Homework?

I don't know if this goes here or the Schooling thread but I was wondering if any of you remember when you first started getting homework.



My 1st grader started homework this week and as I'm going over this with her last night, I'm feeling a bit irritated because I don't think it's fair for a 6-year old who has to do schoolwork for most of the day, to have to go home and do more schoolwork.



I don't remember having homework until later (maybe 5th grade) and while I understand the need to educate my children... they are still children. I don't like having to work when I get home (although sometimes I do) but I think it's perfectly fine for my kid to go home, eat, play, shower and go to sleep. Now we have to fit homework in there and I sympathize with my daughter when she can't answer a question because she says "I'm too tired to think".



My parents pushed me when I was a kid... but I don't think I had to as much work as my kid has to do now. While I like the schools in Irvine... this drive to succeed puts me off sometimes.



/end rant

[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253236392]I don't know if this goes here or the Schooling thread but I was wondering if any of you remember when you first started getting homework.



My 1st grader started homework this week and as I'm going over this with her last night, I'm feeling a bit irritated because I don't think it's fair for a 6-year old who has to do schoolwork for most of the day, to have to go home and do more schoolwork.



I don't remember having homework until later (maybe 5th grade) and while I understand the need to educate my children... they are still children. I don't like having to work when I get home (although sometimes I do) but I think it's perfectly fine for my kid to go home, eat, play, shower and go to sleep. Now we have to fit homework in there and I sympathize with my daughter when she can't answer a question because she says "I'm too tired to think".



My parents pushed me when I was a kid... but I don't think I had to as much work as my kid has to do now. While I like the schools in Irvine... this drive to succeed puts me off sometimes.



/end rant</blockquote>


I don't remember getting homework until I was 11 years old and even then I don't think I actually did any unless I was forced to (there are only so many excuses you can use).



My daughter has just started Kindergarten and last weekend was her first Chinese lesson and she has been given homework for both!!! Neither are compulsory but they are expected to do them



I personally think it is too much for her

I'm a little younger than the crowd here so perhaps I can shed a different perspectiveon this. I can remember I started getting little projects like book reports and stuff in 1st grade. Not like daily assignments, but more like weekly homework assignments.



3rd grade is when I seem to remember getting homework regularly with like multiplication worksheets and stuff like that. But I don't remember it taking too long, like 30 minutes or less.



FYI, I went to a private school and wasn't in IUSD til High School but I'm sure its close to the same.

I know what you are talking about IHO- I don't recall getting homework until I was maybe in 4th grade (I'm 40).



My daughter is now a 2nd grader at Stone Creek elementary. She was attending a Montessori through 1st grade and did get homework, but it wasn't that much- maybe 1 sheet per night.



At Stone Creek, her teacher wrote in her packet that she is to get 40 minutes of homework each night. Included in that is a minimum of 15 minutes of reading (Eagle Reading program). I have to sign off that she did her reading.



I wonder what it's like at other elementary schools within IUSD. My friend has her daughter in 2nd grade at Culverdale and she told me they are not getting homework until after Back To School night which is around Sept 24ish. My daughter has already been getting projects/homework to do.

People remember much more of what they learn if they review it about 6 hours after they learn it. Hence homework exists.

If you like the academic scores that come with school, daily homework is part of the reason why they are so high.

If you don't like the homework - move to another school district. Then you can be happier with less homework and lower home prices.

From talking to other friends, most IUSD elementaries give homework starting at 1st grade. Is that standard for all schools? When did this start?



I just think that K-3 shouldn't be so academically pushy. Maybe there should be programs for that if you want your kids to be so studious but seriously... a 5/6/7/8 year old already has enough to deal with... especially if they just started going to school.



Even 15-30 minutes / 1 sheet per night is a bit much in my opinion... at this pace... my kids will be sick of it before they hit middle school (that's not supposed to happen until high school... hehe).

[quote author="Anonymous" date=1253240649]People remember much more of what they learn if they review it about 6 hours after they learn it. Hence homework exists.

If you like the academic scores that come with school, daily homework is part of the reason why there are so high.

If you don't like the homework - move to another school district. Then you can be happier with less homework and lower home prices.</blockquote>
I can understand that for older kids... but for primary school age... it just seems a bit much.



And it's not like the homework is covering what they did that specific day, it's a list of tasks that they have to do for the week and they even have a test on spelling at the end of the week. For a 6-year old, they have to spell words that use these combinations:



_aise

_ase

_ake

_ait

_ate

_ane



C'mon... not even adults can get all of those right.



They also have sort them in alphabetical order, identify nouns/adjectives/verbs, look them up in a dictionary, create sentences and write a paragraph on a topic per week. And then there is math, reading and other stuff.



Let's throw in molecular physics while we're at it.



/end rant #2

[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253240963]From talking to other friends, most IUSD elementaries give homework starting at 1st grade. Is that standard for all schools? When did this start?

</blockquote>


Our daugther attended IUSD for Kindergarten last year (Westpark) and she had a weekly homework packet every week the entire year. Her good friend attended K at Alderwood last year, and I know she also had a similar homework load to our daugther. We are now in TUSD for 1st grade (Myford). Back to school night was last night, and the teacher told us the homework packet this year will probably average out to about 15-30 minutes each evening. Same deal as IUSD.



It's all about those API scores in Irvine, IHO --- didn't you get the memo? That 956 for your Alderwood or the 945 for Myford does not come by playing tag at the end of the cul de sac until sundown every evening, you know.

My second grade son has been doing homework since preschool. In preschool, he was getting a package of 5 pages to be done at the end of the week (so one page/night). In kindergarten, he continued with this amount of homework. In first grade, the homework doubled (10 pages/week) + 15 minutes of reading/night. He just started 2nd grade and homework has not officially started yet but I suspect the same amount + 15 minutes of reading to equal about 45 minutes of homework/night. We live in Irvine and he attends IUSD schools. I don't remeber getting homework until I was a third grader (I grew up in another state). I do believe that he is expected to do more and know more at an earlier age than when I was a kid. Expections are so much higher these days and good learning habits are established young. For these reasons, as bone-tired as I am sometimes after a full day of work, I usually can still muster up enough energy to be involved in his studies.

It really isn't just IUSD or TUSD, my son has about 45 minutes of homework Tues.-Fri. in Kindergarten. I don't know of any school that doesn't have homework for Kindergarten. If we do everything, it's about 45 minutes a night, but since it's in a weekly packet to be returned Monday, we finish much of it on the weekends when things are a bit more relaxed, I'm less stressed and he hasn't spent 7 hours at school (yes, his Kinder class is 7 hours a day, no naps).



Nightly work so far: 1-2 pages of math, 1-2 pages of language arts, practice writing, saying and saying the sounds of all letters taught so far (A-G at this point), practice high frequency words, practice a book that is sent home on Tues. and tested on Friday (they don't get the new book unless they pass the test on this week's book).



The academic standards for the state of California are probably the most rigorous of all of the states. Kindergarten used to be finger painting, holding scissors and learning to share. Now they are expected to be reading fairly fluently by the end of the year. The teachers can't meet these standards without placing a lot of the work in the hands of the parents. I know there is a homework revolt going on all around the nation, many parents are angry. If you are truly that angry and want your kids to be kids and have some free time at home, expect that scores will go down. Also, please get vocal about the standards, teachers are held accountable for the progress students make, if they fall behind in Kindergarten, it is very hard to catch up. I know that sounds harsh, but it's the sad fact regarding the current state of standards based education. If your school's scores are the reason why you chose the school, all of this homework is how they got there.



And I believe I started getting homework in high school, up until that point it was more of a "if you didn't finish it at school" type of thing.

I remember getting homework in the first grade, but it was usually no more than ten minutes a day. The teacher used to pin it to our shirts (or maybe that was just me because I had a way of losing things). I don't remember ever having to bring books home until maybe 4th grade. I feel sorry for the little kids I see rolling their heavy backpack down the street.

I was hoping to find the whole episode where Ray is complaining that his daughter has too much homework. But unfortunately this is all I was able to find....



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I remember that episode well. Parents have more power than teachers, get vocal if you want to see some changes.

Hehe... to get technical, I didn't have "home"work. It was "bus"work. Or "before the first bell rings"work. Or "in the class before the class it's due"work. Or "lunch"work.



I should find that Raymond episode... maybe Hulu has it.



So according to tmare, it's ALL schools? I was planning on moving into bk's hood in hopes that Santa Ana is a homework-free zone.

BKs daughter has a good 4 to 6 hours of homework every night. Shes in the 8th grade. In the 1st grade it only took between 20 to 30 minutes but now she studies ALL. THE. TIME.



Im proud of her, that she has the discipline to do it, but I wonder sometimes if schools haven't just gone too far. By the time she was in the 6th grade she started separating out from her middle school friends because she was in all AP classes, and most of them were not. Now, in the 8th grade she has 2 friends. Both are awesome little nerdy Asian girls but that being said, I think its weird to start looking at a child's transcripts at the 6th grade. Which is when she started her first community service hours. Its a tremendous amount of pressure to put on a child so young. And if you have a desire to get into any decent college the kid has no choice but to do them.



What happened to letting children be children? I mean, they have their entire lives to worry about this shit. When we were choosing the community service hours last year it was a huge deal to pick.. should we work with an organization that she will go back to over and over again or should she try different ones in whats shes interested in?, and hope to god its unusual enough.



At this point, she wasnt even 13 yet.

At this moment, I can only think of AI...



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-IR2

[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253256190]Hehe... to get technical, I didn't have "home"work. It was "bus"work. Or "before the first bell rings"work. Or "in the class before the class it's due"work. Or "lunch"work.



I should find that Raymond episode... maybe Hulu has it.



So according to tmare, it's ALL schools? I was planning on moving into bk's hood in hopes that Santa Ana is a homework-free zone.</blockquote>


Fat chance, the Santiago parents of the students in the "honors" types of classes constantly complain about all of the homework, from Kindergarten on.

Yeah um. Good luck with that.

She has her first spelling test today... I ask her to spell "raise". She replies "R-A-I-Z...". I correct her but then she says "But it has the 'Z' sound at the end".



The english language is so stupid... 72 different ways to spell the same sound... no wonder no one wants to learn it.



/end rant #3



Anyways... I want to thank everyone for their responses here. I guess it is now the "norm" to have homework from Kindy on but all that is going to do is make my kids ask me this question more often "Is this a stay-home day?".

[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253256190]Hehe... to get technical, I didn't have "home"work. It was "bus"work. Or "before the first bell rings"work. Or "in the class before the class it's due"work. Or "lunch"work.



I should find that Raymond episode... maybe Hulu has it.



So according to tmare, it's ALL schools? I was planning on moving into bk's hood in hopes that Santa Ana is a homework-free zone.</blockquote>


Kids here have no homeworks. They tag along with their parents all days waiting for the free healthcare, social services, financial assistance, and DMV.