How much homework for kindergarten?

[YadaYadaYada]

Our youngest started school the end of August. It seems like he has a ridiculous amount of homework, everyday there is another packet, another worksheet on top of packets already sent home. I went through everything and this is what I found:

Daily work:

Sight word sentences
Coloring reading log
Math ten frame drilling
Alphabet picture sounds chart
Flashcards for numbers 0-30
Flashcards for letters
Flashcards for sight words
Daily homework sheet
Footsteps to Brilliance 15min a night
Nightly reading

Granted my kids are seven years apart but our oldest never had this amount of homework. Also there was a night he only did the Footsteps to Brilliance (a learning app) for 12 minutes and the next day there was a sheet sent home with the 15 minute requirement highlighted. I have nicknamed his teacher the Ditto Queen because there is an endless amount coming home and there is no organization, I had to go through everything today to get a handle on what the daily expectations are, I don't even know if she realizes how much time this all adds up to for a five year old child.

So parents, did/do your kids get a lot of homework? Honestly we don't even get all the daily stuff done we just do the best we can but I question if this is the new norm.

 

[yssie]

Homework for kindy?

When I got home my mum sent me outside to tire myself out before dinner. And then I had to give a coherent summary of my day over dinner.

Nothing on that list sounds unreasonable but it's hard to get four years olds to focus for fifteen minutes - I have no idea how anyone could reasonably expect one to actually pay attention to a quarter of all of that after school!

Good luck mama!!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Right @yssie, apparently times are changing and now kindy is the new first grade. He is pretty good about doing his homework but it takes him a while to get through it unfortunately. I know some teachers will send a packet on Monday due Friday, that would be great but to just send endless worksheets home is overwhelming.

 

[Loves Vintage]

We received none! My daughter is in third grade now, and still has no legitimate homework (20 mins reading per night). I love it!

I have a friend who has told me she's had the most difficult time getting her daughter to do her homework, resulting in tears every night, starting in K. That is complete insanity.

We are in the same state. School districts operate very differently. If it were me, I'd be stating my case to the school. Where is evidence that this improves outcomes? The only way anything will change is if parents demand it.

 

[yssie]

Right @yssie, apparently times are changing and now kindy is the new first grade. He is pretty good about doing his homework but it takes him a while to get through it unfortunately. I know some teachers will send a packet on Monday due Friday, that would be great but to just send endless worksheets home is overwhelming.

I'm a career homework slacker - couldn't ever be bothered with it. I think I was diligent about homework in exactly one uni course. So I'm not a good example for anyone!

But I sure wouldn't begrudge a five year old outdoors time at the expense of reading logs

 

[luv2sparkle]

Should be zero in my opinion.

 

[baby monster]

Our school's daily homework is usually one worksheet each for math and writing plus 20 min of reading.

We had sight words flashcards but I didn't really consider those homework. More like extra practice.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Oh I forgot we were in the same state @Loves Vintage! I think homework varies by school, our 7th grader gets almost no homework, same thing last year which I'm not sure is so great because high school will be a rude awakening then.

@yssie, I got a chuckle out of career homework slacker! I remember in high school only reading the first and last chapters of books assigned in English and managing to get by.

@luv2sparkle, yeah I can appreciate that, I've read at this age any homework should just be fun and game-like so that it doesn't put the child off homework for good.

See, I think that's reasonable @baby monster, it seems most everything coming home is "practice this daily" "do these drills daily" and it's coming home 3-4 days a week. Eventually you run out of time of everything is supposed to be a priority.

 

[House Cat]

Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences

Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects.

www.healthline.com

 

[OdetteOdile]

Our youngest started school the end of August. It seems like he has a ridiculous amount of homework, everyday there is another packet, another worksheet on top of packets already sent home. I went through everything and this is what I found:

Daily work:

Sight word sentences
Coloring reading log
Math ten frame drilling
Alphabet picture sounds chart
Flashcards for numbers 0-30
Flashcards for letters
Flashcards for sight words
Daily homework sheet
Footsteps to Brilliance 15min a night
Nightly reading

Granted my kids are seven years apart but our oldest never had this amount of homework. Also there was a night he only did the Footsteps to Brilliance (a learning app) for 12 minutes and the next day there was a sheet sent home with the 15 minute requirement highlighted. I have nicknamed his teacher the Ditto Queen because there is an endless amount coming home and there is no organization, I had to go through everything today to get a handle on what the daily expectations are, I don't even know if she realizes how much time this all adds up to for a five year old child.

So parents, did/do your kids get a lot of homework? Honestly we don't even get all the daily stuff done we just do the best we can but I question if this is the new norm.

Hi StephanieLynn, I think that is way too much homework for a Kindergartener. My Kindergartener does not receive any homework at all. We read to him at night before bed as part of our routine, but I can't remember if reading was a requirement or not. If the teacher sent that much home, I would just not have my child do all of it.

My older child went to a different Kindergarten, and he did receive homework. Looking back, I think it was way too much, and I regret making him do it.

 

[Begonia]

Waaay too much. Some children (not all, but more typically boys) develop negative associations with school bc of these kinds of expectations (leading to stress). You do you and your child, but do some research and watch carefully the effects on your child. Got a boy? Read Boy Smarts by...hang on, I’ll find the author.

 

[Begonia]

Boy Smarts: Mentoring Boys for Success in School, by Barry MacDonald. There’s a website as well. I’ve put 2 boys thru public school (youngest in gr. 12). We’ve dealt with it all at one time or another.

 

[OdetteOdile]

Boy Smarts: Mentoring Boys for Success in School, by Barry MacDonald. There’s a website as well. I’ve put 2 boys thru public school (youngest in gr. 12). We’ve dealt with it all at one time or another.

Are you in the US? I just looked for that book on my library's website and they do not have it. Amazon has it, but not much info on it. I found their website, and it looks like the author is located perhaps in BC? I wonder if the tips would be helpful for kids going to school in the US too. Do you highly recommend this book?

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Thank you for sharing that @House Cat very informative and I find it shocking that some high schoolers have three hours of homework a night....yikes!

@OdetteOdile, we have not been doing even half of what she is asking, he does the daily homework sheet, coloring for his reading log and then the 15 minutes on the Footsteps app since she is tracking it. Also the app is game based so he enjoys playing the little games since he doesn't play on an IPad otherwise.

@Begonia, we have two boys! Will have to check out that book you suggested. We will probably just keep on as we have been, I'm not going to let this homework thing ruin his desire to learn.

 

[Tekate]

it's just plain wrong BUT kids start kindergarten at an older age than back in my kids day, my son was 2 months before he turned 5 and his brother was 2 months before he turned 6, we held out #2 because #1 was a dilly, but in retrospect I should have reversed that..all that said, neither son had homework in 1992 or 97. I think it is too much pressure at too young an age..

 

[YadaYadaYada]

@Tekate, it is definitely too much but I'm not going to stress over it, now that I know this is not an acceptable amount we will just do what we can and that's it.

Our son is a July baby so he is on the younger side but I didn't consider holding him back because he needed the social interaction and needs to be kept busy or he gets in trouble!

 

[mrs-b]

Both my god kids are at university now, but I positively ground my teeth watching the amount of homework they both had - from kindergarten to their senior high school year. Elementary school was easily an hour a night, middle school was double that, and high school was double *that*. I remember seeing my goddaughter dragging herself out of bed in the morning time after time because she had been to bed at midnight, or sitting up, exhausted, at 11pm, crying, because she knew if she didn't finish her homework, she'd get an F. I cannot tell you the number of times I encouraged her to stop and go to bed, only to have her tell me that if she didn't get an A in this specific assignment, she wouldn't get an A in the course, and she wouldn't get into an elite university. It was just madness.

I also watched my wonderful, highly intelligent godson spiral into panic and drugs when his math GPA dropped below an A and he knew he wouldn't go to MIT. No matter how many times we told him UC San Diego (ranked #18 of all universities in the US out of the 4000 listed degree granting institutions - https://www.topuniversities.com/whe.../united-states/ranked-top-100-us-universities) was good enough, he still felt like a failure and like he'd let us, himself, and his teachers down. This is California, which I think is *particularly* bad for this sort of thing, but I think the way homework and academic pressure has spiraled out of control right across the board is insanity.

ETA My darling godson is now in his senior year and is currently doing an academic exchange in Florence, Italy. He also won an internship position with the State Museum of Florence, working on the Medici Archiving Project - which is cataloguing all the Medici artifacts, plus all the things *they* owned (being prolific collectors), which date back to the 700's and beyond. Turns out not going to MIT didn't exactly wreck his life. His sister is a freshman in the UC system and is studying art and creative writing. We have -zero- idea what she'll do with that, but I'm sure she'll turn out just fine. Either way, she's going to inherit my jewelry collection, so it's unlikely she'll starve.

 

[missy]

Yes, my nieces had so freaking much homework starting from Kindergarten on. And it only gets worse. My sister was complaining about this years ago. It's an awful amount of homework and I just SMH thinking about the poor kids.

@Tekate has a good point and the reason my sister held the girls back to start school a bit older. They were born in Jan and Feb. Both my sister and I were in the school program where we skipped a grade in Jr Hs and my sister felt it put her at a disadvantage socially speaking. I liked skipping and didn't feel it hurt me at all but she felt differently and so she did it differently with her girls.

But yeah HW seems out of control these days. I don't remember how much we had but I am pretty sure not like the kids have today. Insanity is a good way to describe it IMO.

 

[Austina]

My son started full time school at 4, and I don’t recall him having any homework, or at age 5. Seems an awful lot for a little one. Mine used to come home from school, play for a bit, eat, have a bath and go to bed by 6.30pm, I don’t think he’d have had much time for homework at that age.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Yes, school is not what it used to be and some schools are going completely overboard with the homework thing, totally agree @missy

@Austina, and that's how it should be, from everything I'm reading there is no benefit to homework at this age, absolutely none. All kids but boys especially need to be active, at least mine do, so to make them sit all day at school and then come home and sit some more to do homework is ridiculous.

 

[Begonia]

Are you in the US? I just looked for that book on my library's website and they do not have it. Amazon has it, but not much info on it. I found their website, and it looks like the author is located perhaps in BC? I wonder if the tips would be helpful for kids going to school in the US too. Do you highly recommend this book?

No, I’m located on the West coast of Canada. I HIGHLY recommend this book for parents of boys, and he wrote a follow up book. It’s not about raising boys in the Canadian public school system, it’s about raising boys in any public school system. It’s about how boys think/process and how are many school systems aren’t designed to teach boys effectively. Boys have much much higher drop out rates than girls. Parents of boys learn better how to advocate when they understand how boys learn differently from girls.

 

[Begonia]

He also has a website(or used to), and would send out monthly newsletters with an very interesting essay of the month on topics such as disciplining boys, homework, dealing with stress etc.
I went to a talk by him once - best money I’ve ever spent on parenting. Saw my lads in a whole new way - the challenges they face, the way they think, what their needs are, how I can try to help them develop resilience is a school system that is certainly not designed for their success.

 

[kenny]

Sheeesh! This is terrible.

5 yr olds should spend all of their time with their faces in their iPhones, especially when at school.
Start em out young.

 

[Gussie]

Ridiculous! Kids need time to play, veg out, be kids. It is crazy the amount of work they give little kids. I only let my kids work on lower elementary homework for 30 minutes a night, including reading. I told the teachers that was MY policy. They did fine. My older 2 are honor society and make great grades. My younger one is still in elementary and also does well. I am an advocate for my kids and I believe in fostering a whole kid, not a robot of the state, lol.

 

[Begonia]

Here ya go

 

[Begonia]

Things got cut off there:

 

[jaysonsmom]

Both my god kids are at university now, but I positively ground my teeth watching the amount of homework they both had - from kindergarten to their senior high school year. Elementary school was easily an hour a night, middle school was double that, and high school was double *that*. I remember seeing my goddaughter dragging herself out of bed in the morning time after time because she had been to bed at midnight, or sitting up, exhausted, at 11pm, crying, because she knew if she didn't finish her homework, she'd get an F. I cannot tell you the number of times I encouraged her to stop and go to bed, only to have her tell me that if she didn't get an A in this specific assignment, she wouldn't get an A in the course, and she wouldn't get into an elite university. It was just madness.

I also watched my wonderful, highly intelligent godson spiral into panic and drugs when his math GPA dropped below an A and he knew he wouldn't go to MIT. No matter how many times we told him UC San Diego (ranked #18 of all universities in the US out of the 4000 listed degree granting institutions - https://www.topuniversities.com/whe.../united-states/ranked-top-100-us-universities) was good enough, he still felt like a failure and like he'd let us, himself, and his teachers down. This is California, which I think is *particularly* bad for this sort of thing, but I think the way homework and academic pressure has spiraled out of control right across the board is insanity.

ETA My darling godson is now in his senior year and is currently doing an academic exchange in Florence, Italy. He also won an internship position with the State Museum of Florence, working on the Medici Archiving Project - which is cataloguing all the Medici artifacts, plus all the things *they* owned (being prolific collectors), which date back to the 700's and beyond. Turns out not going to MIT didn't exactly wreck his life. His sister is a freshman in the UC system and is studying art and creative writing. We have -zero- idea what she'll do with that, but I'm sure she'll turn out just fine. Either way, she's going to inherit my jewelry collection, so it's unlikely she'll starve.

My kids did not have that much homework as kindergarteners, but high school is whole different story. Neither of them get more than 5 hours of sleep and are constantly having to drink caffeinated beverages to that they can study or complete their assignments.

@ mrs-b, your god children sound like my 2 kids! My son is a senior with over 1500 SATs and having anxiety over not being admitted into his first choice, UC Berkeley, he is even concerned about getting into UC San Diego because it is hard for in-State Asian students choosing a STEM major to get into a UC. My daughter is a Sophomore in high school and both get panic attacks if they any of their grades fall below an A, they are both taking a full schedule with 7 periods and both taking multiple AP classes.

 

[jbake]

I’ve been really pleased at how my daughter’s teachers have managed homework so far. In kindergarten, she had math Monday’s, so just one math worksheet to be completed & returned Tuesday. We were also encouraged to read nightly, then color in a flower/ pumpkin/ snowflake on a sheet in her reading folder.

This is a picture of how her 1st grade teacher did homework. Since school started mid-month, they had less to do, most months they chose about 15 squares. We loved it. The reverse side had fun suggestions of where or how to read for 15 minutes that they could color in when completed.

2nd grade is even simpler. A similar homework menu, but all math that is done on the sheet. Then on the backside is a calendar that you “x” the days you read, add the time & have a parent initial.

I have a friend one town over that has a nightly battle with her son to get all his 1st grade homework done. It sounds miserable for everyone involved

 

[YadaYadaYada]

@kenny, I actually loathe that part of his homework is on an IPad, we do not allow him to play games on any device. My 12 year old does have an IPad to play games on but no phone and no social media and we strictly limit the time he plays on it. So yeah...not happy about that.

@Gussie, robot of the state...so true. It's like they don't want kids to think for themselves, just to parrot and memorize and do as they are told. While we do teach them to be respectful and follow rules we also emphasize critical thinking, oh and spelling because that is a lost art now!

@mrs-b, California is very competitive, you have the influence of Silicon Valley and it just seems like you have to be top of the top to succeed. I'm glad your godson has made a turnaround, sometimes things work out for the best even if we can't see it at the time.

@jaysonsmom, oh my goodness, to be under that much pressure in high school, can't imagine how they get through it.

@jbake, see this is what I'm talking about, it's clear and concise and developmentally appropriate, I could deal with that. Maybe that's part of the problem here is this teacher does not approach homework in an organized fashion and because of that it's possible she doesn't realize how much it all adds up to.

@Begonia thank you so much for that book reference, I will check it out, anything to help us figure these kids out!

 

[GliderPoss]

Hmmm think it varies by school but as far as I know homework in primary school, or at least the first few years is "optional". They encourage it but doesn't matter if the kids don't turn it in. I think in Year 6 it's important for them to get into the routine of homework else high school will be a massive shock.