Is this abnormal for 4th grade homework?

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School started last week. Mo's assigned teacher had a baby 30 minutes before the first day of class so he has had one substitute or another for the last two weeks. The main sub has never taught before -- she did her internship at Mo's school last year -- but she was "hand-picked" by the regular teacher to run the class.

This week Mo has been assigned:

Monday -- a 20 word spelling list, practice daily, test on Friday; reading 30 minutes each day
Tuesay -- 4 pages of English worksheets, due Friday.
Thursday -- A one page book report, due Friday.

This schedule will be repeated for the duration.

Like most kids, Mo has other things on his schedule (school 6 hours 5 days a week, football for 2.5 hours 3 nights a week plus a game on Saturdays, sleep, eating, relaxing) and this homework load is wicked.

I'm a big believer in athletics but I'm even considering making him drop football. The problem with this is that getting to go to football is his chief motivator in getting the homework done without a big hassle.

Mo's been a real trooper getting it done but I'm a little worried. He's exhausted.

Anyway...

Does 1+ hours of homework a night seem like an absurd amount of homework for 4th grade?

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Type: Question • Score: 22 • Views: 20,044 • Replies: 227

No.

I might argue with the exact homework, but not I'm against it as such. I'm willing to listen to why nots re specifics, though. But - I was doing book reports in early fourth grade, and I figure I had lame education.

You think the children shouldn't have homework? Going over new concepts at home generally helps.

I guess I'm a freak, my parents never helped me with homework. Ever. As you know, I'm not that bright.
Still, I got some legs.

I'm chary of solving stuff by parents as a cushion, though not all against.
At the same time, I get that when there are genuine blocks, interventions could help.

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@ossobuco,

I think I went to school in the pleistocene age.

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I'm no expert on such things, but I would say one hour/day is minimal if not too little. Starting good habits early is a good idea, but some parents go overboard and overdo most things concerning their children.

There's a huge difference between supervision and control.

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@boomerang,

The 20 words, what is demanded on the English worksheets, and the standards demanded on the book report might make a difference. I don't recall what I had in the 4th grade. I wasn't much on homework.

My feeling is that if it can be done in approximately one hour, it isn't excessive. My other feeling is that I would be very careful about complaining about too much education, and you could come across this way.

If the teacher is piling on the homework as a substitute for classroom teaching, my feelings could change.

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@boomerang,

Wow no.

We have 20 minutes of reading a day (unassigned, whatever, just 20 minutes of it), a spelling test on Monday (also 20 words I think) that if you ace you don't have to retake Friday (and if you miss words, you have to retake the ones you missed on Friday).

She has a book group that requires her to read a few chapters and come up with a question, once/ week.

Then occasional miscellaneous homework (collect 10 seeds and bring in two weeks hence).

There is also miscellaneous math homework, practice sheets, games we're supposed to play at home, etc.

That's all I can think of. Most days she has no homework at all (she always reads 20-30 minutes before bed, no matter what, including weekends and summer, so that doesn't get filed under "homework"), and the days she does it's not much -- averaged out it can't be more than five minutes a day (not counting the reading).

Is this the new school? Not sure what ended up happening with that.

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@sozobe,

Good points, soz. I always encouraged my kids to read, and they both did well in school.

But, you know what? I used to read stories to them at bedtime, and both my boys don't remember that. Hurt my feelings real bad.

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@boomerang,

No. Not excessive by today's standards. Would have been excessive in my day, but we only had homework if we didn't finish the day's studies. I never did homework.

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@ossobuco,

I had book reports due in 4th too, but they weren't assigned on Thursday afternoon and due the following morning.

I absolutely think children should have homework. This just seems like a LOT of homework for a 9 year old. I don't think I had an equivilent homework load until high school and I think I got a great education.

I'm not chary about stepping in at all. Especially when dealing with an inexperienced teacher.

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@cicerone imposter,

Hmmmm.... supervision and control.

I'm going to have to chew on that from the perspecitive of a parent of a student in special education......

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@roger,

Me!? Complain about school!?

Nevah!!!!

The homework is fairly demanding. In fact, I had a hard time with this:

Pick the word from the list to complete the group:

pancake, road, dough, ______________ ("flatten" was the only possible response.

and....

gears and clock; string and _____________ ("puppet" was the only word from the list that would possibly fit)

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@boomerang,

Had they read the book already or did they have to read the book and write the report the same night. If so, that is excessive, for anybody. If they'd already read it, no big deal. It's a one page report, right? Maybe it's due the following Friday?

All in all, no, I don't think that's too much homework - I'd be more concerned about the timing of it so it's actually possible to do it.

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@sozobe,

Are you saying "Wow no" it is abnormal, or "wow, no" it's normal?

We too read every night. Always have. On football nights when Mo gets home at 8 and has to shower and have dinner I usually read to him. Other nights he reads to us. Otherwise he wouldn't get in bed until 11.

What your saying Sozlet has is about what I expected.

He's still going to the same school. I couldn't come up with the $16,000 a year for the other one.

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@Intrepid,

It would have been excessive in my day too!

Today's standards suck.

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@Mame,

Yes. It is only a one page report and it can be on any book. I think one page is a lot when you're 9 and you're just learning to spell words like "finger" and "admire".

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@boomerang,

45 minutes to an hour a night, 5 nights a week is about the expectation here in 4th grade (there's a chart somewhere of what the grade expectations are)

the next big jump here is in 7th grade, when there seems to be a real demand for kids to do significant weekend school prep

edit - it's roughly 15 minutes per grade per night

1 Reply

Nope, not considered excessive at all.

SonofEva always did his math homework (and sometimes his reading) in the car on the way to evening sports or karate practice. You might try that.

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@ehBeth,

Thanks. That's a handy calculation to have.

I think I'm going to have to make him drop football. There is no way he can keep this up for the next 3 months.

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@boomerang,

For the child with trouble at home, difficulty re getting a report out in a day is clear and a worry.

A one page report in a day, however messed up, normal. I remember messing words up. I still do.

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@Eva,

Practice is 5 minutes from the house and it's dark out when they come home so that won't work.

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Is this abnormal for 4th grade homework?

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