Is this fair? Am I overreacting?

Robbie is in Grade 3, he's 8 years old and this is his homework load. The teacher says their only suppose to do half hour of homework, but this takes a lot longer then that.

3 pages of multiplication and spelling words that need to be studied (we usually do a practice test and the ones he gets wrong he writes 5 times)

or

a 20 page booklet of addition that needs to be done in a week
spelling words
writting (write 2 paragrahs about a specific subject, with 4 sentences in each paragraph)

before Christmas he was given 4 different booklets with about 10 pages in each.... because they had no word of a lie 15 different teaches and marks were needed for report cards.

He got straight B's which was great, but the way I think about it, he's only in grade 3. He gets home at 4:00, he gets to watch t.v. for half an hour and eat a snack to relax, then we do homework for a bit, then eat dinner and do more homework. He gets ready for bed at 7:00.

yikes thats a LOT of homework when is a kid suppose to be a kid!?! i personally think this is wrong imo but what are we suppose to do about it?

Wow! That sounds like alot! My 8 yr. old usually has one or two spelling/vocabulary sheets, one math sheet, and his "Writing Journal". He has to write one paragraph that's four sentences long about a topic that's been pre-selected at school. Somedays he has free write, where he gets to pick his own topic. I do go over his spelling words with him a couple times a week, especially the day before the test. But that's all he ever gets for homework, and sometimes he gets it all done at school, but that's when we do his spelling words.

He gets it done in less than a half-hour. They're not supposed to have more than a half-hour of homework each day (at least at our school). My boys get so frustrated if it takes longer than that, and then I don't think that they are getting anything out of it then.

The boys get home at about 4:00, too. Then they get a snack while doing homework, then they usually go outside to play until suppertime. After supper, it's inside playtime (or time to help mom pick up the house), and they get ready for bed at 7:00.

But that sounds like a lot of work for an 8 year old. My 10 yr old doesn't have that much! Maybe our school is just more lax?? I don't know.

Thats ALOT of work! I just wanted to let you know, (with us anyways) it gets better. Fifth grade is much much easier and no where near the homework as third and fourth. We do not have spelling words this year, but every year before I kept a list with me in the morning and we would go over them each morning while he was getting ready for school. HTH

ugh i am right there with you on this one! Jacob is in grade 2 and is supposed to only have 30 min of homework too but it usually takes 2-3hrs. what bugs me the most is James is in Senior Kindergarten and has no homework at all and i know next year he will have the same workload as Jacob. you would think they would transition better since they have to adjust to being there all day instead of half day first.

it was actually the workload that got the ball rolling with Jacob's learning problems. both of us were nearly in tears every night trying to get it all done, so i talked to the teacher and he is doing a little more than a grade one has to for homework now.

3 pages of spelling activities due thursday.
8 spelling words to learn (btw we do the exact same thing you do with Robbie)
spelling test on friday
1-3 pages of math almost daily
2 readers (that he has to read which is a struggle) a day
6-10 sight words to memorize a week
occasionally 1 page of french
journal (must be 8 sentences)
2 pages printing

and this is less than a regular grade 2 workload?!

and once we had about 13 pages of science to memorize for a test on friday and he knew nothing when we got the book on monday! words like hemishere (that he can't even say nevermind read) and knowing all the imaginary lines... it is just too much IMO!

try to talk to the school. maybe this is all work he should be doing in class but isn't. who knows. at least he is keeping up. sorry for rambling so long.



This post has been edited by kimberley on Jan 15 2004, 06:01 AM

Hi, this sounds exactly like what my sitter is going thru with her son who is in grade 2. She spoke to the teacher and she said no more than 1/2 hour each night should they spend on homework. As it turns out this boy is not getting his work done in class so he has to finish it at home plus do the 1/2 assigned homework. My sitter got fed up and spoke to the teacher again and the teacher said that after 1/2 hour to stop and write note saying where the stopped. I haven't heard any more but I can ask her tonight. Her son is also getting extra help with his reading, I think he may need help in other areas too.

ugh! I am a middle school teacher. I taught 6,7,8 grade science. I never gave that much HW. I feel that HW should reinforce the lesson for the day, not overwhelm the students. My students had 1-2 worksheets or to finish lab questions. Never more than 15 minutes of work tops!

wow! that is a lot of homework! Course I don't remember what I did at that age, but I am hearing that kids are being expected to do more at a younger age :-(

QUOTE (kimberley @ Jan 15 2004, 07:46 AM)

ugh i am right there with you on this one! Jacob is in grade 2 and is supposed to only have 30 min of homework too but it usually takes 2-3hrs. what bugs me the most is James is in Senior Kindergarten and has no homework at all and i know next year he will have the same workload as Jacob. you would think they would transition better since they have to adjust to being there all day instead of half day first. it was actually the workload that got the ball rolling with Jacob's learning problems. both of us were nearly in tears every night trying to get it all done, so i talked to the teacher and he is doing a little more than a grade one has to for homework now. 3 pages of spelling activities due thursday. 8 spelling words to learn (btw we do the exact same thing you do with Robbie) spelling test on friday 1-3 pages of math almost daily 2 readers (that he has to read which is a struggle) a day 6-10 sight words to memorize a week occasionally 1 page of french journal (must be 8 sentences) 2 pages printing and this is less than a regular grade 2 workload?! and once we had about 13 pages of science to memorize for a test on friday and he knew nothing when we got the book on monday! words like hemishere (that he can't even say nevermind read) and knowing all the imaginary lines... it is just too much IMO! try to talk to the school. maybe this is all work he should be doing in class but isn't. who knows. at least he is keeping up. sorry for rambling so long.

Icks that's a lot That's all we're suppose to get also is half an hour, how crazy is that I've talked to the teacher on a few occasions about this. I thin kit may be time to talk to her again.

This post has been edited by CantWait on Jan 15 2004, 01:57 PM

That is ridiculous, not to mention developmentally inappropriate. 30 minutes on one task is all an 8 year old can handle!

I do have to say though- this amount of homework is a direct reflection of "No Child Left Behind" (otherwise known as Every Child Left Behind to teachers) and the teacher judgements made because of test scores.

I would go and talk to the teacher- she may feel pressured to give out so much homework, then might be pliable to changing it. Otherwise, if she really believes that much homework is really good for children- she's just plain nuts.



This post has been edited by maestra on Jan 15 2004, 03:37 PM

WOW my DD is in grade 3 and she never has that much homework! I would definately talk to the teacher and other parents and see if this normal for every class!