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I am very particular about work locations, my husband even more so than me. Materials are important at this age, my son's Kinder homework often involves some writing, but also cutting and pasting, one time he even needed alphabet stamps.
The idea is to have him work in a place where he has access to all his materials so he doesn't get sidelined by not having what he needs. So that means homework is done either in the kitchen at my moms or in his room at home. Never with the tv on, even if it is the news.
My son is a perfectionist and likes to hand in a masterpiece every time so I bought some clear pockets that he can slip papers in to practice. We also use whiteboards and magnets to practice.

We do the dining room table, but no TV. My son can barely eat while the TV is on. I have been trying to "make him a deal" that he can watch whatever when he's done as long as he does his best work, which helps.

We do it right after school on the dining room table. No TV, no food, no getting up to go to the bathroom. It's only supposed to take 6 minutes, so we really focus during that time. Almost all of the homework requires parental involvement, so he can't do it by himself.

@T.H.O.U.: My view is that I begin as I mean to go on. For me, right now homework is not so much about completing the work, it is about setting up the environment to complete the work. In the future, when homework counts, like in second grade and beyond, would I rather have to deal with taking away the television, or would I rather put in a little extra effort now to set up good habits?

I don't have a ton of experience nor am I an educator, but it seems to me that doing the homework in front of the TV isn't a good idea.

@looch: exactly this.

Take this with a grain of salt since my DD is not old enough to have homework yet, but I'd set aside a time for homework in your routine and not necessarily as place. As a kid, I distinctly remember that my routine was always to come home, get a snack, and do my homework, however I used to do it all over the house (wherever I felt like it really). Even when working from home these days as an adult, I don't necessarily stay in one spot. So I wouldn't want to make my child do it either (unless the homework was super short, like 10 min or less).

Ugh. This is going to be tough for us because right now we get home and she gets about 20 minutes of play before we eat dinner and get ready for bed. I guess she's going to lose the play time in favor of homework time.

My plan is to do it like we did growing up - homework at the kitchen table.

@mediagirl: Yep, this is a struggle for us as well. I am basically of the mind that homework time is 10 minutes, if it's not finished, it's not finished.

Is your girl going to afterschool? If so, I'd find out if there is any time set up there for them to do homework.

@mediagirl: We are only on the second week of homework, so not a ton of experience, but I can say it's gotten better. The first week I didn't see it in the folder, so we were behind on it.

Now, we get a packet on Monday to be handed in Friday. It details what should be done each night. We do 10 minutes per night, which is the rule of thumb for how long it should take (usually it takes less than that). If it's not done in that time, I make a note on the page to the teacher.

As I wrote above, it's really important to me to set up the workspace, so that's my main focus in the homework efforts. It helps that the work is easy for him right now, so it builds his confidence.