This is more a question for elementary but preschool is welcomed to chime in too.
What grade are you in and how much homework do your LO(s) get, do you think it is too much/too little/just right, and how do you and your LO think about it? How well does your LO handle his/her homework -- do they do them on their own or do you have to prompt a lot? Do you stress out when your LO is given big projects?
I'll comment mine below!
nectarine / 2964 posts
DS is in 1st grade. It was an OK balance for most of the year. Usually 2 work sheets a day (Mon-Thurs) for language and Math, reading bag once a week (comprehension), and there is a monthly bigger project most of the months.
DS is OK with the daily worksheets. The weekly reading bag requires some nagging, quite frankly I get stressed out by it for the fact DS put up great resistance in doing it. And yes, I do stress out with most of the monthly bigger projects because again, great effort to get DS to actually do it. I know I should be hands off (and let him fail if he doesn't do it), but my type A self is having great difficulty with it. Besides, at 1st grade in his school it doesn't seem to have a lot of accountability expected on the students, I am sure some kids don't do their homework and I don't think they get in trouble.
The year is about to be over and I find it so stressful: For the month of May, on top of the daily and weekly assignments, he needs to do 1 book commercial on video (him having to read a book in his reading level, he has to write an outline, and I have to video shoot him and we put the video together, which thankfully we finished), teach 1x 15 min lesson to his classmates (can be of anything, but then of course it requires parental guidance and help on topic and presentation and material...etc.), AND two days ago he got the class mascot doll for a 2nd time (argh) and we supposed to have "adventures" with him for 2 days, write about it with pictures, and returning tomorrow (So we have it monday - wednesday) ! Grrrr!! Why do they do that.... I think it is too much 
And why is it OK to assign homework that requires so much parent involvement? I really don't know how everyone who has multiple kids wing it.
Curious to see if this all is too much or normal compare to all of you !
grapefruit / 4278 posts
That is wayyy more homework than my 1st grader gets. He brings home a book every day to read at night, but sometimes we keep them more than one day because we read a library book or a book we have at home instead. We read right before bed.
He recently started getting spelling words. 6 per week that we run through a few times in the car throughout the week and he has a test in class at the end of the week.
Throughout the year we've had maybe 3-4 other projects. Decorate a pumpkin as a book character and write a "report", make homemade instruments, and some others I can't remember. We typically have 1-2 weeks notice on these.
I think at this age, it's unrealistic to expect them to do projects on their own. We sit with our son to do the big things and help, but let him dictate the method and plan so we're not doing the project for him. But he still requires us to set aside time to do it and to sit and keep him on task.
pomegranate / 3438 posts
I agree, that is a lot!
My son is also in 1st grade. On Fridays he gets sent home with a homework packet that is due the following Thursday. It is usually 3 pages of language arts and 3 pages of math. Sometimes other random activity sheets depending on the time of year. After the holiday break in December, he started bringing home spelling words. We work on those when I remember.
He is supposed to fill out a reading log every week. We don't do it. I don't have time to sit and prompt him to read at night. His teacher is totally fine with it because he is reading above grade level and he practices reading in other ways.
As far as completing homework, he goes to an after care program at school and they have a 45 minute chunk of time for homework. He doesn't always finish a lot but he knows he needs to work on it at home if its getting late in the week. We usually come up with a plan over the weekend to make sure he finishes his homework by Wednesday night. I do have to give a lot of reminders to finish.
Baseball has thrown a wrench in because we don't always have time in the evenings. As of last night he had three pages to finish and we agreed he would do one in the morning and two after school. Then this morning he threw a fit saying he didn't know what to write (it was a writing prompt about his favorite birthday party). It lasted about 10 minutes and I just told him if he doesn't do it now, he will just have to do it later and left it at that. I'm not going to argue with him. He knows if he doesn't do it his teacher won't give him a smiley face and he lives for those smiley faces on his work! He eventually did it.
All other projects are things that have been done in class. Nothing that needs to be done at home and I really appreciate that!
pomegranate / 3272 posts
DS1 is in kindergarten and the only thing he has is the book that he brings home every night. We don't always read it b/c sometimes we forget or he reads something else as @kiddosc: mentioned. Oddly enough, I never even associated that with homework until just now! Duh!
Last year in Pre-K, he used to get a small packet (3-4 pages) that he had a week to complete. Truth be told, I wasn't thrilled about that but DS would freak if we forgot to do it.
There is a math game that we have an app for on our iPad and the teacher encourages the kids to log onto that here and there and during longer breaks (Christmas and spring break) but otherwise, it's been pretty tame. Which is good as I was a bit worried about that going in.
cantaloupe / 6086 posts
1st grade here too. Their main homework is just to read 20m+. They get spelling words each week, test on Friday. Monthly a packet of ideas for extra work comes home but we have rarely done it because she knows how to do those things usually and we don’t need busy work. So we just do reading and spelling word practice - she just writes them out herself, I remind her to do it sometimes, luckily she is a natural speller. I’m interested to see the changes for 2nd I have heard it’s more intense. But I think this was appropriate for 1st grade.
pomegranate / 3355 posts
Oy.. DD is in preschool and has no homework other than to bring in certain letter items for show and tell. We start K in the fall and I am so so hoping there is no homework!! ugh.. I just think they are too young to have homework. I personally feel that homework shouldnt' start until 5-6th grade... but I know I am not the norm! I just want them to be kids and enjoy playtime while they can
persimmon / 1427 posts
1st grader:
- 20 min reading each day (recommended but we don’t have to fill out a log)
- spelling and sight words to study most weeks with a test on Fridays
- periodically a level reader will be sent home with a few questions (comprehension)
apricot / 400 posts
@irene - agree with others- that's a lot!
@ajsmommy - I agree! DD didn't have homework in kinder and I wish she didn't have it now, but what can you do?
DD is in 1st grade. She's supposed to read or be read to 10 min/night M-Th. I usually enter the books in her log because I feel like she has enough on her plate with our busy nights. She gets her homework packet on Monday, and needs to turn it on on Friday. She can pick one of three choices for reading, math, spelling, and writing. It's all supposed to average out to 10 min/night. Spelling test is on Friday and we practice a couple times near the end of the week. She's had a few biggish projects, but we get two weeks to complete and no other homework aside from spelling words those weeks. All in all, it's been manageable and I haven't stressed once. DD also doesn't mind doing her homework, so makes a HUGE difference. Oh, she's supposed to review high frequency words, too, but I never do that...
grapefruit / 4361 posts
http://www.nea.org/tools/16938.htm
http://time.com/4466390/homework-debate-research/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/homework-research-how-much/585889/
"This conclusion is generally accepted among educators, in part because it’s compatible with “the 10-minute rule,” a rule of thumb popular among teachers suggesting that the proper amount of homework is approximately 10 minutes per night, per grade level—that is, 10 minutes a night for first graders, 20 minutes a night for second graders, and so on, up to two hours a night for high schoolers."
As a 5th grade teacher, I assigned a page of reading, writing, and math each night. I assigned it as a quarter-long packet though, so students could work ahead if they wanted/felt able. The pages were always review of previous concepts. I felt that it really did help my students - they always came in significantly below grade level, and usually left my class with 1-2 years of growth.
I never assigned projects at home because I wanted to supervise and guide, and not all my students have reliable access to technology. Projects at home for grades K-3 is really homework for the parents, not the kids, and I'm not in love with that. Most of my students have single-parent families with parents working 2 jobs.
apricot / 399 posts
My daughter is in K and doesn't have homework other than monthly sight words. But she's always known all of them at the beginning of the month, so we don't do those anyway.
cherry / 109 posts
At our school it is dependent on the teacher. I have a 1st and 2nd grader. (The 2nd grader had the same first grade teacher as the 1st grader when he was in first.)
1st grader:
-packet comes home Monday, goes back Friday, it contains a paragraph to read with comprehension questions, an English sheet, and 16 math problems (4 for each night).
-They also get a fluency folder to increase there reading speed. you send it back when your child can read in under a minute. they get longer as the year goes on and now it includes questions as well. You can get as many of these as your child can finish in a week. if you get one Monday and send it back Tuesday, you get another one.
-They also have 20ish words a week they are supposed to learn. Not sight words and not spelling but something in-between. You have to sign off that they read them 4 times each night of the week.
- They are also supposed: to read 20 mins a night, and do different online apps different nights of the week. but I am guilty of not doing that. we don't have to fill out a log, and its not graded.
2nd grader:
- packet every week. contains a different story to read and a writing prompt for each night, mon- tues, a English concept sheet, and 4-8 pages of math, dependent on how many problems are on a page. I'd say about 5 problems a night.
- a research project once a quarter. one was a book report, one was a animal diorama, one was a state poster board, one was a t-shirt book report
- They are also supposed: to read 20 mins a night, and do different online apps different nights of the week. but I am guilty of not doing that. we don't have to fill out a log, and its not graded.
Honestly it feels like A LOT. We both WOH and neither child is old enough to do homework independently. They can often do the math problems alone but we still have to check and if they have something wrong it can actually be a bigger nightmare to get them to change it (my 2nd grader is VERY DRAMATIC) than if we had just sat down with them to begin with.
Also both my kid's teachers always assign homework. Many teachers will skip it if its a short week, not the ones we have. The 2nd grader's teacher even assigned big packets during state testing weeks when NO ONE else in the ENTIRE school (at least that we know, variety of grades) had homework.
persimmon / 1420 posts
My kinders get zero homework, which I appreciate greatly. We read every night together and the kids read on their own, but nothing is required.
I assign my 4th graders minimal homework- 30 minutes of reading a night, which they do anyway, and about 10 minutes of math. I teach an advanced math class (6th grade math to my 4th graders) so they love doing their homework. The other classes don't assign as much as I do- 15-20 minutes every three days or so. I also tell them (and their parents) that if something is going on and they can't get their homework done, all the parents need to do is email me and the kid is excused.
I staunchly believe that homework should be the practice of already learned skills, and that is it.
grapefruit / 4361 posts
@kiddosc: that was a copy/paste - I used quotes.
I don't think it would be 2 hours *every* night, but some nights. I was in an academically-rigorous school and I had some nights where it was that. You figure 5-6 classes, 20 minutes each night, that's 100-120 minutes.
grapefruit / 4278 posts
@DesertDreams88: I realize it was a copy/paste... I'm just flabbergasted that that's the recommendation. It wasn't a comment on whether or not you agree with that.
I realize the US is behind academically as a whole, but 7 hours of school + 2 hours of homework a night wouldn't be something I'd be on board with for my kids. I didn't even work that hard in college on a regular basis. I can't see an hour of homework a night being acceptable for my 6th grader either.
I believe in an approach that creates a more well rounded person overall... like, I work to live not the other way around and my kids won't exist purely to be schooled without time for other activities.
pomegranate / 3768 posts
Kindergarten - we get a folder on Friday with homework that is due the following Friday. I usually try to get it done over the weekend so we don't have to worry about it during the week. It's typically: 20 minutes of reading + math, a couple math + writing worksheets, study spelling words (they have a spelling test every week). It's not too bad.
grapefruit / 4584 posts
1st grader:
- One "just right" book every night
- Nightly spelling homework - we get a list of words for the week, and she chooses from a different activity each day. There are different sets of activities for each night (Mon-Thurs)
Some of the activities are a little intensive (design a crossword puzzle), messy (write your words in mud), and I find that annoying. My dd can't always do the spelling homework without supervision/intervention, so even though it isn't a lot of work in theory, it requires a lot of oversight. Some of that is just her personality though.
Other first grade classes at her school also get math worksheets, so I guess we lucked out.
pear / 1521 posts
@kiddosc: sadly many HS students are doing way more than 2 hours of homework a night (and also many others doing zero)... 
I’m a hs teacher who is mindful that many students have wayyyy too much homework - usually my assignments can be done in 5-10 minutes. I’d be pretty happy to not even assign homework but I’m required to have it be at least a small percentage of their grade.
grapefruit / 4291 posts
My 6.5yo daughter is in year two at school and the only homework she gets each night is a reading book. She was at a different school last year and would get two reading books and four spelling words to practice each night.
nectarine / 2436 posts
Not exactly what you asked but I teach high school and I'd say most kids have between 30 mins - 3 hours a night. 6 classes with prob 20 mins each most nights . Mist have a study hall I taught Spanish and just gave one worksheet to practice skills we do in class.
pineapple / 12566 posts
The extra projects sound like a lot!
My older LO is in 2nd grade. He has what I feel is the right amount of homework. The stupid thing is that by law (in our system) homework is not allowed, but apparently there are parents who complain so all teachers assign it. From what I understand, kids cannot be penalized for not doing it. For French (the main language of instruction) he usually has one or two short grammar or spelling exercises and 2-3 online math games that take 2-3 minutes each. He usually has some kind of poetry/memorization exercise once or twice a week as well. We are getting to the stage where I don’t have to do much to help with homework anymore, other than turn on the computer for him (I’m not ready to give him my password!). He also has English homework. Usually it’s a short book to read and I have to sign off for it. He also gets optional weekend homework for English but we basically never do it. He’s one of the few native English speakers in his class and I do not feel compelled to force him to do it. He also reads a ton on his own every day, in both English and French, so I feel like that’s plenty. If he does everything (excluding optional English weekend homework) it takes about 20-30 minutes. Some days we skip homework, like Wednesday’s he comes home later from school so we don’t do it. I would rather him play outside than sit still for half an hour.
nectarine / 2964 posts
We have spelling tests each friday too! Thank God I never really have to worry about those. Fingers crossed as we cautiously going into 2nd grade....
And I ENVY those of you who doesn't have / have minimal homework for 1st grade !!!
@kiddosc: It is unrealistic to expect the parents to be heavily involved in THREE projects (book commercial video, teaching a 15 min lesson, class mascot - ok to be fair I only need to take pics and print out pics for class mascot) within this short month (school ending next Thursday!) I only have one kid. How do people do it with 3 kids...? Even if it is just one project per month that will be 3 projects each month for 3 kids (think: Bobby *1st grade* needs to do a video book report, Jenny *kinder* needs to "make" a 100 day T-shirt, Billy *pre-k* has to make an all about me poster), on top of the fact that we all have to keep our jobs to keep these kids alive lol ! Maybe I am biased, but where I came from (Hong Kong.... I am sure they are on steroids now in terms of unrealistic homework expectations) -- yes there were A LOT OF homework, but they only assign work that a student can single-handedly finish. I don't remember ever having to do big projects until I was in 4th grade. My parents never really helped. I remember I wished my parents helped because other kids' projects were so much more cooler than mine, but at that age I was totally capable of finishing big projects. Not like now....
DS said that at least 10 people hasn't done the book commercial video and due date is tomorrow.We were given 2 weeks. Why assign when the kids can't do it without help from the grown ups and grown ups don't have enough time to prep for it or at least clear the calendars to do it...?
@DesertDreams88: @kiddosc: I am also freaking out about the "2 hours a night" for high school, yikes! But thinking back, I did WAY MORE than 2 hours a night back in the days. I can not imagine life 10 years from now as I can't imagine DS sitting down to do 2 hours a night of homework, eeeek...
@PinkElephant: Yes, it is the personality that makes it so hard! In the contrary DS breezes through math so math worksheet is never a problem. In fact the daily work sheets are not the problem for us. It is the weekly reading bag / reading comprehension that is such a nag He's reading above grade level, so his reading bag has a lot of analysis and writing involved.... ahhh how much I hate the daily conversation of "hey did you do your reading bag yet? Would you like to do it now?" "No, I'll do it tomorrow!" "Tomorrow is Monday already (ie due date)"... on top of the "hey, have you started thinking about your big monthly project?"
pomelo / 5621 posts
@irene: That seems like a lot of homework! And so much involvement by you.
DS1 is in kindergarten. At the beginning of the year they got an alphabet book which has two pages for each letter, one blank and one with six lines. It come home Friday and gets turned in Wednesday. Each week was a different letter and not in alphabetical order. There were lots of ideas of different activities for the blank page, DS likes to draw pictures and write words. I did have to remind him to work on it and some weeks were a struggle! He just turned in the last one today!
I can’t imagine as he gets older and has more homework finding the time to get it done when we both work.
nectarine / 2217 posts
no homework besides reading for 10-20mins a day for my kindergartener and my 1st grader. i'm super thankful for that, because it allows us to require other things of them such as practicing piano 20 mins a day instead. It would be difficult to get everything done with sports practices etc if there was homework as well.
I wouldn't mind if they had spelling words though, it seems that the public school system here is more relaxed than I remember from when I was a kid (or maybe my parents just gave me extra stuff to do, like good old Kumon, ha!).
pomelo / 5258 posts
My Kindergartener gets one packet per week that includes 4-5 worksheets plus about 4 "extra" worksheets. Homework is a struggle so we don't intentionally do the extra sheets but sometimes DD skips around and accidentally does an extra sheet and gets so frustrated that she did the 'wrong' one.
Included in the packet are two 'books' for reading with circling and underlining. DD hates reading those books so that's usually 15 minutes of struggle right there. She's also supposed to help read for 10 minutes. There's also a monthly reading log that I have never filled in and a monthly 'family project' (at least they're honest that the kids aren't doing it). Top it all off with a weekly mystery bag that needs to be filled with something tied to the theme of the week and DS writes 3 sentences about it.
I was looking forward to 1st grade hoping homework would be more independent but it doesn't sound like it from this post.
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
In kindergarten we had basically a packet that went home with around 1 worksheet per night worth of work to do (each sheet would have a little math, spelling, etc)
Those packets were optional, but we tried to do them as best we could.
We also had a reading folder that was sent home with leveled books that we could do. Teacher wanted us reading one way or another 20 mins per night.
persimmon / 1390 posts
Ugh such a contentious topic! I especially dislike it because for some kids, the homework is super easy so takes no involvement from parents and very little time from the children. My best friend wasn’t diagnosed with a learning disability until senior year in HS, and I remember her struggling for hours over homework and it was incredibly detrimental to her relationship with her parents. My parents never had to help with anything related to spelling, writing, or eventually language but I struggled with math and they were NOT the right people to help me. I think it’s crazy to expect parents to help when they’re not sure how to do something either.
I get assignments like reading with your child because that’s actually effective, but projects for young kids are ridiculous. I wonder if the parents of those students in your sons class who haven’t completed the project are basically refusing—vive la resistance.
pomelo / 5573 posts
Bennett is in junior Kindergarten (in Canada you start JK when you turn 4 before the end of the calendar year, so by this point the kids are all 4/5) and we get one reading book a week (but if you think you need more time with it you can keep it longer) and the sight word ring comes home on Friday - usually two words he's supposed to work on.
nectarine / 2964 posts
@Becky: Yes resistance definitely! And the parents has to have certain experience to put a video together!
DS also put up major resistance too in terms of actually doing the work. There was a rough guideline of what the "commercial" has to have (book title, author, characters, summary, why do you recommend the book, why are you advertising for it). It was a nag asking DS to write out his own script by answering those questions, that took 1.5-2 hours on a Sunday! (we took 5 minute break every 25 mins... so much for 10 mins a day of homework). Once that was done it was fun to shoot (another 1.5 hours, then we put it together in iMovie on my phone), but that was really because I know what to do as that was my previous profession (I was in broadcasting design and I produced TV spots), and luckily I didn't have major work deadlines these few weeks! I can't phantom how other parents would do it. Not to mention you have to compress that thing to make it small enough to send to the teacher through email. If the kids were bigger, say in 3rd or 4th grade, then you can let them play around with iMovie and really put the thing together on their own, that would be more fun. Anyhoo.... Curious to hear about it today as they were supposed to watch everything today.
I am dreading about the class they are supposed to teach next week. The presentation supposed to be 15 mins (the respective parents can go in to watch their LO's presentation at the certain assigned time) and from what I see DS has 2 minutes max. I know there are girls in his class that is really focused and they work hard on practicing (without prompting) to get "off script"! With DS he doesn't care. DH is responsible for this and he said not to worry. DH is literally working on DS' power point presentation. Sigh. We shall see. Still really annoyed this is all for 1st grade.
honeydew / 7235 posts
My son is in K and they have a no-homework policy which I'm really happy about. Every so often they do get some optional homework worksheets in their backpack, and we get a book sent home every weekend that we need to read with them, so I guess that is 'homework'.... next year in 1st grade they will have daily homework though.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
Your homework doesn’t sound very age appropriate for the video project.
DD2 is in 1st now and we get a packet every Monday. She has 1 week to do it. She also does a weekly book report for English, but it’s really easy (write down the title, author, characters, draw a picture).
DD1 is in 3rd grade and gets 10-20 minutes of daily homework plus projects. For example, they have to do a book report every 2 weeks in German.
We attend a bilingual school so this is homework for 2 languages.
pomelo / 5628 posts
None for K. Reading is suggested (we read before bed anyway). I fully believe in the 10 minute rule and do not believe worksheets teach anything! (I work in education.)
pear / 1767 posts
Another first grader here. Here's out breakdown:
Monday: Write each of the 8 spelling words out 10 times (ugh! so tedious! I hate this one!) & study spelling words for test on Friday
Tuesday: Two double-sided math worksheets & study spelling words for test on Friday
Wednesday: Write a sentence with each of the 8 spelling words in it and study spelling words for test on Friday.
Thursday: Project (usually a short research report, letter, etc.) and study spelling words for test on Friday.
Friday: No weekend homework.
nectarine / 2797 posts
1st grade. Math worksheet usually 2 nights a week. Spelling words activity 2-4 nights a week (has increased over the year). Activities are along lines of “write words 2x each” or “ draw a picture of six of your words” or “write words alphabetically”. Takes probably 10 min max, often much faster. Also supposed to read 10-15 min a day. No bigger projects and I would throw a fit if we did at this age because that’s homework for me, not my kid.
pomegranate / 3595 posts
1st grade here. Suggested homework is read every night but there is no accountability—no reading log or whatever to send back. Luckily DD is reading well on her own and often reads chapter books on the drive to school so I really don’t lift a finger.
Our school was explicit about limited homework due to limited research on effectiveness from when we chose it. The principal did make a point to say that one purpose of homework is to give feedback to the teachers. If the child doesn’t understand the homework the teacher should know that to address it in class, rather than the parent rescuing the child but not actually helping with learning.
If I had as much homework as the initial post I think I would not do it unless my child was interested on her own.
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