First Grade and Kindergarten Homework

Everyone I know is mentioning this. My daughter is in PreK and we spend about 40 - 60 minutes a night doing homework, skipping out if we have something else going on. I don't think I had homework until 5th grade and even then it was a science project or a book report. Long, long ago.

Last year my son was in kindergarten and he had more homework than my older son who was in all pre-AP classes in the 6th grade. It was crazy! He had about 30 minutes of homework every night, even on Fridays, and he is a child who is very focused. This year he's getting off easy. He has to read to me for at least 15 minutes each night, and he gets a packed on Monday that is due on Friday. The entire packet only takes him about 15 minutes. That's it. Easy.

1 hour.
Usually less, for that grade level. More like 45 minutes.
When my Daughter was that age and grade level.

ASK the Teacher.... she will tell you how long homework is supposed to take, on average. But each kid is different.

At that age, they do need help with it...

Our 1st grade teacher said that 20 min. is long enough...However it has taken longer he is now working on math addition & subtraction all with money (change),some nites he totally gets & others takes some more explaination...Oh & another thing I do with my son is a small snack when he gets home 4 some down time then we are on it by 5 or after dinner by 6:30 depends what we have going on for that evening but no later because bedtime is @ 8 on the dot...
I'll read the directions to him if needed i'll take 5 min out to help then he has to show me he tries & is doing his best he can...

We didn't really have too much homework in K, but now that my oldest is in 1st grade he gets a packet sent home every Monday that is due on Friday and it's about 2 full ditto sheets a night plus practicing his spelling words.

I help him every day and it usually takes anywhere between 30mins to an hour a night.

When my daughter was in kindergarten last year and my son was in kindergarten the year before, they both received one worksheet to complete each night (front and back). First grade for each of them consisted of:

Spelling word practice
Reading a story
Read accelerated reading book
One math worksheet
One grammar worksheet

First grade homework definitely takes more time than kindergarten homework for us. Since I have two children so close in age and who are still not able to completely do their homework on their own yet, my attention is divide among the two and it probably takes us twice as long to get it all done. It does seem to take a better part of the afternoon.

I was told that we should never spend more than 20 mins on homework, with an additional 10 on reading. If it was taking longer than that I was supposed to talk to the teacher.

First grade should have about 20 min of homework--MAX. More than that is crazy. My 2nd grader has a reading packet sheet and a math sheet per night. He's done in 10-15 minutes IF we do it right after school.

My Kindergartener did not have homework. My, now, first grader brings home an assignment once a week and it takes about 15 minutes.

Her teacher said she'll start to send spelling words home after Christmas once a week.

I don't. My thought is that I already completed Kindergarten - it's his turn to do it. Granted he does his homework in the kitchen while I'm making dinner, so I'm there if he has a question - but 80% of the time he does it independently. Generally for homework as a Kindergartener, he gets a reading/spelling work sheet, a math worksheet, and a writing worksheet. Sometimes he also has a small reading book sent home. He does have sight words to learn, and I will help with that, but we spend no more than 10 minutes a day on that. The other stuff takes him about 20 minutes.

My girls were required to do 20 minutes of reading every night in addition to their homework in 1st and 2nd grade. I think it's excessive. I know when I was a kid we didn't even have homework until I was in the 2nd grade and that was only on occasion not nightly or even weekly.

My girls are in the 3rd grade now and one of my daughters hadn't been filling out her reading log. Her grade on the first report card really suffered because of it. Personally, I think it promotes lying. She got her first "C" and she doesn't want that to happen again. When it comes down to it all she really had to do was fill in those blanks whether she read or not.

I really don't understand the current day theory on so much homework. It's not just your child's teacher or school. Unfortunately, it seems to be widespread.

Remember 1st graders are not independant learners. My daughter has 30-45 mins per night. That includes 20 or so mins of her reading to me. The teacher is there to help. The more you ask of your teacher, the more respect you will get from him/her. The more rapport you have with your teacher the more rapport they will have with your kid.

I haven't actually added up the amount of time, but it does take awhile. My son is in 1st grade and he has to write his spelling words 3 times each every night. He has 12 words. He also has to read for 20 minutes and circle the special sounds to the new words in his story and write a sentence about what he read. Plus if there was something that did not get completed during class he has to finish it at home. I would say depending on how fast he moves it takes between an hour and 2 hours every night.

I kind of think my first grader is getting off easy. He has to read to a parent for at least 10 minutes every night, once a week he has a comprehension worksheet (one liners- favorite part, who's the author, ect.) and five spelling words a week.

So...he reads to me 10 min a night at least (which I must admit is VERY monotonous (sp-sorry!) ) because he reads at a third/fourth grade level and we spell words like: it, did, said, like, up (again, it drives me crazy, he is WAY beyond this!) but when he complains, I make him do it. It's homework, it's what the teacher wants, and it doesn't matter if it's boring or he knows it already, we won't lie and say he did it if he didn't.

My friend and I were just talking about this. Her kids were getting a crazy amount of homework. So, she called our school district and they said that the guideline is 10-15 minutes per grade per day. My daughter is in Kindergarten and she has a front/back worksheet every day, and we also do reading. The goal of the school is at least 10 min/day, but we upped ours to 20 min/day. She reads to me for 10 and I read to her 10+. It usually takes her 30-35 minutes a day to do her homework (including reading). I think that it is reasonable right now. She is currently at a 1st grade reading level. If she starts to get more homework than that, I might talk to her teacher. Kids need to be kids, and I think that playing (imaginative, creative, active play) is part of their "job."

My advice is to call your school district and see if they have any guidelines. Also, talk to your child's teacher. Good luck!

I don't think that my kiddo's had any homework in Kinder. They started really fun easy homework in 1st grade. 2nd grade for my oldest she gets about 4 pages to do on Monday and has to turn it in on Friday.

I am a firm believer in not overloading our kids, with a ton of homework. Going to school for 8hrs a day and all the extras they do is rough. We're tired as adults in all we do, I can only imagine them.