Homework policy

pastalady · September 2013

So we are in the final stretch of choosing DD's school. DD has autism, ADHD, and a gifted code. Not an easy fit in a lot of schools lol! So we have it narrowed to 3. One school we ruled out made parents sign a contract stating they would do a minimum of 3 hours of homework a night with their child. For kindergarten. Um, no!

dizzycooks · September 2013

Uh, no. The standard that I've heard (and am expected to follow) is 10 minutes per grade per night. So a 1st grader gets 10 minutes, a 6th grader gets 60 minutes, per night. That seems to surprise people, but there is no way, I do not have 3 hours in the evening period after work, much less to spend all of that at home doing homework.

MrsBalletStar05 · September 2013

3hours?! That is crazy. No way. I'm convinced some of theses schools are truing to groom the children for standardized testings.....

Arnegard · September 2013

DD1 had 1 worksheet a night in first grade. That wasn't always easy.

We usually have soccer, gymnastics, church school, etc - so fitting in more than showers and dinner isn't easy.

roxy_jj · September 2013

Wow, that's crazy! I've never heard of a kindergartener having that much homework.

pastalady · September 2013

It is actually a school who's whole purpose to groom kids to excel at testing. Not knowledge but testing only. Kids must have an iq of 135 and above to attend. No recess, no play from what we saw. Just science and math from kindy on. We ruled it out right away. All I could imagine is these little prodigies having breakdowns by the age of 9.

pastalady · September 2013

Our team has to show us every possibility due to DD being unique to place. We think we found a great school though! It's a charter science school. Kids have to show an aptitude for science but no minimum IQ. They teach all subjects from a scientific approach. They start botany in kindergarten and have a pizza garden even. They do dinosaur bone digs with a museum, seems really fun and a good fit for DD.

Chapter79 · September 2013

3 hours?!?? Mine had maybe 10-15 minutes a night in kindergarten .. Yikes.

pastalady · September 2013

Oh and the school I was posting about will do a home visit to ensure the student has a place suitable to do the homework. And the student needs a 1:1 parent ratio while doing the work. So no mom home with 2 kids while dad works late. And parents are dying to get their kids into this school lol.

MrsBalletStar05 · September 2013

I'm all for being focused, but come on!! Kindergarten? Really? I could maybe get down with 30 minutes and maybe some required reading but yikes!

notkateanymore · September 2013

Are you sure they didn't mean a week? I mean, we went to a very competitive private school 4k-2 and we were never expected to do more than 30 minutes a night. Even right now, in 4th grade, anything more than 45 minutes we're supposed to tell the teacher.

notkateanymore · September 2013

OK, this school is crazy, I read the other comments you made...how many students do they have? like 3? LOL

MrsBalletStar05 · September 2013

The district we moved from was not great. So they were implementing all sorts of things to get test scores up. DS#2, at age three, was supposed to go to school all day and DS#1 has been doing several worksheets daily since preK. He is repeating K here at the new school we moved to and his teacher was all, "oh we never do worksheets!" :-o VAST differences.

penguingrrl · September 2013

That's insane. And I don't understand grooming children to be good test takers as a primary focus. I want to groom creativity and if that comes at the expense of the test that's fine with me (I'm strongly opposed to standardized testing). I had 3-4 hours of HW a night 8th-12th grades but in K that's just insane!

M0ON · September 2013

That is just so sad.

rockyrollgirl · September 2013

No...just no.

nosoup4u · September 2013

That's horrible! Sanctioned child abuse. That whole school sounds like a way to make kids hate learning and school.

pastalady · September 2013

Nope it is definitely 3 hours a weeknight. Not a mistake. I think there were almost 300 student from kindy to grade 8. They also mentioned to get on with registering DD with Mensa as they like to have a high percentage of Mensa attending the school. It was really just focused on achieving the highest possible test scores. I mean, I'm sure a lot of these kids will do great. They are all very smart. You cannot attend without the gifted code and the iq reverification. But how fast will they burn out? Like I said I give them until 8 or so. Most of the student body is from only children families and over 90 percent are Asian. I can kind of see it being a little tiger momish. My daughter would not fit. The feeling we got is that they were willing to work around the autism and ADHD but if she didn't reveal herself to be a prodigy pretty fast she would be out lol! My kid is awesome and she is smart. But she cannot compose original symphonies, she cannot look at a map once and memorize it for life, etc. that is what they seem to hope for lol!

Allycat11 · September 2013

That is completely insane. I do not understand how that is even possible with many families having 2 working parents (or single parents who have to work) and after school activities.

Chapter79 · September 2013

I don't even know how 3 hours is possible, I just don't. By the time they get home, they'd have to start right away... then it's dinner time, and bed. Kids like to play, too. And heck, relax. Live? Breathe? Where the hell do you squeeze 3 HOURS of homework in for a 5 year old? (or other ages, for that matter). I would never send my DD there.

lightgetsin · September 2013

My 5th grader has 30 min. a day..

bumpuser924057 · September 2013

I'm dying to know what crazy-ass school this is.

vlagrl29 · September 2013

kids need to be kids...this sounds horrible

LatteLady5 · September 2013

I know high school kids who have this much homework and I think it's ridiculous. I can't even imagine it in kindergarten.

I think you're right about those kids...burnout is probably in their not too distant futures.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2013

This is beyond disturbing. What a sad life these kids must lead.

cmrand4 · September 2013

I taught 4th grade and then 5th grade for 10 years. I worked in a very high achieving private school. We scored off the charts on standardized tests but prided ourselves on not teaching to the test or focusing on testing. We only took one standardized test per year and those didn't start until 3rd grade. My point is that achievement and mastery can happen without crazy amounts of homework. My big kiddos had between 30-50 minutes a night. I tried to plan for one night a week, usually weekends, where there was no homework. this could NOT be good for any kids...even prodigies.

Notwifezilla7 · September 2013

I would truly like to meet these children. I would harbor a guess that their social skills and ability to think outside the box have both been squashed, especially if they have spent all 9 years (k-8) there.

Being able to take a standardized test accounts for such an insignificantly small portion of life outside of school. How any parent could view that as preparing one for the real world is beyond me.

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