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Stressed-Out Kids
Is your child doing homework all evening and on weekends? If you think the schools are assigning too much homework, join the discussion.
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Agingsscm,
Your situation does sound very stressful. In most areas sixth grade is considered middle school, so perhaps she's having trouble adjusting to a new grade/new workload.
I have a couple suggestions, but you may already be doing these.
Organize and prioritize.
Help your daughter decide what subjects deserve the most attention and have her focus on those first. If there is a major test she needs to study for, she should start there. Express your concerns to her teachers.
Here is an excerpt from an article from the GreatSchools Library:
Homework Guidelines What's a parent to do, you ask? Fortunately, there are some sanity-saving homework guidelines.
Cooper points to "The 10-Minute Rule" formulated by the National PTA and the National Education Association, which suggests that kids should be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. In other words, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 for second-graders and so on.
The Optimal Amount Cooper has found that the correlation between homework and achievement is generally supportive of these guidelines. "We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it's going to be optimal.
You can read the article in its entirety here:
www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/s
Your situation does sound very stressful. In most areas sixth grade is considered middle school, so perhaps she's having trouble adjusting to a new grade/new workload.
I have a couple suggestions, but you may already be doing these.
Organize and prioritize.
Help your daughter decide what subjects deserve the most attention and have her focus on those first. If there is a major test she needs to study for, she should start there. Express your concerns to her teachers.
Here is an excerpt from an article from the GreatSchools Library:
Homework Guidelines What's a parent to do, you ask? Fortunately, there are some sanity-saving homework guidelines.
Cooper points to "The 10-Minute Rule" formulated by the National PTA and the National Education Association, which suggests that kids should be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. In other words, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 for second-graders and so on.
The Optimal Amount Cooper has found that the correlation between homework and achievement is generally supportive of these guidelines. "We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it's going to be optimal.
You can read the article in its entirety here:
www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/s
I am writing as a frustrated and stressed out Mother. My daughter is in the 6th grade and has homework every night in almost every subject and has homework or projects most weekends. Someone please tell me how to help my daughter study for tests during the same week and do homework in all subjects at the same time. I am curious as to find out how the teachers are spending their evenings.Apparently they have no children. I am upset because my family does not have quality family time together at all!!!!! Its always stressful in the evenings. My daughter is very responsible and independent. She is currently overwhelmed as I am. Is it too much to ask not to have homework on the same nights that my daughter needs to study for a major test? I send my daughter to school for 6 hours each day. I would think that would be enough time for her to do whatever she needs to do without sending more work home. What are the teachers doing during the day? I admit that students need occasional homework but research proves that during the grammer school years its not really benefical for the children only high school students benefit from homework. How will my family ever survive thi year???????
If it was just homework, maybe I could deal, but the late night disasters are more often caused by project-- especially when run by inexperienced teachers. I'm not trying to turn this into a teacher bashing party, because they have as much right to try new things as anybody. But being a student and frequent educational guinea pig, I have to say its the September through February marathon projects that are the worst. Maybe its only where I am but heres the break down:
September: Science Fair Assigned
National History Fair Assigned
December: Project Crunch time the favorite time to assign projects for over the winter break from all classes besides Science and History
Also the time when your history and science teachers say "Your paper is due when you get back from winter break"
February: Turn in the posterboards, paper, oral report, costumes, and research paper (different from JUST the paper), your log book, your research journal, and your notecards (wat?) for the presentation you made that your teacher never saw while you spent four hours in an overcrowded room seriously wishing a0 you hadn't worn heels b) your skirt was a foot or so shorter, and your stupid judge who didn't know anything about your topic would just show up and grade your years work already!
HOMEWORK IS FINE BUT IF YOU SAY THE WORD "PROJECT" YOU HAD BETTER BE READY WITH A GETAWAY CAR.
September: Science Fair Assigned
National History Fair Assigned
December: Project Crunch time the favorite time to assign projects for over the winter break from all classes besides Science and History
Also the time when your history and science teachers say "Your paper is due when you get back from winter break"
February: Turn in the posterboards, paper, oral report, costumes, and research paper (different from JUST the paper), your log book, your research journal, and your notecards (wat?) for the presentation you made that your teacher never saw while you spent four hours in an overcrowded room seriously wishing a0 you hadn't worn heels b) your skirt was a foot or so shorter, and your stupid judge who didn't know anything about your topic would just show up and grade your years work already!
HOMEWORK IS FINE BUT IF YOU SAY THE WORD "PROJECT" YOU HAD BETTER BE READY WITH A GETAWAY CAR.
I'm not sure if I'm the parent to talk to, since my son is a pretty laid-back kid. He has had to stay up until 2 or 3 to finish homework on occasion (very rarely) because a project, an essay, or a major assignment was due. More often than not, however, he's the kid up instant messaging with a friend who is completely lost on an assignment and he's trying to help them via IM. Obviously I'd be less than thrilled if a kid called after midnight, so the fact that technology lets them reach out without waking the entire house is great.
We've taken a few steps to avoid the crippling stress of too much homework. First my son goes to a school with a true Copernican block schedule. My son takes only three classes the first semester, and then three classes the second semester. You know how at Back-to-School Night the teachers all say with a straight face that they'll all collaborate to prevent the kids from having all the tests and projects due on the same day? And then the first time the students raise their hand and mention that they already have 3 things due that day, the teachers will snipe back that the kids need to get used to it because it happens in the real world? Well with a Copernican block schedule, the kids have only 3 classes--and they can only possibly have three things due, and even that's rare. They go roughly 90 minutes a day (fewer passing periods) per class, more time to work on projects in class, and get out at 1:12 each day. All sports and extracurriculars are 4th period, and the kids participating get out at 3 pm. No more coming home after dark if they play a sport.
Secondly, until the last year or so, I've limited my son's extracurricular choices. Until he was well into his junior year, he was able to bowl (always Saturdays) and sometimes one other activity. He wasn't going to be flung all over our area getting from one appointment to another. Over time, he's taken bass guitar lessons, taken community college courses, played water polo, volunteered, but never more than 1-2 activities per semester. Honestly, this relieves my stress as much as it relieves his. At this point, with his high GPA, I let him try a few at a time, although I'd love it if he would learn to drive.
As a sports coach myself, I see and hear the stories from the kids who take on too much and then can't enjoy any of the activities because they're always having to say no to something and never get to enjoy any of their activities because they're always rushed from one to another. When they want to pursue an activity deeper, they can't as they already are committed every day for months in advance.
I think as parents, the most important thing we need to do is teach our kids the value of saying no--to trying to do too much.
We've taken a few steps to avoid the crippling stress of too much homework. First my son goes to a school with a true Copernican block schedule. My son takes only three classes the first semester, and then three classes the second semester. You know how at Back-to-School Night the teachers all say with a straight face that they'll all collaborate to prevent the kids from having all the tests and projects due on the same day? And then the first time the students raise their hand and mention that they already have 3 things due that day, the teachers will snipe back that the kids need to get used to it because it happens in the real world? Well with a Copernican block schedule, the kids have only 3 classes--and they can only possibly have three things due, and even that's rare. They go roughly 90 minutes a day (fewer passing periods) per class, more time to work on projects in class, and get out at 1:12 each day. All sports and extracurriculars are 4th period, and the kids participating get out at 3 pm. No more coming home after dark if they play a sport.
Secondly, until the last year or so, I've limited my son's extracurricular choices. Until he was well into his junior year, he was able to bowl (always Saturdays) and sometimes one other activity. He wasn't going to be flung all over our area getting from one appointment to another. Over time, he's taken bass guitar lessons, taken community college courses, played water polo, volunteered, but never more than 1-2 activities per semester. Honestly, this relieves my stress as much as it relieves his. At this point, with his high GPA, I let him try a few at a time, although I'd love it if he would learn to drive.
As a sports coach myself, I see and hear the stories from the kids who take on too much and then can't enjoy any of the activities because they're always having to say no to something and never get to enjoy any of their activities because they're always rushed from one to another. When they want to pursue an activity deeper, they can't as they already are committed every day for months in advance.
I think as parents, the most important thing we need to do is teach our kids the value of saying no--to trying to do too much.
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