How Much Home Work Should a Six Year Old Have?

It is supposed to be 10-15 minutes per grade. My 6 year old gets basically NO homework. Maybe a worksheet once in a while and is supposed to read or be read to every night for 10-15 minutes. I would caution you on giving him mom homework. Sounds like you are not doing "that" much but try to make it as fun as you can for him. Busy work like repetitive writing will zap a kid's love of learning faster than anything else. And in just a few short years he will be spending his whole night doing homework.

Also-there are some really great websites out there that you could go to with him where he can learn but have fun while doing it.

At that age I was say 20-30 minutes max per day and I wouldn't do it right after school either. First, I'd let them him have a snack, play outside, then say homework after dinner.

Good luck!

Homework, that is a HUGE debatable question.
SIDE 1: NO homework - kids spend 8 hours a day in school, let them come home and be a kids.
SIDE 2: 30 mins in grade 1-3 ~ 60 m ins 4-6 etc.

You as a parent get to decide. I will tell you what happens in my home and with my clients. I am on Side 1.

First, know that I am a retired school teacher and now a Family Success Coach. I DO NOT BELIEVE IN HOMEWORK FOR THE SAKE OF HOMEWORK. If a child did not finish their work at school because they were fooling around etc, then yes, homework is fine. But sending home work for the sake of sending home work is UNACCEPTABLE.

Imagine if at the end of your work day your boss walked up to you and said, “here you go, take an hour or 2 of work home with you” how would you feel?

Kids NEED to be kids. They get maybe about 4 hours with the parents in the evening, do you really want to spend that time working on homework? What about spending quality time with them, maybe teaching them practical skills? Maybe your time is better spent on life skills, maybe cooking lessons, reading together, shopping lessons, drawing, being creative together etc.

Evenings are for moms. Be one. Don’t be the teacher they should have during the day.

B.
Family Success Coach

I'd communicate directly with the teacher. Even a responsible 6 year old is bound to forget/ misunderstand sometimes.

I'd also calm down on the assignments (I've been a classroom teacher) and get your kids outside and running around. He's going to have homework a-plenty in life, but he's only going to be small and free once. Kids are getting obese because they aren't spending enough time playing. Go for walks together, talk about his life, talk about your life, laugh together. Let the school handle the homework and be his cheerleader as he does it. There is more to life than academics. I should say that I pressured my first kid academically to a bad extent, and I'm not speaking from a point of anti-academic laziness (I'm the biggest nerd in the world), rather hindsight. I wish I had done things differently.

I look at it this way:

How much work should your husband or you bring home at night? He's done work all day. He's worked hard. How motivated will he be to bring that work home each night. Same with your son. If he has been attentive, completed his class assignments, and worked hard all day, making him do work, espcially unassigned work, could begin to make school a drudgery and learning a chore which would be a huge disservice to him. I think you are a great mom for taking responsibility for your son's education whether he is going to traditional, private, or home school. If you want to support his education at home do it in a fun way. Let him spell out his school spelling words with refriderator magnets. Let him do math by helping you cook. Let him learn knew vocabulary words by going on a scavenger hunt in the house for different things, for instance, "You have 1 minute to find the collander. I use it to drain the noodles when I make spaghetti." Then go over what it is and what it does. Make it fun and he will love to learn and save the work for school unless the teacher assigns it.

Hope this helps,

:L.

My 6 year old has about 15 minutes of homework a night. After a full day in school home time should not be spent in school as well. But that's just my opinion. I think 8 hours of school a day is enough!

I always let my kids have a snack and play out side before settling down to homework. 30 minutes + 15 for reading sounds around right to me for a 6 year old.

Also, I would email or call the teacher about weekly homework - kids forget. I'm sure this is all new to him and maybe he's forgetting to check his mailbox or to put his take-home folder in his backpack.

I agree, I think 30 minutes is about all you can ask from a 6 year old. As for the homework, I dont know if all schools work this way, but my kids would have to bring home any work they did not finish during the day plus homework. So some days, if they weren't paying attention or if they had a lot of activities that day, they would have more work to take home than other days.

A little bit (15 - 20 minutes) of reading every day, out loud to you, a weekly spelling list, and an occasional worksheet should be all in first grade. The amount of homework will increase with each grade. I make sure my daughter (now 3rd grade) gets exercise and physical activity (playtime!) absolutely every day, since school provides only a 15 MINUTE recess each day and is quick to shorten or eliminate even that on a whim.

I'm a strong believer in schooling (I'm working on a PhD myself) and an even stronger believer in living a balanced and enjoyable life at all ages.

If you are under the impression that he would get homework every Monday, I would call the school to make sure he didn't.......maybe he forgot it......

Each child is different.....but I would say no more than an hour......depending on their attention span...

Good Luck and take care.

IMHO, I think that in first grade, their only "homework" should be to finish any unfinished classwork from that day, 10-15 minutes of reading (preferably 5 minutes of it out loud to a parent) and maybe a small spelling list to go over as needed for the Friday spelling test.

They need time to be kids. If my kids' teacher cannot teach them what they need to know in the 7 hours they get at school each day, then there is a problem. Now, as kids get older, then they should have a little more responsibility for doing work on their own. For some kids, that means they will work the spare few minutes here or there at school so that they don't have to bring it home, and their home time is all free. For some, it means they will socialize, and have a LOT to do at home. Some are somewhere in between the two. My son told me once, that when he was in the cafeteria waiting to be picked up after school (small private school, this was 2nd grade) that he had gotten his homework out to get started on it. (He also had karate and piano to practice after he got home from school that day). His teacher actually told him that he was not to do it. That it was homework. And he had to do it "at home". I was NOT happy. Give me a break!

Also, homework should NEVER be to learn a new concept. It should ONLY be to reinforce something that has already been fully taught and explained at school.

I would check in with your son's teacher to confirm that there was not a homework assignment that your son forgot about. But I wouldn't make up my own "homework" in the absence of any issued from school. With the exception of perhaps encouraging your child to read a few minutes with you. And it doesn't have to be chapter books. It can be comics or whatever keeps them interested! Reading should be fun!

Saw your so what happened...
There are also other ways to work on fine motor skills. They can pick up beads with chopsticks and play with playdoh.

I have a true aversion to this topic! My children are grow now so I don't know what the schools are doing these days but I believe homework should be limited to just enough to require the children to be responsible for some work at home. Poor little things...all day at school and then an hour or more at home....when is there family time, dinner time, play time, be a kid time???? Homework is way overrated!

When there's a chance, ask his teacher what her plan is. Sounds like you're doing fine. I'd work as a team with her as much as you can and keep it light and fun at home the best you can but make it clear that homework is his job now and you're there to help him do what you know he is capable of.

I use to think that children should do homework (I taught first grade for 11 years) but now that I am a mother, I question its use.

Think about it...they have been in school for at least five hours. A great deal of that time is spent on the basics, reading, writing, and math. Then, we are saying to these very young children, now do more. When they probably should be either playing or doing art, enrolled in a dance class, sports, going to the library, something else they are interested in.

Studies are showing that homework is actually not very helpful.

My opinion changes if children are below grade level. But still homework is still not helpful because they should be enrolled with a tutor who can specifically work on their area(s) of need.

Good luck. I always try to remember what the 'whole' child needs.

Wow my oldest child is in 5th grade. He doesn't receive much homework but the test are constant. Ugh. Constant studying. In 4th- 5th grade he under normally conditions would get his homework done within 30 min. Normally 1-2 sheets. He has to read 20 min every night.
My 1st grader just started getting homework since school just started he some nights gets no homework other nights its one sheet and he has to read min 20 min every night.

My 1st grader gets a homework packet each Monday that is due on Friday. She is expected to do about 10 minutes each day.

My son's first grade teacher said that we should never spend more than 20 minutes on his homework, that if it is taking longer to just stop and pick it up later. I usually do not count his reading in this, so we do another 10 minutes of reading after the 20 minutes is up.

Count me in as a parent that believes homework for the sake of homework is totally useless in the primary grades.

My DD spends 7 hours a day being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. She needs to learn some self regulation, and at this point the only place she can is at home. With her going to bed so early the time spent doing homework could be more beneficially used to do chores, play with her brother or friends, help me cook dinner ANYTHING but more dumb worksheets.
http://www.thecaseagainsthomework.com/
GL!

I agree with AG. My sons 5th grade teacher just told him 10 minutes per school grade and 20 min for reading a night. He gets about that, 50 min and then his reading.

i spent and hour to 45 minutes with my daughter, but we had slight dyslexia to contend with.

10 minutes for each grade plus 20 minutes of reading, either by you or himself

my son is 7 and now in second grade - in first he had 3 or maximum of 4 sheets per night - about 30 mins, if he sat down without messing about.

most nights he would also have a book to read

that is an unusual way of doing it - to give it all on one night and then have the child do it during the week - hmmm I can't see how that could easily pertain to what they did in school that day?

sounds about average though

I think 15 minutes of reading and 15 minutes of writting. I am assuming he is in 1st grade.