Is this abnormal for 4th grade homework?

Do you think that is a fair amount of homework? Too much? Too little?

Because of the fixed schedule, you might be able to spread things out somewhat. If you know you have a book report due every week, can you do it on the weekend? My fifth grader does some of his reading at school for example.

I think athletics are equally important to academics.

Also, many people suggest that attending school has great benefits in social development. I think team sports does a better job with it than school does.

Did they also note that on average the in class school day in the U.S. is shorter than it was 20 years ago, by about an hour.

I really don't think that I'm conveying an "Unfair!" attitude. He's getting the work done, so far with little fuss. I'm the one who thinks he needs more time to daydream, goof off, and run around. I'm discussing this here, not with him.

I think the teacher's inexperience does matter; Mo is a pretty complicated kid. I'm not saying it makes her a bad teacher. And I'm not saying the teachers who have been around for a long time are all good teachers.

I can certainly agree about what you're saying about the media talking heads. Mo isn't exposed to any of them, not even the ones I think are on target.

Using the 10 minute per year it seems like what Sozlet is getting is right on target: 30 minutes of reading plus 5-10 minutes of other school work. I could totally live with that. Mo's only been in class for 1.5 weeks -- I hope it doesn't build from here!

1 hour a night isn't too long for a student at any grade. I regularly had that much homework assigned as a kid. And sometimes much more.

I also think that athletics are important - but not so much as academics. It all depends on what the kid is good at; I was great at math (at that age) so I blew through that homework, but not as good at writing papers, so that seemed like it took FOREVER. The real skill is to learn to just bang it out so you can go on and do more fun stuff - that's what adult life is all about anyway.

Cycloptichorn

But don't you think adults should have more responsibilities than a nine year old?

If I only had 4.5 hours of unsupervised time each day I would go batshit crazy.

I don't see a problem with it. But then again I grew up on a farm where free time during the school year was 3 hours on a saturday and half hour in the evenings. Socially among the lower middle class down, the let kids be kids ideal (kids should have free time and little to no responsibility other than school and extracurriculars) is only a couple decades old. It is currently surficially prominent among some child developement specialists and quick becoming a middle class mantra for parents. I however, like many things, think it is a sign of the socio-economic change in the 1st world. 4 decades ago a child phsychologist could not have said this, and likely never would have thought it. Even such people who were studying children decades ago never mentioned it. Low income families just could not afford to let their children have this amount of free time.

As an anecdotal example I will use myself as a child and the area in which I was raised. I had no homework because I did it class instead of listening to teachers, however my friends had plenty of homework. I was never forced to make adult decisions as a child and I had a very memorable childhood full of good times for which I am regularly nostalgic, but I have been working for pay since I was 8. We were poor, in farm country. We helped the family wherever we could. It didn't stunt me in anyway as it didn't stunt all the other kids who grew up in my little town doing pretty much the same thing. It was normal. Granted if this is not normal compared to the other kids his age whith whom he is friends it might pose a problem. None of us had free time, we still managed to have friends, play football, learn musical instruments. The national average of us went on to college, earned degrees, got jobs, had families. The national average of us seem to be functional and fairly happy.

They did their homework at school?

We've always done homework right after school too (and sometimes in the morning before school, always sitting at the table, always with what are considered "good study habits", then I read this the other day and I'm not sure what to think....

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html

I'm ALL for spending more time in school! Bring it on!!

I'd love to read about that.

I'm not trying to get Mo exempt from homework. I just think it's bizarre that they get so much of it.

Do your kids get homework yet, DrewDad? How do you feel about it?

Actually since only 20 minutes of her reading is required, and I don't think it's more than five minutes/day average of non-reading homework, that's more like 25 minutes, not 40.

I do think that will change for her. Various things are being phased in, like more math is coming soon I think.

I'm definitely surprised at how little it is at this point. Although I know some of that is because of skatingness (if spelling tests and reading were harder, it would be different).

I know you laid out the work itself but how much time does this tend to take for Mo on a daily basis? Sorry if you said and I missed it.

Edit: ah there it is at the bottom of your OP, 1+ hours of homework. If about half of it is reading, I guess that doesn't seem like a huge amount, no.

The book report was sprung on us yesterday afternoon. He came home with the packet saying it was due this morning and that he wasn't completely sure what he was supposed to do. There weren't any instructions to help me understand it either. I sent an email to the teacher (the substitue) (who it turns out had a substitute in for her yesterday) but I still haven't heard back.

As to the four worksheets -- they came home on Tuesday afternoon and were due on Friday morning so we can't work on those over the weekend.

Can reading at school really count towards homework? This is something I should investigate. Thanks!

We live in Oregon which has one of the shortest school years in the country.

More class, less homework sounds very good to me.

I think one hour a night is too much for any student at any grade. I just don't see much benefit in homework and the more I read about it the less benefit I see.

I agree that the real skill is just getting it over with. Well said.

Well that's sucky. What did you end up doing re: the book report?

Is it possible that it was mentioned earlier and this was a follow-up? That's definitely a difference I've noticed in fourth grade. In previous grades there was more communication with parents about assignments. Now kids are expected to keep track of things themselves (if sozlet doesn't tell me something is due, I might not know about it).

Oh! Some of the homework studies I've been reading talk about economic status and homework and how less free time/less parental help/more responsiblities in low income children is creating an even bigger gap in the "haves" and "have nots". I'll have to see if I can find some of those again.

You sound like my nephew -- the one who quit school after 5th grade and beat his peers into college. He's fabulously smart and learned most of it on his own.

I guess it's possible.

If they're counting on Mo to get the message we're going to miss a lot of stuff. That's why I sent the email to the sub.

The book report did not get done. He tried/we tried/too much drama for early morning just before class.

I also don't see much benefit in homework. I never needed to do the same thing 30 times to get it right, and homework was quite boring and frankly a waste of my time a lot of time.

He'll get through it and my guess would be that the teacher - who sounds young and eager - will get tired of grading all that homework after a while and back it down a bit.

Cycloptichorn

Maybe that's something that can be improved for the future then... it sounds like the last-minute nature of it was a big part of the problem. If it's a weekly thing that is standard and you know what to expect, that will help.

And if Mo is expected to be the one who keeps track of assignments, communication with the teacher about why that might be a problem can help.

Anyway, hope that the email is answered soon and that you guys can figure some stuff out. (From my email correspondence with teachers, I'd guess it won't be answered until Monday afternoon -- busy at school today, then focus on private time over the weekend, then Monday morning stuff, then busy at school again.)