I think homework in High School is extremely important for preparing kids for college, but homework in Kindergarten?? My 5 year old has homework every school night except for Friday. And it's extra crazy to me because they haven't even done the individual evaluations yet to see what level the kids are on. So his homework so far is crazy stuff like 'write your name five times' or 'think of words that start with the letter T.' Ug. My son learned how to write his name when he was like 3. I think homework shouldn't start until like middle school. And at that point is should be short (like 30mins max of work) and then in high school slowly get harder/longer.

I agree with the previous poster that homework in high school helps prepare you for doing that in college. I didn't have much homework in high school because I would get it all done during the day, so I was GROSSLY unprepared for all the extra work in college for my engineering degree. However, I also agree that homework in elementary school should be tailored to the age. If it's easy for your kid, great. But if not, it helps them practice something (like writing their name) to bring them up to speed with the rest of the class. Same with reading. Although if the child is a super reader, I would hope the teacher would give 'extra' assignments to that student, or better yet, they are in an extra class for gifted students so they get more stimulation. But hours and hours of homework where your kids are staying up later than YOU are, that's excessive. Kids need a balance, too.

This topic is something that really hits me hard. I'm a younger mom, so I still remember the loads of homework I had as a child. I had back problems, probably still do, from carrying a book bag that weighed a good 30 or more pounds every day to and from school. I remember getting homework around 3rd or 4th grade, and it just got worse from there. By the time I was in middle school I had about two hours of work a night, and then high school brought 4 hours of work a night and hours and hours of work on the weekends working on big projects and papers. Way too much work. My mom and I added it up, and I was spending more time at school and doing homework per week than she was spending at work. I agree that some applicable homework is needed when you get to high school, and maybe some projects along the way in elementary and middle school. A good science experiment or book report is always good now and then. Homework does prepare you for college, and the independent learning that you must do in college. However, when you are in college, you spend 15-20 hours a week in classes and lab, not 30-35 hours a week like you do in elementary school. When you are in college and have a few hours of home work a day, that's OK because you don't spend all-the-live-long-day in class. Also, when you are in college a lot of your home work is group work. You are learning from other people and having social interaction. In elementary school, you may work together on a class assignment, but when you get home to do homework, you're alone. If you have parents that are helpful then they may be able to help you, but if they don't understand the assignment (let's face it kids today are doing rocket science compared to what was taught even a decade ago), then you're screwed. This is just another reason why I am hoping and praying like crazy that we are in a position to home school our children. Kids need time to decompress, play, relax, contribute to the family and learn how to balance life. I am willing to be that the loads of homework I had as a child is part of the reason I am so bad at balancing my life and relaxing when I get home.

I think that on the whole kids are being given too much homework, too soon. My kindergartener has homework every school night except for Friday. She does the homework easily, and it doesn't take her too long, but honestly I'd rather she was outside running around and playing after school not sitting at a table again doing more schoolwork. I am not against homework completely, but I do think that it should slowly progress in the amount of homework through the later years of their educations, such as Jr.High and High School, and not so much be given when they are little. I also think that even in the later school years that teachers tone it down some, I mean 2 hours or 4 hours worth of homework every night is just too much IMO. Kids will only be kids once. I think it's important that they have downtime every day to relax and unwind. I think that they should have the time to run outside and play, or do an afterschool activity. They need balance and right now I don't feel like the schools are helping with them achieving any sort of balance between schoolwork, and family time. And it's definitely a concern of my husband and I that we may have to pull our kids out of their schools if the homework situation gets out of hand. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it is something that we will do if need be.

My daughter's birthday means that she was on the cusp of when we could start her in school - she would either have been the youngest in her grade, or one of the oldest. We made the decision after much to-ing and fro-ing to delay her a year. She started kindergarten last month, and has no homework and her public school's policy is to have minimal homework from Grades 1 through 5. That said, I'm a volunteer in her classroom and those kids never stop - they are going from the moment they walk in til they leave after lunch. For me, I want her to do well academically but I also want her to enjoy learning and have the time she needs outside of school to be a kid. Homework can come later. And if I feel later on that the stress and homework requirements are inappropriate, I'll haul her out of there to homeschool.

My daughter's level of homework seems to be decreasing every year (she's in 4th grade now), which is nice, as it seems to me that the more homework an elementary student has, it's actually just more homework for the *parent*. I think homework became a big deal around the same time as constant standardized testing and doing flashcards with toddlers. Parents want their children to get the most out of their education and the only way they can SEE that is if their child is doing homework in front of them. I've had teachers tell me that they only give homework because so many parents insist on it! Of course, it's taken 15 years for everyone (well, actually, not everyone) to figure out that this isn't the best way to educate children, and thankfully, some teachers are dropping homework requirements down to minimums. My daughter has a packet that comes home monday and is due friday and is about 8 sheets of spelling, english, and math, which takes her, at most, 2 hrs total to complete. I was the kid that simply refused to do busy work, starting in 3rd grade, so i'm glad that the pendulum, though it got much worse after i passed through school, seems to be swinging back, as I still hate doing homework and the more my kid has, the more i feel like i'm the one in school.

My daughter is in first grade, and I LOVE that she gets homework. She had homework in kindergarten, too, after a full day of school (8:45-3:45). I think homework, even at a young age, helps kids learn that they have responsibilities. That said, homework of course needs to be age-appropriate. In first grade, her homework doesn't take more than 20 minutes a night, and that includes having her read to us. I agree with the argument that kids need to be kids, but there's enough time in the day to do both. I encourage my daughter to run and play or relax and read after school (usually it's her choice), but after dinner, she sits down to do her homework, with my husband and I (and my 2-year-old) there to help. Her teacher this year is very creative in the work to make it family-friendly. Last week, every day her homework was to do something outside with an adult (for example, find wildflowers and draw them, or count the stars or find spider webs), so there can be more to homework than simply sitting alone doing worksheets. I'm curious to see how things change as she gets older and her workload increases, but for now, I think she has a great balance.

I'm content with my daughter's homework - in third grade, it probably takes about 25 minutes per night. There's usually one spelling, one math, and one reading assignment each night. I should say, it WOULD take 25 minutes without her carping and whining and complaining! :) Miss I'm-So-Awesome believes that her teacher knows exactly how smart she is, she shouldn't have to do homework to show it! Ah, to have such self-confidence....

I completely agree with this, my mother just retired last year from teaching in Texas, and she was sick, sick, sick of 'teaching to The Test.' I HATE NCLB because of this. The wife of a co-worker of mine actually left her school district because ALL of the teachers for each grade HAD to teach in exactly the same way so that everyone was getting the same experience. Regardless of whether this was actually working for the kids in that particular class! She couldn't take it anymore and went somewhere else. And this was in one of the 'better' school districts in suburban Dallas. And we must remember that more homework for kids = more work for the teachers, too, as at least here in TX, kids can't grade each other's papers anymore. So all the grading is done at home. This alone probably tripled my mother's work-load for 5th grade. So I really don't think the teachers like this, either. It's not a good situation, to say the least.