My hubbys sister is in the fifth grade now but my MIL pulled her out of school last year because of the homework load. She was just getting farther behind. Now she is homeschool. This is the same reason my little brother dropped out of high school this year. He just couldn't keep up. The pressure is way to high on elementary children. They are still kids and need a life. My SIL would come home and do nothing but homework, she wasn't being a normal kid. Now she is happier. My mom would of homeschooled my brother but he isn't the easiest to control and she has a lot of health problems. Hubby and I are seriously considering homeschooling my son. We want what is best for him. The teachers around here don't care. They aren't even on a contract so they could care less about their job. It's def. either homeschooling or a good private school. The classrooms are way to overcrowded too! The majority of my elementary years I attended a private school. I had about 10 kids in my class. Then in the fifth grade my parents put me in public school (:mad: ) and I had almost 30. Don't get me started with education. LOL I care a lot about the education given to the children. Hubby said he just can't wait till our son is in school, he hopes we homeschool. LOL

My daughter is a fifth grade teacher - she's not teaching this year because she has a new baby. Her daughter (my granddaughter) however, is in the fifth grade this year. OMG! :eek: My daughter is appalled at the amount of homework that my granddaughter has each night.

My daughter didnt' want to complain, she didn't want to intimidate the teacher (since she is a fifth grade teacher and teaches in the same school district = same curriculum) but last night at "curriculum night" the parents let the teacher have it. My daughter said it was not a pretty sight.

The teacher is young and I think probably stressed about the students learning everything - but whew! it is way too much.

My daughter also says she has to reteach things to my granddaughter and thank goodness she knows how to do it. I remember when my granddaughter was in 3rd grade, she was staying with me and she had a worksheet to complete. I could not understand the instructions and I HAVE A PHD! :eek:

My daughter says that the children should have time to do most of their work in class. When she taught, she gave one sheet of math as homework each night, except for nights when they had tests the next day. She did not give all tests on the same day, and they also had some reading to do each night. She said occasionally they would have a small amount of homework on another subject, but very rarely. They also had weekly spelling words to study at night. But that was it! She said that sometimes she would get a call from a parent complaining about the amount of homework, and it was usually the child that clowned around all day and didn't do their work in class.

I can tell though, that the children in this thread did not do that. You should definitely complain if they are sending home excessive work or work that they did not teach. You can request that the teacher reteach or tutor (or someone else tutor) the child if they are having difficulty.

Homework should NOT be so stressful - it makes the kiddos hate school!

What made me furious at our school is that they have assigned homework every night. Anyone else doing Saxon math? That's what our school uses. The younger grades do one side of the worksheet together in class and bring the other side home to do at night. Every single night of the week. Plus, we have reading logs too. We have to read 30 minutes every night, even on the weekends. I'm all for kids reading, but come on... that's just not very realistic. Especially for kindergarten level!! Who is that homework really for? How many 5 yr. olds know how to read?

Back to the math... in the older grades, 4th and up, they switch to a textbook. They start out with a practice set, then they move on to the actual set, which is about 30 questions. What isn't finished in class goes home at night. The next day, they check the set. If you miss any you have to re-do them. Those have to be done before you start the practice set of the next lesson. You have to keep doing them until they are correct. If you get behind, then you have to stay in from recess to do it. Our kids get 1 recess a day. 1! Steven had a total of 2 recesses from Christmas to Easter. It was heartbreaking. The school would not help us. I finally told them that if they wouldn't give him the help he needed that I was going to homeschool him. They didn't care.

Our school is extremely small. Steven's entire grade has 12 students. Andrew's has 8 and Kaitlyn's has 10. You think they would WANT to have the kids there. I have made it a point to not be at the school complaining about every little thing. I have only gone in when there was a major issue. It was like talking to a brick wall.

All they care about here is the standardized testing at the end of the year. If we get high scores, we get more funding. At the end of last year, Steven's class was behind on math so they made them do 2 whole sets a night for 2 weeks to catch up before they took the tests. It was awful.

Anyway, sorry about the long post, but I have been round and round with this very issue and I obviously have lots to say about it! lol

Its unfortunate that teachers have to care so much about standardized testing to keep their jobs. :(

Very good point.

It's not as though teachers give homework for the heck of it or to torture children. :)

yeah i feel ur pain.. homework is SO MUCH more than it was when i was that age... and i understand of course it has to get harder but i remember in like 2-3rd grade it took my lil sis like 2-3 hours a night to finish it!!! last year she got no homework tho!! it just depends on the teacher.. sorry and i know how u feel cuz my parents work the nightshift and i had to teach her it and i got so frustrated at times.. maybe talk to the teacher if u really feel it hasnt been covered yet..

2nd and 3rd grader
 

Homework takes so much time away from everything else. Actually my third graders homework is easier (so far) than last year. At our school the kids start homework in Kindergarten. Everyday they had homework, and pages of it. In first grade the children had three months to do their "state" project. They pick a state, write to the state about information, make a typographical map, rehearse a speech that will last 10 minutes.
The children have a 20+ page paper to complete (little book). Although this was a lot to do for a first grader the children really do learn a lot from all the other children in the class about different states. Then at the end of the year everyone in the whole school K-8 come to the state fair. The children share food from their state, set up a little display and display their map complete with mountains, capitols, and other state features.

My third grader will have to know his multiplication tables by the end of third grade. My children don't play sports because after they come home they have to get right on doing their homework.

During the summer the children ride horses, and attend camps. Sometimes full day and sometimes part day. I like to find various types of camps to keep them well rounded and all over the bay area.

I need a vacation. Anyone else?

I have debated about post this or not... But have decide to share our story.

My DH and I have four children. We use to be a homeschooling family. We would start our school day at 10am and be done in a few hours. This, left us lots of time to do real life education..visit museums, see historical site, take trips, have playdates, do swimming lessons.

When we moved to California we needed to put them into school.

It was the start of a nightmare for my oldest DD (13), she was 10 at the time. We would spend hours doing homework. I felt like we were reteaching her everything from the day. By the end of the evening, both of us would be frustrated with each other! It took a few years before my DD would finally be dignoised with ADD and asperger. Now, she is on medication and has a Educational Therapist that comes and does school work with her 2x a week. She has had such a huge improvement!

Both my DS's(12 & 9) are really very smart and it doesn't take them any time to get their homework done. I never have to go and double check it. I am greatful for this!

My youngest DD (7) was dignoised with a reading disability last year. So she goes to resource a few times a week. Plus, she also has an Educational Therapist. She can not do the same amount of homework as the other children in 2nd grade. They have to modify the homework for her.

I can so understand everyone frustration with homework... I have been there! What I have learn from all this is that you have to stand up for your children! If the homework is taking to long there might be a reason. Let the teacher know how long it is taking you to do homework. Keep a very detailed homework log, so when you meet with the teacher you can say "It took him blank hours on Monday and on Tuesday.." and so on. Ask to have the homework cut back. If the teacher isn't willing to do this then meet with the principle. After meeting with the principle, we were able to set a 'time limit' for my DD's homework, after one hour she could stop.

Boy do I know what everyone means about too much homework.Chez my 6th grader has soccer practice immediately after school from 4-6 M-F then he comes home to homework every night for at least 2 hrs. We squeeze dinner in between the homework, so I guess dinner time is our family time. Then shower and I try to have him in bed by no later than 10pm, but he needs to be in bed by 9:30 to get enough rest.We both get so frustrated, he has even contimplated quitting soccer to have more free time, and he loves soccer. He too is a honors student and makes exellent grades and I know he is a smart student, the homework is just TOO much. This is not one particular teacher to blame it is all of his classes combined, so that is homework from at least 3-4 subjects a night. If they could assign a certain night for a certain subject that would help so much. I just don't remember things being this hard when I was young. I don't want any kid to be left behind, but how about give all kids some free time.

I remember when my son brought home a homework folder when he was in Kindergarten! Not only did they switch to full days every other day but homework also??? No wonder kids need preschool now.

Luckily they're much older now and can do their homework by themselves. My sister saw me sitting at the table trying to figure out some homework my son had brought home and she was mad that I was doing it for him. I tried to explain to her that I wasn't doing it, I was trying to figure out how to explain it to him so he COULD do it. She didn't understand why he wouldn't know how to do it. I tried to tell her that teachers don't have time to explain every homework assignment, they spend most of their time working with the kids that need more help. She didn't get it. I can't wait till she has to deal with this type of stuff.

My kids have been pretty lucky so far throughout all grades. Last year was a little difficult for me, not my son, who was in the 5th grade, he was bringing home problem solving and boy were they a problem. My husband and I would sit down and try to figure some of these out, I could barely understand what I was reading not alone getting an answer, but that was our only problem. As for homework, the schools that my kids go to believe that work is done in school and homework only comes home if the child did not finish in class or because they were fooling around and did not finish it. I have to give my 3rd grader my own math sheets just so I know that she is doing something at home on top of the reading that I make her do. So far this year, neither of them has had homework, wait until the nightmare begins, I know it will hit eventually at some point but for now things are still pretty laid back.

Just my opinion: I'm 26 yrs old and when I was in school I was always in honors classes from 5th grade on. When we were first put into honors classes every year, there was always a meeting with the honor students and parents explaining how much homework time would be expected every night as well as the other expectations for the classes. It was at that time the student or parent could opt out of being in the honors program if they did not feel like they could handle the pace and amount of work accompanied by being in the advanced classes. I average 2 to 3 hours of homework every night from 5th grade on (high school it was even more - but I went to a college prep high school) . Eventually you became accustomed to the work and not all times of the year were that bad. The first half the year always seemed the worse because you are just getting back to school learning a whole bunch of stuff so fast. But like I said I got used to it. One advantage I had too was that I enjoyed school and school work (probably was considered a dork! :))

My suggestion would be that if your son is in the honors program, that it should be expected that there is more homework and that if he becomes stressed with the amount of work perhaps ask for him to be put in regular classes for year or two till he's ready to be in the advanced. Also I truly believe that it has to be a choice the child makes not one that is forced upon the child whether it be by the teacher, principal, parent, etc. By 5th grade, children know what they can handle or at least I did.

Also one other opinion, so please don't shoot, I am all about students getting help with their school work, but I think it should be done by the teachers or the school. It should be done by people who truly know the cirriculum. The reason I say this is because from my first hand experience. My dad is a high school teacher and growing up I would ask him from help with my homework. However, since my dad did not know what my teacher was actully teaching us in class or what the specific directions were for doing the homework...it was always hard for him to truly help. Just reading the text your child brings home will not show you what he is learning in class. Sure it might give you an idea but it does not include the teaching that was done in the classroom. And unless your child takes excellent notes (which I don't know any 5th graders including myself at the time who did that) you cannot know what was actually said, taught, etc. Either way, I learned that doing homework by myself got me better grades than when my dad helped me.

Also I tutored my cousin throught out her schooling years. (She just graduated from HS in June). However, she was one of the children out there that school never came easy for her due to developmental issues. And I found that she used me as her scapegoat. I was the one that helped her but really I just ended having to do the homework for her because she could never get it. This is the worse thing that can be done for a child...when people do the work for the child. A lot times, I found it easier to just do it for her because it meant we would get it done sooner. I had told her and her parents about this and that she needed professional help but it was no use. Because I could never explain it to her properly, that the teacher should be the one helping her, but to them school was something she needed to get through. School was never something she would be good at and never would be. While I think there are plenty of people out there in the world where school just "isn't there thing", people should still get the help they need from the right people. Just becuase I have a college degree does not mean I have the means or the knowledge to help youngsters with their school work. Times change and the things kids learn in school and the way the are taught to learn is different from what we were taught....(i.e. new math - some children do not even learn how to do long division anymore) . We can't expect that we can know how to help a child with their homework.

Just my opinion....so this was so long...just something I feel strongly about.

Well, I can understand. I mean, my child is in kindergarten and already she has 15 pages of homework to do. Its given on Mondays and needs to be turned in on Thurs - and these are 5 yr olds. So I can only imagine that as they get older the homework is much harder and a lot more of it. Patience is all I can say....

Also, have you have considered a tutor or another source of homework help?