is with Kindergarten and 1st Grade.
In K, my son had homework every couple of days, and it was
almost optional. The teacher wanted to get him into the habit of doing homework, but didn't hold it against them if they skipped it once in a while.
He's in 1st now, and he gets homework every night except for Fridays. Usually it is one or two worksheets that take him less than 10 minutes to complete. I think that's pretty reasonable. Actually, I was surprised to find out that they are allowed a certain number of "misses" during a month (2 or 3, I think) where they can skip/forget their homework. I would have thought they'd be a little more strict about it, but I guess it
is only first grade, after all. He's recently also been given three longer-term projects - a craft that was to be done with the whole family (read: me!
), a book report (which really just consists of writing the author's name, the title of the book, and one sentence describing whether he liked the book or not), and practicing his line for a play they will be performing in November. All of this seems fairly reasonable to me.
Now, I have heard that in the older grades, they often have a few
hours of homework per night. I can't really comment on that, but if it's true, I really don't look forward to it - it's hard enough getting the little guy to spend 10 minutes on his homework without a fight!
Lisa
