Homework in 3rd grade!!!

[nannan760]

Anyone have a child or grandchild in 3rd grade? Have you seen the homework! An hour or so everynight. Even something called Singapore math. What is this?

[mommagoes]

my son is in 4th grade but i remember that last year he did have a lot of homework. worse than that, he was really sick last year and missed a week of school. i contacted the school and requested his class and homework so that he wouldn't fall behind and they gave him about 8 to 10 pages that he did while he was sick. then on the day when he went back the teacher handed him a folder of about 20 pages of classwork... AND SAID IT WAS DUE THE NEXT DAY! I WAS FURIOUS! that was the exact reason why i had asked the school for work and then the teacher still expected him to do all that plus the current day's homework! my son was doing homework from 3pm when he got home to almost 8 that night! 

so far 4th grade has been better, about an hour or less of homework a night. but he does have his first big project due in a few weeks- an ecosystem diorama. we'll just have to see how that goes!

[Rastov]

Well they certainly don't learn anything in school. So I guess it has to happen somewhere.

[hwilliams591]

My boy is in Kindergarden and has weekly homework assignments.

I don't agree with the "they don't learn anything in school" statement as it is pretty silly. Schools here are teaching them alot more then I learned in the same grades.

[Rastov]

My boy is in Kindergarden and has weekly homework assignments.

I don't agree with the "they don't learn anything in school" statement as it is pretty silly. Schools here are teaching them alot more then I learned in the same grades.

Unless you're very old to have a child that age, this is almost certainly untrue.
The quality of curriculum has dropped repeatedly since the 60s.

Have you seen what the required reading level is for third grade books now?
They're a step above picture books.

Black Beauty used to be required reading for 5th grade. Today, only a small minority of students could read that book at age 10.

Talk to a college dean and ask him if students are receiving an adequate k-12 education.

[hwilliams591]

My boy is in Kindergarden and has weekly homework assignments.

I don't agree with the "they don't learn anything in school" statement as it is pretty silly. Schools here are teaching them alot more then I learned in the same grades.

Unless you're very old to have a child that age, this is almost certainly untrue.
The quality of curriculum has dropped repeatedly since the 60s.

Have you seen what the required reading level is for third grade books now?
They're a step above picture books.

Black Beauty used to be required reading for 5th grade. Today, only a small minority of students could read that book at age 10.

Talk to a college dean and ask him if students are receiving an adequate k-12 education.

Not sure what country you are from but here kindergardens are learning to read books that I didn't even touch til late first grade or second grade in the 80's. You might want to look first hand instead of believing junk you read on the net.

[Rastov]

Not sure what country you are from but here kindergardens are learning to read books that I didn't even touch til late first grade or second grade in the 80's. You might want to look first hand instead of believing junk you read on the net.

This is a US only site 

I'm not basing this on anything I've read online unless you count the stats coming out of the department of education.

I can't comment on your extremely a-typical public kindergarten, that's successfully teaching  five year old children to read.

I can only comment on the system in the aggregate. And as a whole, school standards are lower now than they have been since we've been tracking them.

[lfreebird]

I've never heard of that type of math but I do agree that homework has gotten way out of hand.  I have a 7th grader, a 9th grader and a college freshman and my 7th grader has so much homework that he needs an extra studyhall to get it all done. 

[carolinaqt782]

i used to have homework in 3rd grade too. mine started in 1st! and it was time-consuming. i think it's ridiculous, personally.

[silklash]

Wow...got some really wild opinions about US education I see.  But yes, 3rd graders have homework, but the quantity of such I think varies by teacher, school, school system, state, etc...there are a lot of influences for curriculum guidelines.  I completely disagree w/ the statement that they don't learn anything in school, because the overall progression rate has increased, not decreased as kids are being exposed to and experiencing "life" at a much younger age than they did 25 years much less 40 years ago.  Probably the biggest difference would in the discipline level and methods used in the school systems, though. 

One question though -- did anyone figure out what "Singapore Math" is supposed to be?  My mom taught Kindergarten until she died, my aunt just retired from 6th grade teacher, her daughter teaches 4th grade and her daughter-in-law teaches 8th grade, my brother is student teaching now ... and no one seems to know about "Singapore Math".  Just wondering.

[JosephRomero]

Singapore math is a way of teaching math based on textbooks from the curriculum of Singapore. (we homeschool our 3 and it's also called "the new math")  Reason for it's use is that Singapore's 4th and 8th grade math scores were the top in world in 2007.

Dont get me started on public school...lol

[silklash]

Thanks JosephRomero!  Maybe its a Southern thing bc my cousin & brother asked me if Singapore math is the same as "New Math" and I started looking it up online.  Despite my tenure in public schools, I had 2 parents that insisted that I learn to seek answers to my questions ... I frequently heard "Did you look it up?", "What did you find when you looked it up", "Let's go get the dictionary and I'll help you look it up"...believe, if it weren't for my borderline OCD to find answers to questions no matter how trivial, we would't be using dial-up internet even though we're only renting this place temporarily and we can't get DSL or Cable modem out here yet.    Thanks again!  On the other hand, not everything about public school is bad...some of us make it through ok.  Of course, I feel the same about private school, religion-based schools and even homeschooling.  All have their advantages - all have a drawback or two.  I certainly applaud your willingness to be hands-on in your children's education - not everything can be learned from a textbook.

[AmyTrivitt]

First of all it is not a Southern Thing. If you do not understand why your child has so much homework or you do not understand the math they are studying ask their teacher. Alot can be gained from just doing that!! My oldest child is in the second grade and she comes home with homework on a daily basis. But my daughter knows as soon as she walks in the door to go to her room and get it done. Most kids are lazy and just blows it off, as well as parents for letting their child do such a thing. School comes first in our household as it should in every household. There is absolutely no excuse not to do the work that is assigned. I do not think whining about it is sending your children a very good message.

[ODOMS6598]

i have one in pre-k and 1st grade.  my pre-k boy has homework at least once a week.  and my 1st grader has homework everynight but friday.  i guess they are starting them earlier now.   

[ashirk]

I am a nanny to a Kindergartner and he rarely has homework, although lots of "your child is learning the letter Bb this week please find things around your home that begin with Bb" things. I also have a little sister who is 14 and in the 8th grade ( my parents started a whole new family LOL) and she has a ton of math homework from time to time and the other day I couldn't help her wit her math at ALL! It was ridiculous. She spent 4 or more hours just working on math.

Come to find out the teacher is NOT teaching out of the textbook but some other website they use, but the students do not have access to, so if they don't get it in class, the homework is hard because there is no textbook to refer to and try to figure it out on their own! *sigh*