Dear Teachers, I don't have a square to spare!

amother

Orange

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 7:30 am

my ds is 6 years old. he only gets chol homework. every day. reading, maths, writing. it never takes more than 15 minutes in total. a really small review of what they did in school that day. no koydesh homework this year, the rebbi says he doesnt think it is necessary.

he does the hw first thing when he comes home (before snack) and I dont help at all. it is his responsibility to take out the right books do what is asked and put it back in his schoolbag.

I do review it later when the babies are asleep- I compliment him on his independence and write mizva tsettes: "moishi is very independent, he works fast and concentrated., he doesnt make a fuss about hw...he is a big responsible boy. he shows his younger siblings how big boys work" etc

his teacher showed them and practioced with them how and when they should work at home. she took the first two weeks of the term and went through the ritual of when / where/how to write hoemork. that it is NOT a punishment, that we all do it, that it is not dfficult, becuase it is stuff they know. even my ds now understands that this small hw now will prepare him to study with joy at home when he is older (he actuall used the term: 'establish a rutine' - he must have heared that from his teacher). sometimes they get a nice reward (sticker etc) if the hw is REALLY too hard, the kids should stop after 15 minutes!!! thats the teachers rule.
the boys are brutally honest about this, they notice when they dont understand a topic will ask the teacher next day for help... noone gets punished for not writing hw due to lack of ability. oz men ken nisht iz men potter Wink

I was very shocked at first when I heared that ds's school gives homework every day to first graders (im a teacher and I NEVER give hw), but I must say im imressed with the way his teacher presented it to the kids and to the parents. we are on board, they just do it. alone. no stress.

amother

Brunette

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 9:57 am

imasinger wrote:

I'm going to wait for tomatoes.

I think it's an important life skill to handle homework. Within reason, but 15 minutes a night is reasonable.

My kids who got regular homework and learned to do it are the ones who have an easier time later in life when faced with challenges at the end of the day.

Learning that you can do more than you think (or want) can be useful.

In moderation, of course.

Let the tomatoes commence.

I agree. Doing some homework and taking responsibility for accomplishing and learning the information does teach a child some important life skills.

The only issue I have with homework is the amount of homework given. Younger kids need time for downtime and older kids don't need to spend every waking moment studying. I'm watching my bright & intelligent teenage daughter go round the clock and I feel so sorry for her. Is school literally meant to take over the life of our teenagers, leaving them with no time for anything else?

I am totally for a high academic standard, but there has to be a different way to give it over to the kids. Sending the kids home with stuff to learn on their own is not the way to go about it, imo. And don't get me started on homework assignments that must involve the parents. Teachers, I'm not sitting home twiddling my thumbs and staring at the wall, nor am I bored even a teeny tiny bit. If an assignment is designed to incorporate the help of the parents, please revise it or ditch it.

And what about tests and homework assignments due on Sunday? Don't our older girls deserve at least to have a break on Shabbos or Motzai Shabbos? Even if they try to prepare in advance for them, some weeks its just not possible.

Yes, school prepares our kids for life. But there's life outside of the school and we need to let our kids live it.

amother

Violet

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 10:07 am

imasinger wrote:

no tomatoes Smile

is it possible that the kids who learned to do homework were the ones who naturally had more reserve left at the end of the day all along?

I would not be surprised if there are benefits to homework and if some parents want to spend the few precious hours that they have with their kids doing math worksheets I am not judging. I personally do not want to spend my family time that way but the system is not set up to give me that choice.

boots

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 10:12 am

smileforamile wrote:

Same! As a math teacher in public school, I've seen that giving math homework is fruitless, since the students just use Photo Math to do their homework. I mostly stopped giving homework, and I had parents complain.

I think it was on Google News where I saw about the 6-year-old who was using Alexa to do his math homework...

Those parents can come over to my house and do homework with all my kids. I'll use the extra 1.5 hours to catch up on my to do list.

sky

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 10:26 am

amother wrote:

Why doesn't the teacher make sure the kids get the concept taught? I don't think that that is the mother's responsibility to discover. Something is wrong here.

I am a former teacher. It would be very embarrassing to have a mother point out that her child is struggling. I always tried to proactively let the parents know and offer the guidance needed.

.

It’s a teacher that calls once a month with progress reports. And ds got B+ first semester.
They do their in school homework in groups. Typically the teacher has told me other boys lean on my son. I guess in this topic my son was leaning on others but no One realized until the test. Had they done homework at home we both would have caught it.

There are some things I think kids really benefit from doing with parent. 3 minutes Kriya. 1-2 passukim chummish. 1 rashi. 3 minutes English reading. In a class of 28+ students it’s very hard for a teacher to truly see what is going on

Ema of 5

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 11:04 am

imasinger wrote:

He problem is that if you have 2 things in English and two things in Hebrew (younger grades, of course, cuz there’s much more work in middle school and high school) then it’s 10-15 minutes per subject, and that becomes 40-60 minutes.
(Now obviously, if it consistently takes your child longer to do the work, then you need to speak to the teacher and get to the root of the problem.)
My kids can do homework in their own, but they don’t have time to be doing it for almost an hour!!! We have to fit snack, homework, shower/bath, supper, and chill time into 2-2.5 hours. If homework is 40-60 minutes, that doesn’t leave much time for the other things :-(

amother

Apricot

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 11:29 am

I like the homework as long as it’s not overly time consuming and the assignments are reasonable. It teaches kids responsibility, accountability, and time management skills. My kids do the homework by themselves, and I review it with them and help with anything that was difficult at the end. It also gives me sense of exactly what they’re learning in school and how they’re doing with the material on a regular basis.

amother

Oak

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 11:40 am

imasinger-starting at what age?
I'm all for teaching responsibility, accountability, and time management skills. I don't understand why I can't chose how to teach those things? I think extracurricular activities can teach all those things as well while also teaching a new skill. I also wouldn't mind if the homework was child specific. Like only children who need extra review in math will get math problems at home...and definitely it should be incredibly minimal!

lkwdlady

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 11:41 am

I think there should be a couple of official “homework nights “ and the rest of the days off the week should be “no homework nights “.
Studying for a test should only take place on homework nights.
Homework given on the official homework nights should not take longer than 20 minutes.
If a child is struggling with homework he\she should not be forced to complete everything if it is taking the child longer than 20 minutes.
If a teacher feels that a child needs more time to review what was taught in class, the school should provide tutoring.

amother

Sapphire

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 11:53 am

There are prods and cons to everything. As a parent I can understand the struggle /hardship of hw.I go through it too, especially with my child who has a lot of trouble concentrating after an entire day in school. Yes, its hard hw is like hw for the parents especially if that child needs help.

But, someone here said let the teachers review in school. As a teacher, we already have less time than public school kids have to teach the same curriculum. So, as ppl said here in a different thread that the parents want a good secular education and since there is already very little time, review in certain subjects like reading every night and practicing math is very important.

If kids dont do hw, reports, study for tests, how will they learn this responsibility for college?? In addition, if someone says that they are not going to college, well some kids even with the best teachers need that time to get individual help from parents while doing hw because with large classes, some kids need more individual help to understand.

The goal of hw, tests, reports...is to see how the students perform without the teacher there and when there's some Break from wen they just learned. There is not enough Time to practice and review everything especially with big classes and kids who need more help.

I hate my kids having hw because its hw for me too. But, I see the benefits of review and it helps me see what my children need help with, so I can explain things individually to help my child. Reading, math, and writing are especially important to practice to build the proper skills for the future.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 12:23 pm

lkwdlady wrote:

20 minutes total, or per subject?

little neshamala

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 12:45 pm

amother wrote:

This

sima

Thu, Jan 03 2019, 1:11 pm

Here's what I've been doing..... I get home from work around 7, so yes, very late. I've always expected my kids to have their homework done by then. They get home around 4:30/5:00 so they have plenty of time to do it. The sitter has to supervise that they do it. I don't help generally with homework. It's for them to review what they learned in school, brush up, etc. It's not for me to re teach. If they do it- Great, if they get it right-Great. If they don't do it, they will have to face the consequences with the teacher, and if they make mistakes the teacher, resource teacher will have to fill in the blanks.....

I do agree that a bit of homework (like OP mentioned 15mins) is not too much. It's just a review and a bit of responsibility for the kids. Where I went to school we had hours of homework literally Crying