Parenting issues

How do you guys feel about elementary school kids getting assigned homework?

http://community.today.com/parentingteam/post/heres-why-i-said-no-to-homework

HOLY SHIT DON'T GET ME STARTED

Last year, my FIRST GRADER had a spelling test of 20 words every Friday, requiring nightly study, PLUS a worksheet to do every night (including weekends) PLUS was expected to read 15 minutes a night. It was unbelievable.

His second grade teacher is not as bad, but he still has at least 30 minutes of homework plus 20 minutes of reading required. He is 7.

Meanwhile, older kid (11yo) needed two and a half hours last night to do his homework.

It's ridiculous. I don't remember any substantial homework until high school.

Relaxer wrote:
It's ridiculous. I don't remember any substantial homework until high school.

I definitely had "substantial" (as in circa an hour a night with larger "science projects" or "social studies projects" intermingled) homework starting in 4th grade. In lower elementary school it was never more than a 10-minute math worksheet or something like that.

yep, kindergartner has homework already. i probably wouldn't mind as much except its only half day kindergarten, which means 3 hours a day. i mean, if they can't accomplish everything in three hours, maybe it should be full day…

Julian, wrote:

Relaxer wrote:
It's ridiculous. I don't remember any substantial homework until high school.

I definitely had "substantial" (as in circa an hour a night with larger "science projects" or "social studies projects" intermingled) homework starting in 4th grade. In lower elementary school it was never more than a 10-minute math worksheet or something like that.

Children are in school seven hours a day. Why should they be expected to do schoolwork on top of that?

As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

Space wrote:
Children are in school seven hours a day. Why should they be expected to do schoolwork on top of that?

As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

I wasn't saying "AND THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE."

I agree young children should not have substantial homework. In college homework is a reality so I do think kids should be weaned into homework at some point before then but I agree hours and hours of homework for middle schoolers is overkill.

Julian, wrote:

Space wrote:
Children are in school seven hours a day. Why should they be expected to do schoolwork on top of that?

As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

I wasn't saying "AND THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE."

I agree young children should not have substantial homework. In college homework is a reality so I do think kids should be weaned into homework at some point before then but I agree hours and hours of homework for middle schoolers is overkill.

Sorry, I didn't take your comment to mean you thought young children should have substantial homework. I should have been more clear about that. I was just playing off your comment.

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

as a very intelligent woman once said…. "I dream of an America with nudity and F-words on network TV, where the whole world doesn't stop because a school bus did. Children are the future?today belongs to me!"

The joys of being childless!

suck it parents! that's what you get for having kids!

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

What if everybody just said no to this. Would the world fall apart? I mean with computers and shit, we're already doing way more work than the paper pushers in generations past.

What if we didn't spend x% of our time posting on message boards or reading things on the internet unrelated to our jobs. Would we still need to spend our evenings doing work?

bob72 wrote:
as a very intelligent woman once said…. "I dream of an America with nudity and F-words on network TV, where the whole world doesn't stop because a school bus did. Children are the future?today belongs to me!"

The joys of being childless!

suck it parents! that's what you get for having kids!

I wonder if you'll feel this way when you're 85 in a nursing home and have nobody left who gives a shit about you?

Space wrote:

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

What if everybody just said no to this. Would the world fall apart? I mean with computers and shit, we're already doing way more work than the paper pushers in generations past.

What if we didn't spend x% of our time posting on message boards or reading things on the internet unrelated to our jobs. Would we still need to spend our evenings doing work?

actually, it makes it a lot easier to justify ducking out midday for a kid-school thing if you're available more than just 9-5

godsshoeshine wrote:

Space wrote:

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

What if everybody just said no to this. Would the world fall apart? I mean with computers and shit, we're already doing way more work than the paper pushers in generations past.

What if we didn't spend x% of our time posting on message boards or reading things on the internet unrelated to our jobs. Would we still need to spend our evenings doing work?

actually, it makes it a lot easier to justify ducking out midday for a kid-school thing if you're available more than just 9-5

Are you talking about half day kindegarten (I wasn't even aware they still did that)? What other kid-school things require you to duck out midday?

Space wrote:


I wonder if you'll feel this way when you're 85 in a nursing home and have nobody left who gives a shit about you?

Your counterpoint is invalid. There are plenty of people in nursing homes nobody gives a shit about that have kids. I find that more disturbing.

Space wrote:

godsshoeshine wrote:

Space wrote:

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

What if everybody just said no to this. Would the world fall apart? I mean with computers and shit, we're already doing way more work than the paper pushers in generations past.

What if we didn't spend x% of our time posting on message boards or reading things on the internet unrelated to our jobs. Would we still need to spend our evenings doing work?

actually, it makes it a lot easier to justify ducking out midday for a kid-school thing if you're available more than just 9-5

Are you talking about half day kindegarten (I wasn't even aware they still did that)? What other kid-school things require you to duck out midday?

other kids school things. field trips, doctors appointments, holiday parties, ect.

godsshoeshine wrote:

Space wrote:

godsshoeshine wrote:

Space wrote:

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
As an adult, are you expected/required by your employer to do work at home at night beyond the eight (or more?) hours you put in at the office during the day?

if you work for the government, no.  depending on what private or NGO you work for, maybe.  while working in consulting, working evenings and weekend was an unavoidable reality, one of reason why i got out.  my strategy has been only partially successful: at my current gig, i'd say i have to work at home about 25-40% of the time.

What if everybody just said no to this. Would the world fall apart? I mean with computers and shit, we're already doing way more work than the paper pushers in generations past.

What if we didn't spend x% of our time posting on message boards or reading things on the internet unrelated to our jobs. Would we still need to spend our evenings doing work?

actually, it makes it a lot easier to justify ducking out midday for a kid-school thing if you're available more than just 9-5

Are you talking about half day kindegarten (I wasn't even aware they still did that)? What other kid-school things require you to duck out midday?

other kids school things. field trips, doctors appointments, holiday parties, ect.

Adorable recitations of the Gettysburg Address with everyone wearing fake beards, class plays where someone wears a fake beard, class elections where one kid attempts to appear older and more mature because he's wearing a fake beard, social studies fairs where your kid has done a project on the history of fake beards, etc etc. My parents were at my school all the time for stuff.

Space wrote:

bob72 wrote:
as a very intelligent woman once said…. "I dream of an America with nudity and F-words on network TV, where the whole world doesn't stop because a school bus did. Children are the future?today belongs to me!"

The joys of being childless!

suck it parents! that's what you get for having kids!

I wonder if you'll feel this way when you're 85 in a nursing home and have nobody left who gives a shit about you?

Imagine the disappointment of having kids and still being 85 years old in a nursing home and no one giving a shit about you.

Yada wrote:

Space wrote:

bob72 wrote:
as a very intelligent woman once said…. "I dream of an America with nudity and F-words on network TV, where the whole world doesn't stop because a school bus did. Children are the future?today belongs to me!"

The joys of being childless!

suck it parents! that's what you get for having kids!

I wonder if you'll feel this way when you're 85 in a nursing home and have nobody left who gives a shit about you?

Imagine the disappointment of having kids and still being 85 years old in a nursing home and no one giving a shit about you.

That's why we spoil them rotten now and hope for the best later, right?

Dear parent of my kid's friend,

I know my kid is partly to blame here. But sometimes eight year olds don't know better and the adults have to be the smart people in the room.

When our kid came over for a playdate, for the love of God (and I capitalize God for your benefit, since you seem to want everyone to know how important your Faith is), please don't give her unlimited, unsupervised access to all of your Costo garbage treats and girl scout cookies. The next 12 hours after her departure from your house didn't go well for her, poor thing.

Cheers and God Bless,

Space

As music living parents, how much do you try to steer your kid's music taste?

My daughter's music taste is pretty much limited to a small subset of music that my wife and I have introduced her. She hates or dismisses most of what we play for her, but what does stick she tends to obsess on (Pet Sounds (good lord i think she plays that album every freaking day), early Cure, Dolly Parton, Ashley Monroe, she had a Dr. Dog phase). She dismisses modern top 40 (which i assume is what a lot of kids her age listen to) as rubbish.

My friend has a kid the same age who was also latching onto his parent's music (I think they're more into jam band and jazz). He said they then made a conscious effort to expose their son (and themselves) to music that typical eight year olds listen to (whatever that is), so that their kid would "fit in musically" with other kids.

I'm not sure how necessary what my friend did is….