3rd grade / 4th grade homework loads

[jgenie]

I have a 4th grader and a 2nd grader. I’m wondering what homework loads are for other schools. In 3rd grade, DS1 had 1.5 hrs of homework most nights including 20 minutes of reading and a reading question worksheet. One of the other 3rd grade classrooms had to do all work in cursive and had an average of 2 hrs every night including several big weekend projects. In 4th grade, we got a light homework class but one of the other 4th grade classrooms routinely spends 2.5 hours on homework every night including lots of weekend homework projects. What was your DC’s homework load in 3rd and 4th grade? Did the load prepare or not prepare them for later grades?

[ahisma]

My kids have 15-20 mins of homework per night in 3rd and 5th grade. Sometimes they have a bit more, sometimes they have none. Almost never on weekends.

I don't care about them being prepared for homework loads later on, I want them to have time to be kids. I'd prefer them to be running around the neighborhood than doing worksheets.

We would not support 2 hours of homework a night in 3rd grade. It just wouldn't happen. DH is a high school teacher and he doesn't even assign that load to high school honors classes.

ETA: They are supposed to read nightly for 30 mins. I forgot to add that in - they do it year round regardless of school requirements.

[JBaxter]

3 grade 20-30 minutes a couple times a week not every night. 2x a week they do 20 minutes on the front row program through the computer as long as its done by friday it doesn't matter what night those are done then a couple worksheets a week. 1 1/2 hours is more than my 8th grader has on an average night and he's taking honors / advanced freshman classes. That much homework would not allow us to do any sports / activities. Its not the norm here. AT ALL

[hillview]

4th grade public school:
- Vocab packet for the week -- a sheet a day
- Typing Mon-Thus
- Reading 30 mins a day Mon-Ths
- Math once a week

It looks like a lot but it takes maybe an hour (30 min reading + other stuff)

[Snow mom]

District policy is 10 minutes per night per grade. At elementary level (which goes through grade 4 here) that seems to be M-Th only. DD is required to read every night for 20 minutes (40 minutes for a bonus star) and we've had very little work that needs done over the weekend beyond that. She has had a few bigger projects or tests where she was given a study guide where we've done work in the weekend. Typically during the week she has a math worksheet each night. For a while she had spelling but the third grade teachers at her school decided to drop that. I'm just as happy to have her not doing the busy work of coloring spelling words, etc. Worksheets probably take 10-20 minutes per night unless a child is really struggling to understand a math concept.

[KrisM]

In elementary, none of my kids had more than maybe 30-35 min a night, including the 20 minutes of reading. They typically read at bedtime, so really it was maybe 10 min of other work a night, and not all nights.

No projects are done at home. They all get done at school.

[georgiegirl]

Our school is pretty anti-homework. In K through 2, homework is none to minimal (other than nightly reading.) DS (3rd grade) is supposed to read 20 min a night plus he has one math worksheet M through Thursday. Those take 5 min max. Kids are supposed to practice math facts 10 min, but DS finished those back in early November, so he doesn’t have to do that. I don’t monitor his reading and I don’t really consider it homework. (He reads most days because he likes reading and likes to read when he poops [emoji23]). So DS just has one short worksheet a night. That’s typical for grades 3-5.

[MSWR0319]

DS is in 3rd grade. He has a sheet that has maybe 8 questions of math on it each night. It takes him no more than 15 minutes, but I can see it taking someone else maybe 30 at most. The only other thing he has is spelling words to study. I can't imagine having hours of homework at that age!!

[chlobo]

Our third grade does not assign regular homework. Only special projects.

4th grade I would say 20-30 min a few times a week, depending on the focus level of my son.

[mmsmom]

OP, 2.5 hours seems ridiculous even for high school. In 3rd my DD has 15-20 minutes (usually math review of what they learned that day and sometimes word study) and 30 minutes of reading. DS in 5th has closer to 30 minutes (math, writing for 15 minutes) and 30 minutes of reading. No homework on weekends. The only outside of school project is the science fair for 4th and 5th grades. Our district just went through a review of homework... the conclusion was homework has to be meaningful and in support of what they are currently learning. They also got rid of weekend homework at least for elementary (last year the accelerated math class had weekend homework).

Interesting about the writing in cursive- cursive is taught in 3rd but it is not required that they actually write in cursive.

[123LuckyMom]

Our school is considering not having homework any more, and so far, we’ve had teachers who shared our philosophy that play time, activities, experiences, and family time are way more important than homework and should take priority. The homework assigned is supposed to take about 30 minutes for my third grader, plus reading time, which he does lots of on his own. He averages about 60 minutes of reading each day even though some days he doesn’t do any reading, but on others he will read for hours. We get a homework packet on Friday, and it’s due on Wednesday. Usually we forget to take it out until Sunday night, and he does all his homework on Sunday and Monday nights. It actually takes him about 30 minutes in total, not the 2.5 hours it would take if it really were 30 min. per night. Sometimes he has big projects, and I think those are valuable, so he always does those. Most weeks he does complete his homework. There have been times he didn’t. As long as the teacher is on board, I’m okay. I might feel differently if my DS we’re struggling, but he’s beyond grade level in every subject, and the homework is really just busy work for him. I never would have thought of doing anything other than just following the rules as presented until I read that so many on this board have gone to teachers or flat out decided that their child wasn’t going to do the homework. That encouraged me to go to DS’s teachers, and it turned out they agreed with the anti-homework folks and were completely on board with lax homework standards. I’d encourage you to talk with your teacher, or even your principal. As I understand it, research does show that homework isn’t actually helpful in elementary grades and can be counterproductive. Many educators know about this research and are still giving homework more to satisfy parental demands than to fulfill educational goals.




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[Dayzy]

My 4th graders has about 30 minutes per night of written work plus 20 minutes of logged reading time. Many times the 30 minutes of work takes an hour because he gets distracted, daydreams, etc. On days where he knows that we have to get done quickly he manages to be done with the written work quickly.

[wendibird22]

It used to be about 10-30min per night...usually a math packet and a vocab/spelling packet handout out at the start of the week plus a reading expectation. But our school district did a homework study and based upon results eliminated homework for all K-4. They send home a monthly "home learning" packet that we honestly never do a thing with. DD1 is old enough that she had homework K-3, then eliminated it when she was in 4th. DD2 has never had homework. I don't notice a difference in learning/progress between the 2 kids. That said, it's a HUGE leap to 5th grade, which is middle school, where they go to subject area teachers and each assigns homework.

[twowhat?]

Our elementary has gone the "no homework" route. I'm honestly so glad, though there are other people who are pretty upset by this...but to me I feel like those parents can supplement with worksheets on their own if they want!!!

My DDs in 3rd grade will have a project-based assignment a few times a year but we always get at least 2 weeks to work on it. Also, because they have to take the state standardized test this year, teachers have been encouraging parents to at least work through a couple of problems each night at home...but nothing that has to be turned in.

I don't know how we would squeeze in more than 15-20 minutes of homework a day, if we wanted our kids to also have some downtime. We don't do a ton of activities (only 2 extracurriculars plus Girl Scouts which only meets monthly), and still feel like the evenings are a squeeze. Part of it is our kids need a good amount of sleep, so bedtime is still early at 8pm.

[PZMommy]

I teach 4th grade and most nights my assigned homework shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes plus 20 minutes of reading (but most of my students don’t do the reading).

[StantonHyde]

In 4th grade, things start to get real for kids. There is a big jump in 4th grade in terms of expectations, etc. I usually go by the idea of 15 minutes per grade. So in 4th grade, one hour--including reading. But that wasn't every night. My kids are in 7 and 8 now. And they are definitely at the 1-2 hours a night stage. DD gets hers done faster, but she needs to study more and pull her grades up. DS has dyslexia (processing speed) so things take him longer but he gets more than DD does, IMO, and his grades are better. My kids have tons of time on electronics. DD does sewing and sings in a choir. DS doesn't do activities during the school year--that will change next year in HS. So I am ok with their homework load.

[SnuggleBuggles]

None in 3rd grade. In 4th, they get a literacy packet and a math packet on Monday; they are due on Friday. We rarely had ds2 do them but it became clear that it was graded (I wasn't expecting that). So, he does them now and they are tedious. They follow the same format every week and some weeks that doesn't work- aka drawing a picture for vocab words. Some words are darned hard to draw a pic for!
Ds1 rarely ever had homework. He had a big adjustment to make in high school but he caught on just fine. Might have been a month of transitioning to the new work load but he's fine. I am not a fan of homework in the younger grades.

[smilequeen]

Almost nothing in 3rd. Reading was all that was daily. Math occasionally and work that didn’t get done at school. 4th jumps up to about 40 min but my middle has ADHD so it took him longer sometimes

[o_mom]

5-20 minutes unless they had a special project (1-2x/year)

Math sheet 1-3 days, spelling 1-3 days.

Mine read all the time, so I never timed their reading (that made them not want to do it) and signed whatever they wrote in a reading log.

[div_0305]

So glad our schools have been progressive and only allow a max of 10 min for each year in school (so 2nd grade no more than 20min, 3rd grade 30min max), and only M-Th. DS is in 7th grade, and we were told the homework would be astronomical, but it hasn't been. Most days DS has none, and long term projects are worked on at school mostly. It's a win for all of us--kids have down time, use time efficiently at school, and as parents we are not dealing with overtired kids who are smart enough to know the difference between busy work and real work.

[IansMom]

ODS is in third grade. At the beginning of the year, his teacher said that she prefers that work be finished in class and would rarely assign homework. I love it. He is given spelling words on Friday for the next week, so he studies that. He also has brought home study guides for tests that were started in class and he completes them at home. He also studies math facts at home. His third grade experience has been so much better than mine—I had daily homework and I hated it. It would take me at least an hour to complete it.

[doberbrat]

district guidelines say 10min per grade per night. but this varies WIDELY based on individual teachers.

dd1 is in 6th grade and had more homework in 3rd & 4th than 5th. 6th seems to be less than 5th. 30-45min/night?

dd2 otoh ........ M-F 20min+ reading log that must be signed or done during recess. plus a math worksheet that is usually 2sided. plus spelling study for a test on Fri 3x a week there is an ELA worksheet. and every other Fri they must memorize and present a poem orally including a detailed illustration. She's ahead of grade level so its not an issue for her in the least but its ALOT for most of the class. I could totally see it taking some kids 2h. and remembering to bring in that reading log on Mon is painful. in the beginning, 3/4 of the class sometimes had to miss recess. I made a bit of a stink about that but its teacher's discretion.

[bcafe]

My current 4th grader has NO homework. It is great.

[DualvansMommy]

Our district policy with homework is 10 mins per grade, so for 3rd and 4th it would be 30/40 mins both grades.

Most parents I’ve talked with who have older siblings in those grades are happy with that amount. It isn’t even every night either as they get the bulk of those homework every Monday, due back on Fridays.


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[maestramommy]

I have a current 3rd, 5th, and 6th grader. What you're describing sounds like much more than even what my 6th grader gets.

In 3rd grade, there is a spelling list that comes home, and they choose from a "menu" each day of how to review it. Writing 3 times, writing in cursive, writing definitions, writing in a pyramid. Then they have a math sheet with 2-3 problems on it.

In 4th grade it's similar but there's a bit more math homework. Even then, unless the student is struggling, it shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes.

In the past our kids have had to practice their math facts, either on cards or through a software program called Xtramath. For some reason this year it hasn't happened.

They also have to free read, but I have no idea how much my kid is supposed to read. I don't think the teacher spelled it out, or if she did I forgot. I just know my kid reads so I don't inquire. When the older two were in 3rd grade, they had the same teacher, who asked for 70 minutes a week, to be divided however they wanted. But they kept a log that I had to sign. Just FTR, I really detest homework logs and signing agendas, and I'm really glad no one has that this year. Well I do have to sign practice logs for band, but that's okay, since I hear them practicing.

OP I think your kids have a LOT of homework.

[ourbabygirl]

My 3rd grader gets almost no homework. I think they're supposed to get no more than 10 minutes per grade (so would be about 30 minutes for 3rd graders), but DD gets a math worksheet every week day (teachers in elementary here haven't given homework on weekends), and almost always gets it done in class or on the bus ride home. I'm assuming the teacher wants the kids reading a certain amount every night, but my kids read so much as it is that I don't make them fill out their reading logs much (it's not a requirement, just a suggestion/good habit to be in in the upper elementary school). I love the way they do things and I'm glad the teachers don't cave to the tiger parents that want their kids getting a ton of homework! :ROTFLMAO:

[theriviera]

a math worksheet m-th that takes maybe 10 minutes a day, usually less. and reading 20 minutes a day.

[essnce629]

3rd grade (independent charter school) - - DS2 has 1 Singapore Math sprint a night which takes about 5 minutes and 30 minutes of reading. That's it. His school is project based and all projects are done in class.

DS1 went to the same school from 3rd through 8th grade with very little homework. He's now in 9th grade at an independent private school and still has very little homework (he does it all at school during his hour lunch or free period).

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[mom2binsd]

Our elementary school is ranked one of the best in the area and both my kids barely had any homework in elementary school, other than the 15-20 min reading requirement (which was often accomplished on the road/while waiting somewhere etc).

I have worked in education and have many good friends who are experienced teachers and nobody thinks that much homework benefits anybody. I have also observed that friends who have kids in private schools are often talking about all the homework their kids do, much more than my friends with public school children. I have a theory that the private schools give more homework in the belief that they feel that parents will think they are getting more out their tuition. A friend whose daughter attends a very expensive private school in Utah has had hours of homework since about 3rd grade, it's stupid the amount of time they spend and she has actually hired a tutor for the last 5 years for almost daily tutoring.

Even in 6th grade DS rarely has homework, he has tutorial as a period and gets stuff done then, he only has homework when he studies for a test.

My 9th grader has some homework, about 30/60 minutes but not every night. Some nights maybe more, but she is very independent and works hard at school, and is straight A's so I don't really question when she doesn't have homework.

[div_0305]

I have worked in education and have many good friends who are experienced teachers and nobody thinks that much homework benefits anybody. I have also observed that friends who have kids in private schools are often talking about all the homework their kids do, much more than my friends with public school children. I have a theory that the private schools give more homework in the belief that they feel that parents will think they are getting more out their tuition. A friend whose daughter attends a very expensive private school in Utah has had hours of homework since about 3rd grade, it's stupid the amount of time they spend and she has actually hired a tutor for the last 5 years for almost daily tutoring.

Funny you mention that, as I've always thought the same.

[jgenie]

I have worked in education and have many good friends who are experienced teachers and nobody thinks that much homework benefits anybody. I have also observed that friends who have kids in private schools are often talking about all the homework their kids do, much more than my friends with public school children. I have a theory that the private schools give more homework in the belief that they feel that parents will think they are getting more out their tuition. A friend whose daughter attends a very expensive private school in Utah has had hours of homework since about 3rd grade, it's stupid the amount of time they spend and she has actually hired a tutor for the last 5 years for almost daily tutoring.


This is it I think. My DC are in a private school and quite a number of students stay after school for tutoring. I think the teachers do one day a week of after school duty for the school but the other days the majority are being paid to tutor students. We never jumped on the tutoring bandwagon but lots of families have.