Back to School Again.
By cwgrlsarefun
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
United States
January 23, 2007 12:10am CST
My seven year old daughter went back to school again today after being out for winter break. She attends year round school so they have been on break for a month now. Today she came home from school and was unloading her back pack, which we do everyday. It just amazes me at the amount of homework that these schools send home to our little people these days. Every day we have a minimum of two hours of home work. Daily she does her reading, spelling, writing, and mathmatics. Then they also have at least one and sometimes two monthly projects that are done. This is a project that they work on, on a daily basis. No it does not stop there we also have weekly projects that have to be done too. Tonight we spent almost four hours doing her homework and she was over thirty minutes late to bed. Does anyone else feel that they are overloading our children or is it just me? It just seems to be such a lot of work for a seven year old child. Am I wrong in my thinking.?
3 people like this
12 responses
@lloyd_07 (167)
• Australia
23 Jan 07
I agree, its not just too much for a 7 year old, a 7 year old shouldent have any homework! I had almost now homework up until about year 9 or 10, apart from the occasional project, which is the way it should be! Most homework doesn't teach you anything anyway, its just pointless busy work.
I have younger friends than myself, and I cant believe how much homework they get, much more than me when I was their age, and its all just pointless stuff, its just ridiculous.
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I see kids getting off the school bus with backpacks that they can barely carry. I can not believe the homework. Why are they doing this to kids? Do kids not deserve to have time to out and play or walk around any more? I think they are just expecting too much of the little guys.
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I agree. My son is in highschool and I can not even lift his back pack. I already feel bad for him, but my daughter at only age 7 seems to have just as much homework as he does. It is not fair to them at all.
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
31 Jan 07
That is an awful amount of homework. Today I thought my 6 year old had a lot. She had a math worksheet, write her 10 spelling words 3 times each and a reading sheet. That is more then she normally has. She only get homeworks Monday-Thursday. This month she has her first project ever--she has to make a poster for the 100th day of school which is due next Tuesday. She also has to do 6 Book-its every month and had two left to do today so it seemed like even more homework. She started at 3:45 and was done by 4:30. It usually takes her a half hour to get her homework done because she goofs around a lot.
Last year in Kindergarten she only got homework one day a week and it was just one worksheet. She got her report card today and got straight As and I am so proud. She is a smart little thing and the homework she does get is usually too easy for her and she wizzes through it.
1 person likes this
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
31 Jan 07
That is just crazy. My house would be nuts if she had that much homework. She thows enough fit about having no time to play with her brother and sister after school. She gets off the bus at 3:30 and usually has her homework done between 4-4:30. Dinner is at 5-6pm and bedtime is at 7pm.
I don't think there should be a lot of homework. They are supposed to be doing that stuff in school, not at home. I don't think having a lot of homework helps kids remember things any more then having a little homework. I remember being a kid with a lot of homework and all it did was make me hate school. I didn't want to go because of all the dumb (meaning pointless) homework we got every single night. I never retained anything from homework and did just enough to get a passing grade. I got bored after an hour of doing it so would go watch TV then I was up all night trying to finish it.
My mom used to even do my brother's spelling words for him because he had such a hard time with his other homework (took him hours to do math and reading). He would be up until 10 or 11pm when he was 10/11 years old trying to remember all his reading and stuff. He was so stressed during 5th grade that he developed an ulcer and flunked the year because he didn't want to go anymore so my mom let him stay home a lot.
I actually got less homework in high school and college then I ever got in elementary school but I learned a whole lot more during those years. I rarely remember bringing a book home my senior year, lol.
I think if my daughter was getting so much homework that she was missing out on after school activities (she is a Brownie this year and goes twice a month to meetings) and was up past bedtimes everynight I would be complaining to the teacher and principal. There is life outside of school.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
31 Jan 07
This is what I have done. I made an appointment to talk with her teacher and the principal, since asking parents at school I have found that I am not the only one who feels that our kids should be able to be kids. You are right as I do remember also getting less homework in highschool and my son doesn't even have much and he is 16. I guess that I will see how the meeting goes at school now.
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
31 Jan 07
My daughter would love to have your daughters homework because then she would have time to play with her friends. My daughters math consits of 3-5 pages, she has a reading sheet each day along with 3 different books that have to be read every day, she has her spelling which is 18 words plus 2 bonus words, then she has writing with this she has to write a short story everyday. After all of this is done she then has her monthly project and there is something that has to be done each day of the month, then we have her weekly project and to get that done by the end of the week we have to work on it everyday. Thankfully we get all A's but we don't get to be kids.
@avalanch (8)
• Romania
23 Jan 07
for a seven year old that is very muck homework. When i was 7, i was in first grade and all my homework was to copy from the manual on the notebook, do some minor calculations and read a small text.. yes, i believe that your daughter has TOO much homework for her age..
@michelledarcy (5220)
•
31 Jan 07
I wish my school would give more homework to my daughter. She is 5 and in her secind term. She has 2 reading books a week, a set of maths homework and a picture to draw. It probably takes her about 5 minutes a night. In addition to this I do half an hour of reading with her a day and maths work every week as I think that she needs to be pushed harder.
I think if kids are to suceed in school they need to learn to work hard at home as later on in university all work will be done on their own and not in class and they need to learn how to do it.
However I do think that 4 hours a night is too much. My daughter finishes school at 3 so if she does homework till 4 that still gives her an hour to play out before dinner and then she can do reading later so that would be plenty for her I would think.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
2 Feb 07
At this young age 4 hours of homework is to much as what I see will happen is my daughter is going to hate school because she never has any time to be a kid. We want for our children to learn and I think that homework is a great thing but there is a limit for our young children.
@academyis01 (44)
• United States
31 Jan 07
As a 16 year junior in high school, I know all about this.
Homework does get less and less as you get older. Why? Because once you enter high school, you are no longer learning for skills for the rest of your life. You are learning to expand your mind to possibilities in the world( Am I ever going to use trigonometry? NO. Am I ever going to need to know Newton's Law? NO.) If I became a scientist or something, I might use those skills, but thats a minority of the people, and those people have the free will to explore these areas as much as they want. You don't need as much homework because you can remember things easier, and home work would be a waste of time.
When I was younger, I also had way to much homework. I think I still have a little too much. The problem with today's school system is that most teachers do not know how to teach. They are boring, and they can't connect with students. Personally, I used to sleep through 3-4 classes every day. I still managed to pull off an 86% overall average.
Kids don't learn things because the teachers do not know how to teach. The teachers rely on homework to teach instead. If this fundamental problem was fixed school would be much better for everyone.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
2 Feb 07
Wow, thank you for clearing that up for me and you are right I don't feel that the teachers know how to teach so they leave it up to us the parents. This is not fair as I did not go to school to be a teacher. You are right they do need to fix this problem so that our children don't burn out to early in life.
@wmg2006 (5381)
• United States
31 Jan 07
I felt this way when my son attended school. I voiced my opinion at every PTA meeting. It is the same as you teaching you rchild at home rather than the teacher teaching in school. I took my son out of school and homeschooled, since I was pratically doing that anyway. I am glad I only had one child to go through school, I couldn't handle having more. He has graduated now and I am so thankful.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
31 Jan 07
It is just like I am the teacher and more like she just goes to school to play or do other activities.
@Noxmorexlies (739)
• United States
31 Jan 07
I agree with you, it is too much homework. It's great she is using her mind and learning and studying but that is too much. She isn't even in Junior High yet and is getting so much she won't have time to play when she's older and they are taking her time to be young away from her.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
31 Jan 07
Those are my feelings, this is when she shoudl still have an opportunity to be young and play sometimes to not just do school work. I can only hope that this does not create her to become burnt out on school.
@pebbles_cubbie (3789)
• United States
24 Jan 07
that would be tough. to go to school year around. how many breaks do they get? wow. that's a lot of homework and projects for her to do. 4 hours is way to long to spend doing homework. i think that's way overloaded. as she gets older the more homework she's going to have.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
24 Jan 07
They have two 3 week breaks and then they have one 4 week break durring the year. It is a lot of homework for such a little person. My son is in highschool and he seems to only have homework a couple of days a week. When he does though it is also a ton of work. I can not even lift his back pack. He says that if he has homework in every class he can not fit it all in his back pack. My daughters back pack is full ever day.
@horsesrule (1957)
• United States
23 Jan 07
My 7 year old grandson has tons of homework too. His teacher sends home a homework packet that he has to work on each and every day and then turn it in on Fridays. My 5 year old grandson also has a homework packet to work on every day. I live with my daughter and am helping her to raise her three children, ages 7, 5, and almost 2 years old. The 7 year old does have the most homework and it does seem like a lot for a second grader. His attitude makes it even harder for all of us because he HATES doing homework or any work at all really. He takes forever to do the homework, says he doesn't understand it even though we know he does since it's similar to the homework from the week before and generally he just tries to be as unpleasant as possible. We have come to dread homework time and helping him to get his work done. We do not give him the answers which he wishes that we would. When my mother, his nana [great grandmother] helps him with his homework, she just gives him the answers. She is not helping him at all by doing that IMO. My daughter and I have to take turns helping him just because of the attitude problems. The 5 year old on the other hand is a pleasure to help. He loves his homework and learning to write and read and spell words. His homework load seems rather heavy for a 5 year old but maybe they think that it will help them later down the line in the upper grades? I just don't know. I do know that once they do homework and eat dinner and play for a very short time, they have no time for anything but going to bed so that they can do the same thing all over the next day. It does seem like too much for such young children.
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
23 Jan 07
Yes, my daughter has come to just dread school days as she does not do anything but school from the time she gets up until she goes to bed at night. It does seem really unfair to these little guys. My daughter is like your 5 year old grandson, she loves her homework, she just does not like doing so much of it. I can understand how you your older one feels though. I am like you and your daughter I will not give my daughter any answers and sometimes I think this is why it takes her so long too. Thank you for your response. It helps me knowing that I am not the only one with this work load for my child.
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I agree with you completely. One thing that I've noticed that I think is strange, is that my daughter seems to get less and less homework as she gets older. She is now in high school and she only has homework a couple of times a week, and it's nothing terribly time-consuming. There are more variables than just her age, as we have changed school a couple of times since elementary school, but still.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I have noticed this too. My son will bring home his homework and it is usually 2-3 times a week, when my daughter brings hers home 5 days a week plus her weekend homework. You would think that it would work the other way around that they would get more the older they got.
@ScrappinHappyMom (914)
• United States
24 Jan 07
I believe the reason children have so much homework is because little gets done in the classroom. I have a friend who sat in on her daughters 5th grade class. The teacher spent the first 20 minutes doing ro-call, lunches and generally settling everyone down, then she spend 10 minutes with everyone getting ready for reading, you can start to see the pattern when my friend wrote down the actual time during the day that the kids were working out of an 8 hr day they spent 2 hrs. So of course the work still has to be done so homework it is.
1 person likes this
@cwgrlsarefun (1581)
• United States
26 Jan 07
I think that you may have a point here as my daughter will tell me all the time that they didn't have time to do what ever because so many kids had to pay for lunches or what ever. I think that this stuff should be handled at the office and not in the classroom.
