2nd grade homework, is this too much?

This is very outrages> I would talk to the school principle about this. Homework should only take 3o min to a hour. That is to much.My step son when he was in 2ND all he had was a spelling page and his one page math homework. It only took 20 min.He is in 4Th grade now.

I am also a parent of a second grader, and that sounds like a ton of homework for every night. It sounds like he's doing everything at home. First make sure (by discussing it with both your son and the teacher) that your son is doing everything he should during school; just to be sure that he's not blowing everything off so he can play during school time, and then has to take it all home. Then, start by asking to observe the class for an hour or two, if it's possible. If the teacher seems to be giving adequate work time during class, in addition to instruction time, and is ALSO giving the students all that homework, perhaps you can discuss with her how long the work it taking at home, and suggest kindly that she cut back on the homework a bit. If that doesn't lessen the load a bit, then it might be time to talk to the principal. Keep it friendly with the teacher; your son will be in that class the rest of the year!

My son's homework for the week arrives home on Monday, and is due back on Friday. It almost always consists of a reading journal (read for 15 minutes 4 nights a week, and write short comments about what he read), two math worksheets, a new set of 7 spelling words, and one other worksheet that varies in content. What he's doing takes about half an hour each evening (including the reading), Monday through Thursday, and seems very reasonable. It's especially nice because if we have some other activity to attend, or if he wants a night off, he can just catch up the next evening, as long as he gets it all done before Friday.

I'm a teacher and I taught second grade a few years back. I love second grade. But yes, you're right- it's too much. Although my students (and the students of the other 3 second grade teachers') had homework every night (except Fridays, of course) they only had about 20 minutes of homework no matter what the subject. Any good teacher will tell you that 10 minutes per grade level is what is acceptable and responsible- not overloading their little minds. In second grade that would be 20 minutes, in third it would be 30 minutes... and so on. ALL homework, additionally, should be something that the kids learned at school and the teacher helped them work on. The part you see at home should only be 'independent practice' on something they learned that very day in school... so they can practice using the skill on their own. It sounds like the teacher is sending home one of everything she/he taught about that day and that's not going to help your child feel successful, either. Being overloaded can only make you feel like you can't keep up and then it leads to feeling like a failure. I'd talk to the teacher about how the amount of homework is giving your son a lot of grief- not that he's incapable but it's making him feel "frustrated". Maybe she's just new and was trying to make sure the kids were challenged and if you point out that they're most likely more frustrated than challenged, she/he will modify their homework assignments so they are more in line with grade level development. Good luck. I hope this helps.

The 14 + 2 spelling words, they've been most likely working on them since Monday in class too. Writing them twice should take about 12 minutes.

Study a 5 page map study guide - sounds complicated, can just be legends used for continents and compass directions to understand - say about 5-10 min. And, maybe they've done part of it in class too.

5 questions - that is 5 complete sentences. About 10 minutes.

practice for a 2 minute math quiz- this is mostly only if they've not done well in the math quiz prep in class so far. This prep is to take a similar 2 minute quiz - that is 2 minutes.

write a 4 line poem: teacher must have explained a little about the topic, kind of poem, and most likely showed a sample. Say, about 5-15 minutes.

So, yes, it is a little bit on the higher side. But, were all the homeworks given only the day before? Or did the students have more days to finish them.

And most likely, part of this is unfinished classwork, like another poster mentioned.

You haven't mentioned "Reading Log" or "read for 10 minutes and record name of book with parent signature"

kind of thing.

Also, one thing I learnt at our back-to-school night, is that homework is an attempt to finish the work assigned. It doesn't have to be perfect. Wrong problems in math, spelling mistakes in language arts, are expected. In fact, our teacher discouraged monitoring the kid's work too closely.

this is in contrast to our last year's teacher who expected parents to correct any mistakes (immediate enforcement in better).

so, you need to talk to your teacher, about how much time the student is expected to take. if your kid takes much longer or shorter than that, homework assigned needs to be revisited.

It used to be that homework was about 10 minutes x the grade. It is different now, and in 2nd grade, my kid had 45 min of homeowrk. In 3rd grade, teacher says shouldn't take longer than 60 min. Which means, in reality it takes 90-120 min. I;m OK with it.

Usually I would not answer homework questions like this because it's parents complaining about two sheets of work with the child in 5th grade.

I have four kids and homework was never that bad in 2nd grade. I don't think they had that much throughout grade school.

This is a lot. My son is in the GATE class [4th grade] and doesn't have this much homework. This was just for one night? My son's teacher sends home a packet and the kids can do it in one day or take the week.

I think you should talk to the teacher. Or talk with other parents from the class and see if a group of you so you can get the homework lessened.

This is just a lot.

I'd have a serious talk with the teacher. Assuming the work isn't stuff he didn't finish in school he has far too much homework. If the teacher is unbending get other parents who believe as you do and go over the teacher's head. Also, see if the school district has a Homework Policy and if it is being followed. I would not allow a Second Grade student to spend more than half an hour on homework. Until parents become effective advocates for their children this sort of nonsense will continue, and their is strength in numbers.

I work at a after school program and help K-5 with their homework. This seems like an extreme amount for a 2nd grader. Contact the teacher and make sure that this is not homework that was for the week instead of one evening. The teacher may have assigned it differently than brought home. Teachers may also be able to e-mail or contact you about what homework is needed each day. Our school has a program called Blackboard, where you can look up school assignments.

Seems ridiculous to me. The second grade homework my daughter got took her about 5 minutes, and it was only 3 or 4 times a week. If your son isn't getting time to relax, play, read, and get some exercise, I would raise the issue with your child's teacher. Ask her how many minutes a night she expects kids to spend on homework. I know schools are different, but I'd say more than a half hour is too much (and 45 minutes or more is so totally unreasonable I'd complain to the principal or raise it as an issue with the PTA). You might be able to find out if the amount this teacher is assigning is consistent with other second grade teachers at the same school.

That sounds like too much to me. I would check w/ his teacher and also ask your son if he is getting anytime to work on things in school. Can he do any work after the teacher is done w/ a lesson before they move on? Maybe he is talking during that time or soemthing and thats why he has to bring so much home. I'm just guessing on that, he may not be given a choice to get anything done, it was just a thought. Are all his assignments due for the next day? Maybe she gives them all at once and they have to be back in a few days. If they are all due the next day I would talk to the principle and bring it up at the next parent teacher meeting and see if any other parents feel the same way and encourage them to let the teacher and principle know so they don't think you are the only one that has a problem w/ it.

Im from australia.

my daugther is in 1st grade.

1st grade and 2 grade mostly get the same homework.

except for 2nd grade its a little bit harder and maybe a bit more.

my daugther does 5 spelling words, reading, maths. And thats for a week.

she does about 1 or 2 max question for spelling.

eg. 1. write your vowels in a different colour.

2. write your words out 5 times.

and max 2 qs for maths;

eg. pick a number between 10 and 100 and sort then into ones, ten, hundreds.

she has to read for at least 10 mins a night.

i think your son has too much hw. my 15 year old doesn't even do that much a night. she may get more homework than that, but she doesnt do it all at once. i think she leaves it all to the last week! ><

oh well.

if your concerned you can talk to your classroom teacher.

hope this helps (:

That sounds crazy. My 7 year old daughter is in grade 2 in Australia so the system might be different but this is her usual homework for the week.

10 spelling words to be used in a sentence

some maths problems

some english eg telling time on a clock, filling in words in a sentence etc.

Read a 30 page book per night (her reading is top of the class though,

She usually only spends 10 minutes per day on homework plus 10 minutes reading her book