My son began 7th grade three weeks ago. He has math four days a week and his teacher assigns homework every night including Friday. He also has, what I feel is a reasonable amount of homework in his other classes. I feel that this is really excessive as there is no time to review what they are doing in math class, much less study for tests
Also, I really feel very strongly like the weekends are OUR time. An exception would be a long-term project, book report, etc., but at least that would be by choice.
Does anyone else feel that this is excessive and unreasonable, or is it just me?
Re: Is this excessive, or is it just me?
I really don’t think it as excessive. The students even get more when they get into highs school. In my son’s school, by high school level, it is a given fact that the students will spend at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours of homework each and every night, LD or not. I don’t know about other districts though.
Re: Is this excessive, or is it just me?
Thanks for both replies. We do everything possible to avoid weekend homework whether it’s math or book reports, etc. Since the teacher does not allow late work, it has to be turned in the following day. So, the Friday assignement either needs to be done on Friday night or over the weekend.
I must be in a minority. I think 2-3 hours of homework is ridiculous no matter what the age unless it is studying for finals or some such thing.
Its always worth speaking to the school...
especially if other parents in the area feel the same.
Parents at both our elemetaries spoke up and both have changed homework policies. One idea was that social studies give work on tu/th, math on m/w, etc so it was spread out. that worked pretty well. The other elem principal set a time limit(dont remember what)and enforced it by spot checks and parent interviews. As you can tell, it was a big issue here!
Middle school here does not give as much hw as the elementaries. And our hs has started trimesters with 80 min classes-a requirement was that 10-15 min be alloted for hw as no one wants to sit and listen for 80 min. My hs son does hw maybe once a week
Do be sure your childs hw is indeed hw and not uncompleted work from the school day. My older 2 cruise through school(unlike #3)and I was confused when parents would complain to me about how much work a teacher gave as my kids didnt bring it home. Turned out it was leftover work from class more often than homework.
Re: Is this excessive, or is it just me?
What is excessive? The math homework? Or the math homework over the weekend?
If it were my world to run, there would be no homework on weekends and I never assign it in my class. I agree that weekends for modern families are very hectic times as it is and it would be nice to have some down time.
Few of my colleagues agree with me though. In the old days at my school, my principal encouraged us to not give homework on weekends but he long ago gave up the fight on that as so many modern teachers believe in homework every night and every weekend.
You might place a quiet call to the principal or guidance counselor and ask for the school’s policy on weekend homework but I’d caution you not too be too surprised if they don’t really have one.
What is the point?
I’m glad someone agrees. What are the teachers who insist on homework every night and weekend after?
I don’t mind an hour of homework a night used to review and practice what has taught that day. I can sit with him and make the work interesting and a challenge for him for just about that time. More than that is simply torture for both of us and any spark of the joy of learning is long gone. Work assigned simply to give the kids something to do is what annoys me. I would much rather have my son out in the fresh air being a kid after six plus hours in school.
I don’t get the weekend homework at all. If an hour a day in the math classroom plus another thirty minutes or so four nights a week is not enough to teach the kids what they need to know, then the teacher is going too fast, IMO.
Re: it could be worse
Greetings all,
My dd and I recently spent an afternoon & evening with a 16yo foreign exchange student from Kazakstan (formerly part of Russia). She was stunned to learn that we only had 2-3hrs homework each evening. In Kazakstan, high school students have 6hrs homework nightly in addition to going to school on Saturday - they only get Sunday off!
Blessings, momo
Is the real issue that there’s a conflict between getting the *assignment* done and actually learning the math? I say this because it sounds like it’s taking away from “time to review what they are doing in math class, much less study for tests.” If you’re already doing unassigned homework that reviews for that, I’d suggest that you negotiate with the teacher to provide some proof of that time (assuming the teacher doesn’t want anybody spending less time on Math, which we know is absolutely the most important thing in anyone’s life ;)) *instead* of a part of the homework.
When there are book reports, etc., do you schedule them to leave the weekends free? You might be able to apply this to the weekend homework so that it can be “knocked off” Friday if there’s a lot going on over the weekend that makes Sunday evenings just a lousy time to rev up the brain and do schoolwork. If those things are done on the weekends when they are deadline driven, then you might just have to accept that there’s a Monday deadline for Math pretty much every week.
It sounds like this is a tough transition from school being school, and home being (at least on weekends) freedom from having to plan and organize around academics. I can sympathize !