Maybe I am counting differently. I am talking total time spent at the table in front of books- admittedly there is some lack of focus.... they get up to get snacks, new pencils, go to the bathroom - and because there are three there is always some horsing around to contend with.... someone sticks a tongue out at someone else and a 30 minute math worksheet takes an hour. But we live right outside of NYC and I think that the schools here are maybe a bit more intense. That much homework really seems the norm in middle school here - she is in a demanding program. My middle schooler comes home from school at 3:30, has free time until 4:00, and usually goes to bed after I do, taking about an hour for dinner. The days that she has after-school sports are late nights. But it is not busy work, I think she is learning a lot and the homework she comes home with tends to reinforce concepts that she is a bit shaky on.

2 11th graders, public school, 'high performing district' in CA. They didn't have much homework in elementary or middle school but high school has been rough. Lots of late nights especially for the one who is a perfectionist. The AP classes are really a bitch with the h/w.

(EndlessH2O raises hand)

If one homeschool's their children, is all of our teaching and exercises homework?

2nd grader in a good public school. They have homework most nights usually in the form of a math worksheet that reinforces the concepts they worked on that day.

If he's focused and tries he can do it in 15-20 minutes usually. If he wants to be difficult or goof off then he can sit and stare at the paper all night. They also have reading logs/goals that we sign off on that are incentivized in various ways.

Typically we have him do his homework, eat dinner, have free time and then read for 20/30 minutes before bed.

I'm in favor of homework as long as it is reasonable and useful. Reinforcing what they learned, especially at that age is a good idea IMO.

Your counting the same as, maybe less goofing off time as he is an only child but it still counts in my homework time. I don't care if the homework is useful or not if he starts getting even 3 hours in grade 6 there will be a discussion with the teacher, and or principle while I find a new school. For our schedule 3 hours would give him an hour or less to eat, shower, relax and have after school activities.

If it works for you great but I think it is crazy excessive.

Ben

Kids are in 5th and 8th grade, pretty low levels of homework. Maybe a couple of nights a week, if that, never more than an hour, or even close to it.

1st and 5th grade, private school:

1st grader gets 0-20 min/day. We will supplement with math drills, spelling, etc. as needed. Daily reading of an appropriately difficult book is required.

5th grader: 30min to 2 hours/day is typical. Averages about an hour. Often length of time has more to do with her pace of work (or lack thereof) than the volume of assignments. She also has to read each night and keep a log -- she's a voracious reader so this isn't a problem. She's in an enrichment program that pulls her out of regular class once a week. She's responsible for the enrichment work and all missed in-class work which is to be turned in the following day. Those evenings can be tough.

Typically, there's a good break between homework and swim/soccer/martial arts classes.

5th and 8th graders at good NJ public schools...

5th grader gets 30-60 mins a day - appropriate, although I would prefer she was set more English writing.

8th graders gets 2-5 hours a day - we just wrote to her principal to complain about how crazy it is on some days. The basic problem is lack of coordination between teachers, so some days she gets very little and some days it's off-the-charts crazy. She studies diligently for tests too, so that can compound the issue of being set too much work some days. She is regularly still working at 10:30-11:00pm which is ridiculous for a 13 year old. We got a good response from the principal and they are reviewing it all and how it's coordinated.

I think homework is useful to review and reinforce what's been learned and improving researching and writing skills. Learning foreign language vocab etc is good too. What annoys me is when it sometimes turns into a craft project or a group project where some members of the group aren't pulling their weight. The biggest issue for me has been the lack of coordination though.

Last year, in 7th grade, her science teacher hardly set any homework to her class because he knew that her social studies teacher would set huge amounts of work. On the one hand that was a problem as her science may have suffered a bit, but at least there was some coordination between the teachers. This year it's her language arts teacher that is tending to set way too much, but there is no coordination with other teachers now.

6th grader in a really good, rural public school. He gets up to an hour a night, mostly math sometimes other subjects. He can fly through homework pretty quickly, luckily it isn't just busy work. I've yet to see him bring homework home that doesn't have a purpose. He's in advanced placement so he gets more homework than his friends who all take a study hall (tutorial is what they call it) and I've had parents tell me their kids still have an hour per night. We chose to have our son be in band instead of study hall. I want to see him bring homework home.

I don't really get the, "kids should not have homework" crowd. By the time they get into high school and when they go to college they are going to need to learn how to budget their time and get their work done. Minus a solid foundation how do any of you expect that to happen?

What annoys me is when it sometimes turns into a craft project or a group project where some members of the group aren't pulling their weight. The biggest issue for me has been the lack of coordination though.

I have no kids, so I have no skin in the game, but this is exactly what real life is like. All my projects at work have issues with members not pulling weight and project managers not coordinating or not having the option to coordinate because of client demands. I wouldn't think that it would be very easy to coordinate between different teachers. On one hand, I would think this would be good practice for the pressures they would face after school. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to instill this pressure onto kids.

I don't really have a solution, just my thought.

Having taught 5th grade for 6 years I always had parents come back and complain about their kid's homework in middle school They also doubled up 2 major projects that were graded for Science Fair and History Fair (both were due right after Christmas).

I can see the 10 minutes a night per grade level (5th grade = 50 minutes).

Our county has a mandated grading policy to help balance the impact of homework.
Homework = 10% of overall grade
Classwork = 50% of grade
Tests/Quizzes/Projects = 40% of grade

So, even if a kid doesn't do their homework then they only lose 10% of their overall grade. That seems reasonable to me.

The best solution to the group project thing is to not have a slacker in your group. So I guess that's a good life lesson too!

The other day my daughter was due to present a short play her group had written and one member had forgotten to print her copy of their script. Even though my daughter had printed a spare copy, the teacher refused to let them present that day, and deducted points for being late. (The teacher is a grumpy so-and-so.)

As for teachers coordinating homework, I understand it's not easy, but there are some simple things, like having heavier LA homework on, say, Tues, and heavier Math on, say, Thurs etc. Also, any longer homework assignments could be given 3 or so days before being due instead of next day.