I have a seven year old.
At the moment, he is preparing a project that is due on Monday. It’s a book report that involves many parts, including a presentation. He chose Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang for his report – yes, my son is awesome. He had to read the book, create a new cover for the book, write a summary, and pick 5 -10 artifacts that are important to the book and attach a cue card to each with a paragraph explaining why it was picked as important. Once all that’s done, he has to prepare to present it to the class.
Repeat after me – This is GRADE TWO.
It’s been a LONG three weeks – for both of us. Personally, I feel like it would be virtually impossible for a 7-8 year old to complete such a project without the guidance/support/help from a parent. Of course, I’m more than happy to help my guy, but I will admit that I find the whole deal very stressful. I’m not a teacher, and I haven’t done homework in YEARS – and although I am a genius, *insert loud snort here*, the whole thing has made me a total stress case.
To be clear, this isn’t the first time he’s had to do something like this. He had two presentations in Grade one (as a six year old) and he ROCKED them – he memorized the entire presentation. He did so well that he was asked to present to the other Gr. one class as an example of a good presentation. He’s also already done a presentation early this school year, again doing really well.
In terms of other homework, the only thing that comes home is a spelling list and four worksheets involving those spelling words, once a week. That’s it. Funny enough, in grade one, he had TONS of homework, most nights. Clearly, the teachers are very different in their approach.
Having experienced both sides, I have no idea what is better – tons of homework that comes home consistently or little to no homework at all? I will say that when he did have a ton of homework, I felt more aware of how he was doing. And yes, more homework meant less play time, and much more stress for everyone involved. Of course, my son prefers less homework, but what kid wouldn’t?
So what’s better? There are tons of reports out there – many of them outlining the negative effects of homework like children’s frustration, exhaustion, loss of interest in learning, and some pointing out the positive. Personally, what I wonder about is how prepared the kids will be come high school, where homework will be inevitable.
I just don’t know.
I would love to know what your experiences have been with your own children. What are your thoughts?
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
A book report in Grade 2?!
You have GOT to be kidding me!
I would assume that a presentation would be on a favorite animal and what they eat – how they live. A book report?
Yikes, I’d hate to see Grade 4.
To me, that is insane!
I’m all for challenging kids, but I’m not sure if this is all that realistic. I don’t know – I’m very conflicted about the whole thing. I know I’m not against homework entirely, but I think asking too much from them so early on puts all the pressure on the parent instead. What about the parents that can’t help their kids, because of language issues or availability or whatever? I’m very much in the “not sure where I stand” category at the moment.
my son struggles in school and these complexe projects are VERY difficult for him. I am of the belief that he should be able to complete the bulk of the work on his own but we find it very stressful when he struggles. Even so I refuse to “do” the work for him. He has to do it, even if it is not the highest quality, and I will only guide him along.
I struggle with the homework debate. In 1st grade his teacher had strict guidelines re homework and sent home a fair amount. It was similar work over and over and allowed us to see my son progress. I know that approach doesn’t transfer well to the older grades. I find the whole thing very stressful.
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I find it stressful too – its seems very much like a no win situation to me.
I don’t think doing school work at home requires learning any special skill. What kids need to learn is work ethic and trying hard. This does not require any homework when they are in elementary school. Homework that looks a lot more like make work of dubious educational quality.
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I feel like some consistency would help!
There are pluses and minuses to both approaches, imho. The “busy work” we get home does seem to lead to tears and frustration. Mostly because my 5k-er is BORED, and doesn’t want to do it. But she has to do it. And then she has to re-do it, because I’m not going to let her turn in sloppy, scribbled on work, when I know she can do it neatly when she wants to.
Can you tell this is a sore point?
I think I’d rather she had presentations to do, because then at least she could do something interesting to her!
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I’m the same – I won’t let mine hand in sloppy work either. I make him redo it which completely frustrates him. However, in the long run, I think it can only help him to know that having a high standard will work in his favor. My son LOVES doing the actual presentation, but all the work involved totally bums his out. I’m really conflicted because there will come a time where homework isn’t an option and he will probably have HOURS of it, but I don’t want him to get to the point right now, where he hates school because of it.
Good luck – it gets worse from there – Grade 3 – welcome to the world of EQOA testing, then the beloved Science Fair in Grade 4, then speeches in Grade 5 – I’m not against kids getting homework, but the level to which kids are expected to work these days is unbelievable – they are pushed so fast to learn so much and not enough time is spent on actual learning from their mistakes – I feel like parents should help to a degree, but these days I feel more like my kids teacher than their parent.
YES!! I feel like that a lot too. And thank you for OFFICIALLY stressing me out even more!! I dreaded the science fair as a kid – DREADED. Oy.
Excuse me while I have a giant cocktail right now.
Well, I hate to put on my professor’s hat, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks
I will tell you this: the research says that before high school (around fourteen or fifteen years old) homework is pretty much useless. In other words, there is no evidence that kids who had homework vs. kids who didn’t have homework fared better academically.
This changes with the introduction of advanced mathematics, in which long-term, sustained study is the only way to make progress.
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Thanks so much for your comment Sandy! This is great to know actually – takes some of the pressure off – off me anyway.
I started homeschooling this year (Kindergarten), and although we do have worksheets as “homework,” most of our learning is just as we live life. When we go to the zoo or just outside to play, we do Science. When we’re reading books, that’s English & Spelling. And Math can be done just about anytime (“how many legos do you have?”).
I’m not against homework, but most of the homework that schools assign is just busywork, and really isn’t all that helpful. Make learning fun!
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I think learning to do homework is a good think. I barely had homework in elementary and high school. The transition to the amount of work needed for post-secondary education (I’ve done both university & college level) was difficult for me because I wasn’t prepared.
There was some teaching method going on back in my day where they apparently wouldn’t mark you wrong for incorrect spelling, etc. Now look at the issues with spelling on the internet, facebook, etc. My older sister recalls me coming home frustrated because I knew I hadn’t spelled it right, but the teacher would not correct it. She said I really wanted to know how to do it properly.
So long story short (too late), I’m in favour of slowly integrating homework into children’s lives. It will help them become more industrious later in life imho.
P.S. Awesome that your son is doing so well and being an example for his peers!
Thanks Laura! I agree about preparation for later years – the whole deal is a stressful conundrum.
My son is 7 but in 1st grade because of how his birthday fell. He’s a very smart kid who does well in school. Saying that, I can’t imagine him having to do a book report. Most nights, he has a math worksheet that he needs to complete and read a book from class. Some nights, even that feels like too much.
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It’s really amazing how different each school and even teacher is, regarding homework. My 7yo has done three major presentations, and now preparing the fourth, and every single person I tell is shocked by this.
Hi Maria!
This post definitely caught my attention because a while ago I did a post that basically said homework was good for kids and I got tons of dissenting views:
http://www.julieharrison.ca/family/your-homework-is-interrupting-my-day/
So much so I did a follow-up post that included research on homework:
http://www.julieharrison.ca/family/i-did-my-homework-on-homework/
I’m all for homework … I just don’t want so much of it that a kid can’t run around outside after school for some playtime!
Julie
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I am unconvinced of the merits of homework, some of it really depends on the maturity and learning style of the child, especially when young. My 3 girls are currently Gr 3,5,7 and the oldest would do homework every night if we would let her, the 2nd would rather die and puts forward the bare minimum of homework effort, the third likes to be thought of as competent so the homework is done before I see her agenda.
My boys are pre-school and Gr 1 – they just need to decompress after school so badly, the thought of homework in their life seems invasive, almost abusive. My 6 year old boy is naturally busy, yet a people pleaser. He pours energy into concetrating on school all day, even when sitting is a huge chore for him, demanding more sitting at home seems cruel.
I have rarely seen a project in homework that is of such vital importance that it should take precedence over family, play and extra-curricular. There is so much more to life than extended school into the home at a young age.
Dude. That shit’s crazy! Hawk is at a preschool with an anti-curriculum (as it should be, if you ask me) so the idea of homework is sooooo far away for me. However, for a 7 year old to have a project with that many steps and multi-layered seems a bit beyond their development. Like you (or someone else) said, could he do the whole thing totally unassisted? What would happen if he had no adults to help? What are those kids gonna do??
I dunno… it definitely seems like too much, if you ask me.
I think that homework *in moderation* can be good for teaching kids responsibility and time management. It also helps the parents to be more informed about how their child is doing like you mentioned.
My daughter is in grade two and did a presentation on her grandparents’ country of origin including food, holidays, traditions, animals, when they came to Canada and why etc… It was a bit overwhelming, but good overall. She has another project due in a week, but it isn’t as intense as the first one was.
I think the idea of presentations at the early grades is so they will be better equipped down the road. ie: won’t dread the Science Fair like you did… lol…
I do love play though and don’t like the idea of kids doing “paper work” all day long. I know some parents who ASK for homework for their grade one/two kids and are disappointed when the teacher doesn’t give it to them. Clearly they want to prepare their children for an office career…
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