Moms Talk: What Do You Think About Homework?

Each week in Moms Talk, our Alpharetta-Milton Moms Council of experts and smart moms take your questions, give advice and share solutions. And then you get to chime in through the comments section below.  We hope you will give your opinion on the topic and join in our discussion today. 

Homework is a daily activity in most houses. Some parents like that their children have homework to reinforce the skills that students learned at school. Other parents feel that their children have been at school all day long and should not have more school work to do at home.  Everyone seems to have an opinion about homework.

Q: What do you think about homework? How much homework does your child have each day? Do you think this is a good amount or should there be more or less? At what age should homework start? 

A: I have changed my opinion on this subject through the years.  In short, I believe it depends on the age of the student.

By the time students leave high school, they should certainly be independent learners, thinkers and producers of quality work. But I'm not sure we need to start this process in the elementary years (although independent skills can certainly be taught in school).

I have come to believe that the playing field is far too varied for elementary aged students to have equal opportunities for support in the home environment. As long as a student needs a parent's support to accomplish their homework (even if that support just means reminding them to get it done) you will have kids whose parents are supportive, are too pushy, who could care less and those parents who have much stress and little time to attend properly or consistently. This begins the process of setting some kids up for success and some up for failure in their view of homework. I would rather see school teach on a level playing field in the classroom, and only begin to introduce homework as the child is able to take on the responsibility for homework entirely by themselves. I believe this is plenty of time to teach these independent skills in the middle school and high school years so that by the time they graduate high school, they are fully ready to take on college level work if they so choose.

I was very excited about homework with my first child, and looked at it as an opportunity to reinforce with him the importance of school, producing quality work, and being responsible. But by the time my third child came along, I was a much busier parent, I became more critical of actual value vs stress involved in getting homework completed. While my first child was cerebral in nature and happy to sit and do homework, my third child was an action packed physical child who absolutely needed to run off energy at the end of the day, then he invariably had to be dragged around with me as I tended to other unavoidable things in the afternoon. When I did finally sit him down, he was incapable of any desire to do school work outside of school, argued (and sometimes cried) the point of it, and this became an added stress for parent and child alike. I rarely felt the benefits of doing the homework was ever worth the stress involved. Later when it became apparent that this child needed extra academic support in school and at home, I wondered how many other kids like him had parents that for whatever reason, just couldn't give them that support, and how it must weigh on the child's feeling of success.

So let them learn how to be independent learners in the level playing field of the classroom setting.  As they grow, they can gradually assume homework responsibility independent of parental support.  Keep it positive!!

-Audrey Greenwood, mom of 3 

A: I am for homework; I know that homework keep my children busy. Keeping them busy after school especially as teenagers is a way of keeping them out of trouble and preparing them for the future. They only need few hours to complete their homework if they are serious with the homework.

My children have about two to three homework daily, we have been working with them with completing their home works daily so that they will not pile them up, forget to complete them or forget to submit them. I learned through one of my kids that most high school kids do not complete home works or even submit them. Starting them on homework from elementary schools will help, by the time they get to middle and high schools they will have no issues with completing and submitting home works.

I however do not believe in loading kindergartners with multiple home works, one homework per day is enough or them. I also believe that first graders should have one or two easy home works per day. Third grade and up should have multiple home works from Monday to Thurs, I think everyone needs to have the weekend off.

Homework can have good and positive impacts on kids. Too much homework gives kids unnecessary stress and they might bring negative impact, like kids getting tired, not having extra time to study , losing interest in school work and scoring low grades because they are not submitting home works and not doing well in class works, quizzes and tests.

-Nike Lawal, mom of 3

A: I dislike almost all homework. I see it as busy work that teachers give to kids just so kids have something to do after school. My kids have stuff to do after school. I love to take them places after school to go have fun. I enjoy staying home and playing with them there. I like it when they go to friends houses to play or have their friends over to our house. Kids are kids and they should be allowed to play and have fun. They spend 6 hours a day at school. That is plenty. They do not need to do more school work at home. 

I know there is an argument that learning needs to be reinforced at home. I think this should be the responsibility of the parent, not the teacher. In my house, we do stuff together that they learn from. Just helping to make brownies last night after dinner helped the kids learn measurement, worked on reading and comprehension of directions, reinforced how to share and we had fun. Board games are great for learning as well and are a lot more enjoyable than a worksheet. We have movie night on a regular basis as a family. We just watched Horton Hears A Who. This movie is full of lessons and was a lot deeper than I expected a Dr. Suess movie to be. When we go out after school, the kids keep learning. We go shopping where the kids can learn about money and saving for what they want. We go to the skate park where the kids learn to get along with new people and kids of all ages while they get exercise and learn new physical activity skills. Even our monthly trip out to the Lego store for a Lego lesson is fun and educational. The key here is that I make time for my kids. I do not rely on the teachers to keep my kids busy. I have fun with them and do fun activities with them. 

That said, I do enjoy some homework. I think projects that involve creativity and help at home over the course of a few weeks are great at every age. My son recently had to do an invention project. I thought this was great. I think asking kids to read everyday is also fine. Reading is a great activity to assign for all grades. I just do not see the value or importance in worksheets and repeating the work done in class. Other than these activities, I do not think there should be any homework for any grade. 

Currently, my children are in elementary school. They get homework each week but it does not take them more than a couple of hours for the whole week to get it done. The kids do it together so it goes quickly and they help each other. At least it is a bit more enjoyable this way.

Surprisingly, I am a former teacher. I did assign homework because I was required to do so by the school. But, I tried to be creative and rarely assigned worksheets or the question and answer section at the end of every chapter in the Social Studies book. I think there are greater lessons to learn when the school day is over than how to answer a multiple choice question at the end of a chapter after sitting at a desk all day.

-Tammy Bester, mom of 3