Kindergarten Homework? - Dallas,TX

A nationally-known and respected educator named Alfie Kohn has some compelling advice about how much homework younger children should receive: essentially, none. It sounds like this charter school believes that they will produce superior students by keeping the focus on academics high. There are no studies supporting that belief, which nevertheless spreads like a disease. On the contrary, there are some very high-producing schools that avoid homework at least until 6th grade.

Read numerous articles by Alfie Kohn here: www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm

My grandson is in Kindergarden too. I think the amount of work is unreasonable. They don't consider it "homeword", but he had to learn 60 sight words over Christmas break. He loved math & sceince, but now he hates it. We made it fun, but now it is boring. He is sooooo smart & I don't want him to hate school because of the homework. I wish that I had an answer, but children should be allowed to be children & make school fun. I know that when I was in school it was fun. my daughter had fun. Now he has to know how to read a book before leaving kindergarden. What has happened?? Learning should be fun, not exausting !!

That sounds like the homework my older son had in K and 1st at a private school in London. Now we are in Texas at a public school and my son in K gets 4 math questions for the week, every night he gets a book to read with maybe 5-6 questions to answer, and whatever work they did t finish I class (worksheet to finish or these books his teacher makes with fill in the blanks).

That is way too much homework! And for a kindergartener? This would make school a miserable experience for most kids.

And who ends up doing most of the work? You. They are basically sending your child homework so you can teach your child how to pass all of the standardized tests. It doesn't sound like they are concerned about giving your daughter actual learning skills. Those projects sound overly elaborate too--way beyond the skill level of a five or six year old.

Good thing your daughter is a bright student and is getting good grades. My daughter is a smart child and loves kindergarten, but I think if she were put in this environment, she would be drowning.

That sounds like a great way to turn a child off to school and learning.

Yikes.

Our kids go to public schools... I have my teaching credential (but currently teach preschool so that I don't have to put my youngest in daycare) but my husband is an admin in the local school district... and we both think that the amount of homework they have is ridiculous!!! My 2nd grader (who is far above grade level) spends roughly 90 mins a night on homework and my 1st grader (who is also above grade level) spends about an hour a night. IMO that is too much. I think that K-2 should be spending a max of 20 mins on homework a night. When is a 5-7 year old supposed to have time to be a KID, if they spend 7 hours at school and then spend another hour and a half doing homework, only to have time to just eat dinner and go to bed? My kids go to bed at 7:30 so this is a very real scenario for us. Homework is a very touchy subject for me because I get very frustrated at the amount of time it takes away from our weekday time as a family, doing things together. I know that as a family of educators I shouldn't feel this way, but I do.

Geez, that is a ridiculous amount of homework, not only for a K student, but even up to grade 3-4, in my humble, public school teacher opinion. I know charters have their own codes and expectations, very different from the public schools, but for a 5-6 year old? Wow. The point of homework, as I tell parents and as we believe where I teach, is for kids to reinforce skills taught in school but be able to do it independently. I teach grade 5, and the expectation for my students is that they have no more than 45 minutes 4 nights a week. 20 of those minutes are spent on reading, another 20 on math, and perhaps the remaining time on vocabulary or spelling as needed, IF assigned that week (we do both most weeks, but we skip weekly vocab and spelling if there is a short week with a day off). We seldom, if ever, get complaints from parents about this.

I have a first grader and a 4 year old, and my first grader could not do that work last year when she was in K for sure. This year, she gets a weekly homework packet on Monday and it's due on Friday. It has a page of math, a page of word wall words/sentences (usually 3 words), a page of some kind of "choice" activity, and a page involving writing... and when I say "writing", that means a first grade paragraph of 3 sentences or so. She can always do more if she chooses and has time. It takes my daughter at least two nights to complete it all, working at clips of about 20 min/night. I like to spread it out for her so she doesn't get stressed out after a full day of school, facing a huge packet of work.

You also say she gets good "grades" - do they letter grade her? Just curious. I know it's necessary to instill a love of learning into your daughter, and it's awesome that she seems to succeed at the work, I am just a little surprised at the volume. If it is working for her and your family, by all means, keep it up, it's not our opinions that matter. I thought charters had slightly longer school days than public, and go for even longer than 180 days/year? You would think they covered more of this in school.

It sounds exactly like the homework our child was given in First Grade.

I am sure she could have handled it in Kindergarten, but I think it is a bit much for all kindergartners to be given homework every night.

Some of them were only 4 a few months ago..

What we are learning as parents of students that were pretty advanced all through the school years, is that our children did great in school, were totally prepared for college, but some of them really burned out fast.

Going to school for 13 years and then 4 more years always being "challenged" to reach a higher level is fine for some, but not for all. That is years and years of stress and lots of work and studying, but not as much independent discovery. Then add in the extras.. Sports, music, art, the competitions for these also..

You have to really know your child and have good communications to make sure all of this is not too much for them. It is ok, for them to sleep in on the weekends.. To be able to "flop out" to know what it is like to just be.. Not to be so scheduled and always have an expectation from them..

There is a fine balance that each child needs, we need to make sure we watch for this in each of our different children. .

Yuck. Common sense says that is overwhelming. She is 5, maybe 6? How much is she going to be doing in 3-5th grades if she is doing all that this year? I think a lot of charter elementary schools pride themselves in piling on more homework than public schools to the point it seems more of a parental bragging and status thing to me. Personally, I would not be happy with that for my child because I would want her playing, reading for enjoyment, spending time with family and exploring other activities. The only homework a kindergartner should have is a tiny bit to get them into the regular homework habit. My girls are strong students (4th and 7th grade) but if they had all that in Kindergarten, it would have been a battle, with me completely managing and helping with all of it. I'm sure some kids can handle this, but even high achieving kids need time to just be kids.

I have never heard of Kindergartners having this much homework and would be so concerned about it I would be thinking of taking them out of this school.

Children need time after school to play and have fun. They go to school for 7 hours per day, of course in Kindergarten the do have a rest time and they do get to play some but kids learn while they play. They learn so many things, if you want to understand it better then google children learn while they play. I would tell the teacher we don't have time to do this much homework and that it is unacceptable for them to be assigning so much.

This much homework would take normal kids at least an hour every evening. That is just too many hours for a child to have to do school work.

Wow, that is a lot. My daughter gets a packet each week and it is mostly practicing letters. We also read together. And their homework is on the honor system, nothing has to be turned in.

My Kindergartner has only gotten homework twice so far this year. However, he attends a school where there are only 20 students in his class and 2 teachers. He gets a lot of attention. His school is well regarded and scores well on standardized tests in most subjects. It all depends on the school's philosophy. He might not have as much homework as your child, but he is instructed almost entirely in German (a language none of us speak) all day long. That may be why he doesn't get "home" work. His little brain needs a break at the end of the day.

yes, that seems like too much to me. My daughter is in 1st grade and has a weekly packet that she takes home that has about 2-3 math pages, spelling words, reading log, book report, and a couple other things to write about, and that's it for the whole week. Around 7-10 pages total.

I know exactly what school your daughter goes to - my son goes to Kindergarten there too! =)

I have often asked myself this same question. Since it is our first year in the "real" world of school, I have nothing to compare it to. Is it too much? We liked our local public school, but my son is bright and was already a fluent reader when Kindergarten started. We didn't want him to be bored covering basic things like letter sounds – we wanted him to be challenged. But we also couldn’t afford private school, so the charter school seemed like a great option.

While I do believe that play is important, and I realize that we are having to sacrifice some extra-curricular activities, I think a top-notch education is the most important thing I can give to my kids right now. I think he’s getting that at this school. (For the record, he still has time for piano and art lessons!)

Sometimes I get a little tired of defending my son’s school to others who think it’s too much. People seem to get offended by it, which in turn offends me, because hey - that’s where my son is currently going to school! So if you badmouth it, you’re badmouthing me and my choices!!

I met a woman recently who was asking me about the school, and when I told her about all the homework, I expected her to have the reaction of, “Oh that is just too much!” Instead, she surprised me by saying, “That sounds great. My son needs to go to college!”

So like you, I’ve often wondered the same thing, but my son is also doing very well in the school - almost all 100s, with a couple 95s and 98s so far. Clearly he was up for the challenge, so why not?? I think it’s setting a great standard for future learning and success in school – any school.

He loves his teacher (so do I), loves his classmates (so do I), loves the school (so do I). So we’re staying put, at least for now.

And just to clear up the record for those who mentioned it – the homework IS material that is covered in class. They do the same work in class, the homework just reinforces what they’ve learned. They are capable of so much more at this age than I realized!

My kindergartener goes to a good private school. The school decided not to set any homework for kindergarten students. All they do is bring home a reader each day to read with parents.

Homework has become INSANE!! My 3.5 yr old grandson has homework from pre-school every night. He's in a Montisorri school but homework at 3.5 yrs !!!!!

To me it sounds like a lot of homework.

Sounds like my 4th graders homework list.

Well, I can only tell you this: it's not "normal" for our school.
Our rule of thumb is approx. 10 minutes per grade in elementary school. My son is in 3rd grade and he can buzz through his homework in under 30 mins. It's review work, story review, spelling words for the week, math sheet, etc.
Personally, I wouldn't want my 5 year old doing that much school work at home. When would he play? That's the main "job" at 5!

This is more work than my third grader in public school.

Homework should be an extension of the classroom and should be a review of what they covered in class. My daughter can typically have her homework done within 15 minutes because she understands the material that was covered.

Are they actually covering all of this material in class? If they are than I say kudos. While I know my kindergartner could handle the work you mentioned I know most of her peers could not.

It sounds like the amount of work my daughter has, but her work is what I consider soft homework. We work through it each night before bed. Is it difficult work?

We do a rhyme page, religious study, read a decodable, I read a library book to her, study site words, and spell site words. Sometimes there are little art projects, but they are fun.

Your work load doesn't sound fun.

This sounds more like 1st or 2nd grade work. In K parents end up taking a lot of the responsibility for keeping track of everything. My son is in K too and he has much less homework.

Sounds like she's in a great school! Color me jealous! I'm homeschooling precisely because this is the amount of work good schools have done since the 50's, but many don't do now. It's also fairly standard for countries that are ahead of ours (most developed countries)

The "work" our local kindergarten covers is so far below this, it was pointless to send my daughter, because she already knew everything, and would be spending full days socializing. Now we do this much work at home every morning, and it still leaves time for music and foreign language lessons, karate, gymnastics and social play for the kids. If you pick up a book like "What Your Kindergartner Should Know" you'll see all of this is right on track, and it's sort of comparable to what 5th graders often know in some schools (if they're lucky).
My daughter (5) memorized The Night before Christmas for December, and we usually do one or two classic poems per month for memorization plus the other subjects you mention, math, science, she knows the continents, we're covering Christopher Columbus this week with world map we refer to all the time. I agree it's a lot of time when it spills into after school time from a full day (another reason we decided to keep her home and spare some hours for her), but it's all good for her. She's in the critical "sponge" stage when she has huge capacity for memorization. If I could send my daughter off to school and know she would be doing all this, and I ONLY had to help for homework, I'd be so happy! Congrats! She'll be at a great advanced level for first grade.

Both my girls go to the same school you are asking about. One is in kInder this year. The other is now in 3rd grade and has been a student there since kinder. While I agree that the workload is heavy, I also think that it has worked out well for my girls. They do their own work and have never had any real problem completing nightly work in more than 15 min. We just split the work up so that they do a little each night. The 3rd grader has made the choice to let her work pile up and has not enjoyed the results. It has taught them both about responsibility and time management.

In addition, as a family, we have made decisions about when homework can be "blown off" for family outings. They have so many grades that missing a few assignments makes very little difference. I know that the atmosphere of the school suggests perfection and perhaps elitism. But I have not found that to really be the case. The teachers are a lot more relaxed than it may appear. They certainly don't want your kids to be stressed out about homework.

Long story short, I love the school for the teachers, parents and kids. The workload is a bit heavy but nothing we haven't been able to manage. When you consider the alternatives in free education this is a minor gripe.

Just my opinion.

L

My son is in K and has one-tenth of that for homework. I think that's too much for a 5-6YO. But what can you do? That's what your school does, so make the most of it.

My only suggestion, if you even want it, is for you, as her mommy, to make LOTS of time for her to play, socialize with friends, and downtime with family. She's going to need some relaxation time for her brain.

Seems like a lot. I for one, am not a huge believer in elementary school homework... Our daughter is in Kindergarden at a very respectable private school in north dallas and they do not give homework until 1st grade (however, she does get a book sent home with her and is expected to read it with us several times a week). I know DISD gives homework in K, but seems to be just spelling words a few times a week.
Unfortunately, I think what happens is that schools are overcrowded and the only way for a teacher to get it all covered and know how a child is doing is to assign homework

That sounds like a lot, but it also sounds like a VERY academic kindergarten, so maybe not too much if you compare it to first grade elsewhere. My son is in Kindergarten this year and has substantially less, I think, but he was also one of only two fluent readers at the start of school (maybe 2nd-3rd grade level) and 5 others who could read already. Another 10 are still learning letter sounds and counting past ten.

His homework...sent home on Monday due Friday:

1) Language Arts page with five activities to do with me or on his own. I sign off on each one as we do them. Things like "Read the poem on the back of the page. Color all of the silent ks yellow. Circle all the words that name a body part. Underline the words that name a place." So it's only one page a week of that, but a page is five or six "activities" like that.

2) Math page similar to the Language arts page. Things like "Count the windows and doors in your house. Make a bar graph. Are there more windows or doors? How many more?" Again, 5 activities that each take him about ten minutes on his own.

3) "Readers Extra" Homework. He get's one more page for his reading group with a story to read and questions to answer on his own, plus about 5 vocabulary words.

4) He gets a library book every Thursday to be returned the next Thursday. If he reads it, he charts toward his monthly goal.

It ends up being about 10 to 20 minutes a night (longer if he gets distracted), which I think is plenty for Kindergarten. It sounds like your little girl is getting more than that, not just in terms of homework but the amount of TESTING as well. If she's happy, don't stress as long as YOU aren't being expected to teach her the material at home and it really is just a REVIEW.

HTH
T.

how much has to be turned in? My daughter gets roughly that amount, which is crazy! but I don't do it all. She gets a book every night that has to be read and you have to fill out a paper and return it and we do that homework, we also read for fun each night, and she does all of her other homework when we have time...not every night. She's already in before and after and by the tme sh gets home at 6ish, so after dinner, 7ish, and then time for bed almost...I'm not wating the 20 minutes I have with her on homework, also J. turned 5 in September and I'm not going to make her whole 5th year about only school and homework. Any other grade yes, but K...NO, if she was behind then yea, but honestly if she has to repeat K I'm fine, technically in all other districts in our city, shes too young to be in K anyway. My suggestion is if she likes doing all that homework and shes not in before and aftercare and you're a SAHM I'd keep doing it, but in my sittation it J. doesn;t work.

I think being in a Charter School is making a difference. If she's capable of doing the work, then that's great!

& yes, for some schools....some classes, homework is a part of life.