"Beth Kevles" wrote in message
...
Do go in and discuss this issue with his teacher. Be firm that you will
not require more than 5 or 10 minutes (that's distractable kid minutes,
not 10 minutes of actual concentration) from your child, but you WILL
make sure that homework is part of the daily routine. (That's so that
you can show the flag as "supporting the teacher" while actually
supporting your child.)

I would love to do this, but we all signed a contract saying we will support
the teacher and homework assignments. I was worried about the homework
load, but I was told it was similar at other schools here (thought they
don't have contracts). The contract stated kindergarteners do 15 minutes,
but no more than half hour. So, we did the half hour. I was hesitant to
put DS in this school because of the contract, but IL's family really pushed
for it. SIL teaches at a magnet school and said it was best to try him in
it and we can always take him out if things don't work out, but it's hard to
get him back in if we decline. MIL works with young children as a teacher's
aide and she said all the kids are doing lots of homework these days and the
amount of homework in the contract isn't necessarily what they would assign.
Well, I think they meant every word of what they said in the contract.
Anyway, I'm willing to see how DS adjusts to this. I know I don't like it
much, but he's very much into stability and routine and he likes structure,
one of the most positive aspects of the school. We're very lucky that he
already knows how to read at a first grade level and he's been writing a
little in preschool. I think breaking the homework up into little sessions
today did help, so I will do that from now on.

First grade homework is half hour to an hour. By third grade, it's 45
minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Ugh. We'll have to see. One of my coworkers had
three kids in this school. She had to fight them every night to do
homework. If that happens, DS is out of this school.