How Much Is Too Much Homework?

Most afterschool programs do offer homework time. Acctually everyone that my daughter attended did and this year they even have tutorials after for those who need it. See if you can get her into an outside aftercare of if they can start something at the school forthe kids to learn aftercare items.

If my son were going to a school with more advanced academics I would expect more than typical homework demands.

I think no homework is optimal (there is zero research supporting any benefit to kids younger than high school of having homework) and no more than 10 minutes a night would have been acceptable to me. When DS (first grade last year, in after care until 6 pm - mostly outdoor play, also own my own practice so no quitting) had more than that last year, I emailed his teacher that we would do what we could that did not interfere with our family time together and his bed time. She had no issues with it.

I would email the teacher and tell her what you are willing to do (I would say 10 minutes a night, but you might pick more) and leave it in her court. How far behind can you really get in first grade by doing your learning in the classroom? I am willing to bet not behind at all.

I also do NOT consider reading to be homework. I have always read with my son for more than 10 minutes a day and consider that family time.

Oh...I feel your pain. Although I am home full time and I have from 3:00 on with my kids, I still loathe the homework load.

I feel that more good will come out of the short two hours a night you have with your child by reading a bedtime book all snuggled up, talking about her day and having a family dinner together than the endless busywork worksheets. There are studies to prove this also...I am not just blowing hot air.

I was a teacher before having kids..and I don't agree with loading kids down with daily homework. Homework is stressing families out and is causing so much angst at a time when families should be relaxing, talking about their days and enjoying each other.

I personally try to keep it all in perspective. Grades don't even count at this age...and really don't until High School. Now is the time we want our kids loving to read and learn. We want them enjoying school. I keep my focus on that. So sometimes the homework packet just doesn't get done all the way, and I am ok with that. Maybe the teacher isn't but homework is sent home to be done on my time..not hers. This homework cuts into my time...and our precious family time.

I have told various teachers on multiple occasions that once the clock struck a certain time then we were done with homework in our house. I tell my kids to try their best at school and don't worry about the grade. I don't care about grades. I care that that they have a good attitude, treat others respectfully and try their hardest in all that they do.

This approach has worked well with us and has taken the stress off of them. They are all doing great in their studies. As they get older they can do more on their own and learn to pace themselves to get it done pretty quickly. Your little one needs constant help and shepherding so it takes an adult to stand watch.

If I were in your shoes I would tell the teacher that I will try our best to get the homework done but that I won't allow it to cut into our precious 2 hours we have together. See if you can get the packet done on the weekend and just read on the weekday evenings before bedtime. Maybe look into an after care program that will help with homework. Have you thought about going to a public school? Mine are in public schools and we absolutely love it. I know the full time working parents love the after school program because homework gets done there.

Good luck!!

I think 1/2 hour is plenty for 1st grade. Studies show that homework is not necessary for scholastic success, with the exception of math, and that too much homework is detrimental.

My experience is also that too much homework (esp. in the early grades), is detrimental and unnecessary. In hindsight, if I had a kid who couldn't/wouldn't do it quickly, instead of making my family life hell by fussing over homework, I would have fun with the homework and help them out/do it with them where appropriate.

Your kid already had a full day of school. Family time is equally, if not more, important. It shouldn't be taken up with busywork.

Take a step back and consider that both you and she are adjusting to a new school; to first grade; to the idea of homework, period; and to the schedule she now has with being picked up at 6:00 and so on. You and she both can get more used to this. This is also a great opportunity to teach her time management and how to set priorities. Kids do have to be taught those things, and taught HOW to study.

What you describe does not sound like it's too much; it's more than some schools but it's what I'd expect from a strong academic program.. To answer the question, no, I don't think it's justified to be annoyed. The "10 minutes per class per night" stuff is just never accurate, I've found. And the fact that she gets some choice in what she completes over the week -- wow, that is in my experience very unusual, so be glad that she gets any choice at all. And is the 10 to 15 minutes of online math, three times a week, ALL of the math homework each week or is that on top of nightly written work? If the computer time is the only math homework-- that is not much at all, and less than many kids would get.

You chose an academically more rigorous school and this homework is one sign of how it's going to continue to be.

As others noted, the real issues may be your family's time and pickup arrangements. She needs a new after-school care place, one that requires the kids to sit down and do homework while there. This makes a big, big difference. Yes, kids should definitely have some time to blow off steam and run around immediately after school! But if she gets some of her homework done before pickup at 6, that will take a lot of pressure off the rest of the evening.

I would make it a priority to find after-school care where there is serious support for her to do homework there, without other kids running around her. If you ask the current place to encourage her to do it there -- let's face it, that's not going to happen if the other kids are just being babysat and she's told to sit at a table and do homework. I'm surprised the school does not offer some kind of after-school "homework club" or care arrangements of its own. Does it? Are you willing to push the school to consider that?

If this is a private school, my guess is that you are paying tuition?

If you are paying, you are the customer. AKA "always right".

I think you need to tell the teacher that while you are in favor of paying for your DD to have a rigorous education, the percentage of her [FIRST GRADE] education that is being dumped on out-of-school time just is not feasible for your family's needs. The teacher needs to work *with* you (especially since she basically works FOR you) to figure out a different way of handling the work.

ETA: Two great suggestions from other posts, that I think you should mention in a conversation with teacher: can she give the list of assignments out on Friday instead of Monday to allow people to get started over the weekend, and, find out if any of these assignments could be considered "optional". Also, you really might want to look for after-school care that helps with homework...rather than waiting til so late in the evening to even get started.

I think you have a legitimate complaint. Some notable educators believe that no homework is really necessary before at least 5th or 6th grade. And some of the most academically-successful nations give little or no homework. You may find this article by Alfie Kohn thought-provoking: http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/rethinkinghomework.htm

I suggest you meet with your daughter's teacher and tell her how stressful this pressure on your home life is. She may simply not have a realistic picture of how quickly the bits and pieces add up. If it turns out she's required to assign this work, it might be time to connect with other parents with similar struggles and advocate for your children and your families.

Wishing you well.

It sounds like the main issue is the after-school care. The program at my kid's school (public) includes homework time/help for those kids who have work to do. If the after school care at your daughter's school is simply babysitting playtime, I'd look for another solution.

Perhaps an off-site program, or a babysitter that can pick her up after school and be home with her, getting started on the work. Most of the time, it would be done before you're home leaving you free to just spend time together doing what you want to do.

Most aftercare programs provide time for homework. I'd talk with them about ways that your daughter could get help there.

I would also treat homework as something that gets done when possible but not something to cause stress when its not possible. As the previous mom suggested, I'd help her so that it gets done more quickly. Family time is important too. I'd try to get the work done but I would only spend as much as 30 minutes at the most on it and not every night. Incorporate reading into bedtime stories.

Homework is overdone in my opinion and professionals have agreed. Be polite and cooperative with the teacher while making an effort but don't let homework rule the evening.

My kids are in public school and all of their teachers have told us to expect ten minutes per grade per night of homework, this does not include reading time or project time. So my third grader should finish his math problems in 30 minutes, the first grader should take 10, and my fifth grader should take almost an hour.

All of my kids are different though. Rarely does my daughter (5th grade) spend more than 20-30 minutes on her homework. My 1st grader (son) takes a long time because he is so set on being extremely neat, and I'm okay with that. My 3rd grader gets a little more distracted and is a little more messy, so while he finishes well within the 30 minutes, sometimes he has to erase and start over.

The rule we have is that if the child is honestly working on homework and not focused on other things, and they go way over their time limit, we will talk to the teacher. Either the kid is not getting the "how to" in school (meaning they either don't understand or the teacher isn't teaching it - we have found both) or they honestly have too much homework - which we found when our oldest was in 3rd grade.

So you need to judge what works for your family and your child. But if it's taking hours per night, I'd find out why and work to fix it.

She should be doing her homework at her after school program. She is there for three hours!! You might need to start looking into an alternative after school program. I hope you did not expect the teacher to change her
Expectations because should get home at 6PM.

She should be doing the homework at after school care. Most of them provide a snack time and then time for homework before going to the play area. My children went to Catholic school prek-8.
Ask them at afterschool to make sure she does the homework first. She will get it done. And what your describing is no different than the homework at most public schools except the prayers part.

For spelling words just say the words have her write them down. The ones she misses have her write them correctly 5 times each.

Your annoyed because you have taken on her homework as yours. Give it back to her and let her do it. All you should be doing is checking it.

I can't say what is normal. Private schools do tend to load them up on homework. They think it makes them "better" schools and many actually advertise the homework load as if it is a selling point.

That's my experience anyway.

I also think that if your daughter just had a few worksheets to do each night, it wouldn't seem so overwhelming to either of you (vs. having to log into a website and click around to various ones).

Does the school ofter "after-care"? Some schools do and they often are a little more helpful when it comes to getting the homework knocked out. She could at least read for 10 minutes.
Depending upon your car ride, she could read to you in the car and have that already done before you arrive home.

I would also recommend that you review the spelling words for a few minutes on the weekend and then "quiz" her verbally in the car. Copy the list down yourself and keep it on a sticky note so that when you stop at a light you can glance at it and call out one or two words.

These seem small and maybe not how you want your car ride home to go. But it can save you 20 minutes at home on the back end. Neither of you "loses" time... you are trapped in the car for the duration of the ride whether you call out spelling words or she reads aloud or not.

Is there any chance that her after school care (sitter?) has a laptop she can use to log into her math site for 15 minutes? If it is a busy place, then that isn't likely to work, because ALL the kids will want to play on the computer. But if it is small enough, perhaps it is a possibility.

I would also recommend you figure out a schedule for yourselves if you aren't already following one.
M, T, Th, she logs in and does math.
M, T, W she does one each of the 3 homework assignments of her choosing (that she has to do 3 of)
W, Th, F, Sat Sun she reads.

And practice spelling for 5-10 minutes in the car, then have her copy the list once at home on paper.

Done.

I know, sounds so much easier than the reality of making it happen.
I would talk to the teacher and find out what they consider the priorities to be if she is unable to get to everything. Which item would she LEAST be bothered by if it didn't happen. Strive to get them all, but if sometimes one thing has to slide, be sure it is that thing.

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And yes, there is child care that makes sure that homework needs are addressed during the time they are there. The martial arts studio our kids go to also offers an after-school program and they pick the kids up from school, provide a snack, then like another poster said, they give them a work area and supervision/help. When the homework is done, there is a martial arts class. Then the kids have free time until the parents pick them up... usually by 6:00 pm.

Hi DVMMOM, when my kids were in a small neighborhood Catholic school, the after school program addressed homework. My kids didn't go to aftercare, but I worked it for years. The very FIRST thing we did everyday was sit the kids down and get the homework done. I'm sorry you don't have this. Overall, it took no longer then 20 mins for the aids (3 of us) to overlook all the kids' (between 10 and 20 kids) homework done.

I wonder if you might be better off with an afterschool in home babysitter? Even a neighborhood teenager could address homework.

My daughter (16) gets the neighbor's kid off the bus everyday. Mom gets home a couple hours later. No SpongeBob until the homework is done, hehehe. Plus little kids always respond to "work" better with the babysitter.

:)

You need some different after school care where they work on the homework before playtime.
This is what they do at the after school care at the taekwondo place our son goes to.
The kids get picked up at school (or from middle school they can take a bus right to the taekwondo place), then they have a quick snack, then it's homework time (they have a room for it and there are 2 ladies that watch and help the kids if they have questions) and after it's finished the kids have a tkd class and then they can play some video games or dodge ball.
The great thing is when parents pick kids up, the work is done (they still look through it and sign as some schools require parents to sign it) and the rest of the evening is settling down, having supper and bedtime.
If your current after school care can't do something like this then find another place - because they DO exist - and they really make life SO much easier!

I think that unless you move her to the public school, this will just increase. So if you want to stay at the small school you're in, you'll have to make do. It's just going to get more intense, so feeling annoyed isn't going to help.

What I would recommend is that you change her after school situation instead. Talk to the mothers in your daughter's class. Find some who would like to do a little afterschool care, and pay them to watch your daughter. That way both of the kids could do their homework before you pick your daughter up. And when she gets home, all the work is done and what you can do with her is read to her fun stuff before bedtime.

Child care workers should never have homework time. Do you really want someone who may not even be making a D+ in a subject helping your child? No, you don't. Home work is for home and not for anyone but mom or dad to help kiddo with.

They should have some down time after school, they've already been in school over 8 hours when they finally get out. They are not adults and should not have to spend another hour or two on school work.

I do not agree with kids having homework other than a research paper or some sort of report of similar stuff.

I think if a teacher cannot teach the kids the topic during school hours to the point where they can readily understand it then they need to manage their time better during the day.

I am so grateful this year in 4th grade the teacher has homework time built into her classroom time. The kids hardly ever bring home anything. They do it all during the day. If they are behind they stay in during last recess and get it done.

I so appreciate a teacher who expects the kids to get the information and get it all done within the time limit of the day.

The only thing she is to do is read at home. She reads a couple of books per week so that's not an issue.

The other kiddo has home work every day and it takes him about 30 minutes or more. Then he is supposed to read too. He's not reading yet but we feel he's just not made the connection yet. I'll be going through the program guide and he'll tell me "XXXX is on, I want to watch that". So I know he does recognize words but he doesn't know he is doing that. I expect he'll be reading by the end of the school year.

I truly expect the kids to have a life outside of school. I truly expect them to get their educational work done during the school hours. They should have time in all those hours there to do the work they need to do.

My son (5th grade) is also in a parochial school and I will start out by saying that your daughter's workload is much more homework than he had in 1st and more than he has now. My guess it that her teacher is young, trying to prove herself and has no family of her own, thus does not put a high value on family time. I could be wrong. The extra online stuff seems to put it over the edge. For us, any of the online suggestions were optional, as an alternative way to study math facts, etc.

In 1st, 2nd and 3rd he definitely had more homework than 4th and 5th. It seems to depend on the teacher and what she believes and how much they are able to get done in class. My son has basically the same teachers this year as last and they don't believe in piling on the homework and I LOVE it! I am concerned that the next few years may be a tough transition if those teachers hand out more work, but we will deal with that next year.

The first thing I would insist on, if possible, is to get some homework time added to the aftercare. I'm guessing most parents with kids in your program would welcome that! Maybe you could talk with some of them and try to push that through. Maybe the teacher should also help push it through, since she is the one piling on the work! I believe our after school care does help with homework.

As far as your daughter's workload--reading most days is a given. For us it was 20 minutes and a combination of read to self, read to someone, and listen to someone reading to them. We did that in the car or at bedtime.

Spelling practice for us should have been every night, but it just didn't work out that way. Do it when you can. Our best method was just like in school. I would say the words and he would write them. I had him write the words he missed 3 times. It went very fast. That way you can check that her writing is up to par, also. You can also do quick little oral tests throughout the week in the car.

I would save the online math and reading for weekends. She could do all three log-ons in one day, if necessary. I would prioritize the worksheets and random stuff and try and get those done first. The random stuff really does throw a parent for a loop. I hope you get a little warning of upcoming extra work in the teacher's emails. When we did have extra stuff to do at home, the teachers seemed to back off on the day to day homework or tried really hard to finish in class which is not easy in a class of 28!

I do hope things get a little easier as time goes on. Something needs to give. I know you would hate for your little girl (and her mom!) to get burned out in 1st grade. If all else fails you can always have words with the principal, because yes, I do think you are justified in feeling annoyed about this.

My son was in 1st grade last year and this sounds similar to his work from last year. I have to admit that we were overwhelmed with it at first. However, you are only a little over a month into the school year. Once you get into a routine, it DOES get easier. We always knew that Mondays were tough because that it when he got his new spelling words for the week. Therefore, I tried to do a simpler dinner that night in a crock pot or just something that could bake in the oven while we did homework.

Give it time. I don't think the right approach is to just tell the teacher that you won't be doing some of the homework. This makes it appear as if you do not value education and feel that her class structure is appropriate.

This sounds pretty typical, at least of private or parochial schools. My kids were in a private school for their first few years, then Catholic school and this is almost exactly what they both had to do in 1st grade. I would expect more out of your after school care. She is there 3 hours and gets NO homework done? Obviously the website work will have to wait, but the work in the packet can be done. My husband and I worked full time when the kids were in 1st grade, still do. We DID do a lot on the weekends. Not ideal, but that's what it takes.

This sounds about right . I feel your pain . Its hard for us to get it all done because of dance,ty kwon do etc. I can imagine that there doesn't seem to be enough time because of the 3 hours of after care in which none of this gets taken care of . Can you ask the after care to have her work on some of this? Sometimes all they need is a thank you (gift card) . Hope it gets easier :)

By the way , we always keep the spelling words in the car and go over them on the way to school .

That sounds about right. My childern go to Catholic school and they have about 1 to 2 hours a day. (3 and 5 grades)
I do have to agree with the other posters, the after care sounds like an issue. Both my children go to aftercare and from 3 to about 4 (school gets out at 3) they have snack and play. Then at approx 4 they do their homework. Each grade has its own aftercare counslers that assist with homework and all of that. I pick up my children at 530 and 9 times out of 10 all of their stuff is done. I would maybe bring up with the school ways to make aftercare more productive.
Many blessings and good luck to you

The amount of work sounds about equal to what my kids do. I do understand how hard it is. I was just thinking the other day that I don't even know how a single working parent would do this. I work full time but from home so I do not even have the commute time, and it still sucks up so much time.
The amount of homework is not likely to change so you will need to come up with a solution. Lots of parents I know have their kids doing homework in the car or even in the waiting room of doctor's offices. I have considered having my kids do their daily reading in the mornings before school. And, as others mentioned, during after school care is a great time for her to be doing at least some of the homework- at least the easy parts.

First grade is alot for any kid, there is so much going on. My son is now in second grade and I can see already with the first month it is alot easier adjustement compared to first grade. I felt overwhelmed at the begining of First Grade also but by Nov/Dec it was alot easier.

It sounds a tad excessive, but not that bad. Each week our first grader had to do a math worksheet packet (5 sheets), read for 20 min a night and complete a few minutes here and there of writing worksheets or special projects. For spelling, we study 2 words a night to prep for his Friday test and if he gets them all right on his pre-test, we don't have him study.

I would try to keep the homework sessions short and sweet, by setting a timer for 15 min and working with her. When the timer goes off, you are done for the night. If they can help her get started in her after school program, even better. They need to at least encourage them to get started on homework. As far as the website stuff, I'd cut that down to 1-2 days a week, maybe do those on the weekends. You need to make the right decisions for your family and if you think she'll keep up, then limit some of the busy-work.

I really don't see thirty minutes to an hour each day as excessive. My daughter got take-home assignements each day that had to be turned in the next day, not a list that she picked three for the week from.

Can her dad pick her up and help her with homework instead of after-school daycare?

Is your clinic on the school bus route? If so, could you arrange to have her take the school bus to your clinic and let her use the computer in your office?

This sounds similar to my son's first grade homework. One thing different is we get the homework packet on Friday. This allows us to do some of the work over the weekend. My husband was wonder why I made him do homework on the weekend and I explained that he needs some down time after school then he is expect to read for 15 minutes and then review the spelling words. So far the words and math are not challenging for him, so he get a bigger break after school if the packet is completed over the weekend. I'm sure some might think this is wrong, but it works for us.

I feel like I am sitting over him a lot.

First, I do think that there is a lot of extra work you are getting sent home. My son's (he is in first grade) school does send some math homework to us from time to time, but most of that instruction is done at school. We have a list of tasks from M-Thurs which would take the typical kid about 20-30 minutes tops; my son has a vision dysfunction so he does take longer and I sit with him to help encourage him and stay on task. The homework includes writing out spelling words three times (once a week), have a loved one read to you for 20 minutes, read to a loved one for 15 minutes and two other tasks focused on literacy and writing. They may choose 4 out of the 5 each week, reading and spelling are musts and two of the tasks are optionals.

If I were in your situation, I might try to find a care provider who can help your daughter in getting at least some of the homework done. Despite some persons' low opinions of child care providers, we do expect that anyone providing care for a first grader has at least mastered this level of work, right? During the years I was a nanny, I helped children with their homework after school; we had a routine of having afternoon tea/snack and a play break, then got out the assignments and I helped the children get settled to their tasks, explained anything they didn't quite understand, and generally things went very smoothly and successfully. This may help to bridge that gap so that your girl can spend more of a pleasant evening with you and not be exhausted when finally starting on this work.

If you feel that your care provider is competent to the task of helping your girl with homework, giving general guidance, I would go for it and ask her to do it. Double-check the work if need be (if she's caring for multiple kids, she may be distracted) and see how it goes. I personally don't think an hour of homework is a worthwhile use of time for little kids, and six is still pretty little. What are they spending the class time on? So, if you can help your care provider get your daughter settled into it, so much the better.

I don't think that overall it's too much work, I think they just don't give you enough time to do it. Maybe you could talk to the teacher about giving the assignments on Friday instead of Monday, so they a full week - including the weekend - to complete them. That's what my son's teacher does and it makes a big difference for working moms and kids who are really busy with extracurriculars.

My son is also in first grade. He gets a homework packet every Friday that is due the following Friday. This week, it contained:
3 math worksheets (one-sided and REALLY easy)
1 handwriting practice - copy a sentence in your best writing and draw a picture
1 page with five scrambled sentences that they had to re-write in the correct order
1 Calendar page - fill in the days in October and write one thing you notice about the month
1 measurement/math fact page - bigger and smaller, find all the rectangles (easy)
1 sheet of sight words to read and practice daily (my son reads fluently so I had him do this once and skipped it for the rest of the week)
1 book to read every day to practice reading fluently, using proper inflection, punctuation, etc
In addition, they have to read, or be read to, for 15 minutes per day (which includes the time they spend reading the book they were assigned)

Total, it comes to about two worksheets per day, each of which takes about 5 minutes (a couple might take 10) plus reading. I think they will eventually get spelling lists but we haven't started that yet.

Maybe your daughter could do some of the homework herself at after school care, like practicing her spelling and 10-15 minutes of reading. That way, she only needs to do the extra projects and the math website when she's at home. She can do the math site while you're making dinner and you can work together on one of her assignments afterwards.

This sounds similar to what our daughter had in first grade except everyday they had homework which was math, reading and then we studied the spelling words.

The spelling words included writing them and using them in sentences. (not each day, but through the week) As well as me calling them out. Sometimes, my husband would call them out.

At the beginning of the year writing the words out is what took the longest, but she got faster after a few months.

Our daughter did not need me to sit with her, I was around so she could call on me if she needed help.

The suggestion in First grade was to have the student stop at 10 minutes. Finished or not finished. IF we felt the child was frustrated,. This would allow the teacher to see how the child was doing at home. Our daughter refused to do this, she insisted on finishing, so I would write on the paper how long it took her to complete the work.

Where does your daughter go for after school care?
That is where the homework should be done. She could have a snack and then do homework, that way when you get home you all have dinner, maybe look over her completed homework together,

Do you feel she is struggling? Or do you think she just works slow?

I do agree, she should get faster at the homework once she gets into the groove.

If you feel she is struggling, speak with her teacher and see how she is doing in class. Maybe see how the spelling test goes with her writing etc, Is she able to complete the classwork in the given time?

Some children are perfectionist and will take longer. Some children are easily distracted.

Our daughter needed some down time after school. A snack and then about 30 minutes of watching TV or visiting with me, before she would want to start her homework.

Your daughter sounds fine to me, just keep communication with the teacher to see what she suggests.

Can someone at her day care get her set up to do homework?

Jeez, you may as well homeschool.

Believe it or not, it will get easier. I don't mean better, I mean easier. As she comprehends more, it won't take so long. So it will go in waves as they are introduced to something new, they will struggle as they master the concept, it will be easier.

The situation is similar here and our daughter is in a few sports. So last year was a struggle and on top of that, she is a reverse reader and writer. Reading her own instructions was a challenge. She was placed in a reading program at school, however, it didn't really help her improve. The school suggested she be placed in a reading program for the summer. I chose Kumon, which turned out to be a year long commitment. I wondered how we would do everything when the school year started, but so far we have been good. I just got a call that she is now reading a year ahead. So, she can read and comprehend her own homework with minimal assistance. They offer math, but I only put her in reading. As for math, I have been putting the same 3's & 4's addition problems on the board until she can do them in under a minute, now we are working on 5's and 6's and she is under a minute and a half. With that, she gets through her homework faster. As well, for spelling words, I start the week by asking her to fill in a few letters of the spelling word. So if the word is running I write ru_ _ing on the board and ask her to fill in the blanks. The next day, I will write run_ _ _ _. By Wednesday she is spelling the word on her own and then we write sentences. There are less corrections that way and it moves along a little faster. On game night, I usually ask her to do her reading or coloring her map in the after school program. If she doesn't read after school, I also keep a couple of books in the car for her to read. It is a busy schedule, but I think it is all worth it.

It's hard for a teacher to balance pleasing parents in regards to homework. As a teacher I gave minimum because at least no one could say I never gave homework. As a parent, I made my son study over breaks and during the summer. I did not rely on homework from the teacher.

However, when my son was in grade 4, his homework load was about to drive me crazy. I complained anonymously to the principal.