including the other subjects, homework averages about 2 hours a night...some nights less, some nights more. Also, for at least 30 minutes a day they are expected to read a book of their choosing.

I'm sure that homework levels vary from school to school.

My eldest had 1-2 hours per night in a private middle school in 6th and 7th grade; I remember some weekend homework, too. Last year he was in a public charter; he did very little homework (maybe 2-3 hours per week). But he was studying math independently, and may have had more homework if he'd been working with the class.

DS10 in 6th (Middle school is 6-8) has about 1 to 2 hrs. a night.
Mostly because of two classes, Band is 30 min 5 days a week, (Baritone Sax, funny to watch he can barely reach the levers) and reading for AR is 30min a day or 3.5 hrs. a week max 60 min a day. The English teacher is a little tough she requires the reading, and a reading journal they must fill out 8 facts per 30 minutes read. Also they have a lot of writing and a lot of rewrites. (It's the first time DS has been pushed by a teacher; he does not like it and fights it) Math is quick, and Science varies.

My DD has 30-45 minutes of math 4 out of 5 nights per week, a weekly vocabulary packet, miscellaneous writing and science assignments. She also has four big book reports due per year -- they are more like creative writing assignments based on the books. DD seems to manage the load without much stress. She still plays a sport and an instrument. She says that the kids who came from schools that gave no homework in elementary are really struggling.