Homework?
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| Wed, 04-12-2006 - 10:32am |
Do your teens seem overloaded with homework and school projects this time of year? I really feel bad for my DD. She has been doing 4-5 hours of homework every day for the last week+, plus a good chunk over the weekend. And it's pretty focused homework too --- not much goofing around, dawdling or procrastinating; she's actually been keeping her nose to the grindstone.
This can't be a good thing. She gets her spring break next week and has already told me she has two projects to finish. She said most of the kids at her school are under the same pressure and some are planning on just blowing some things off because they are just tired of homework! Can't say I blame them, but on the other hand, not doing the work will have some repercussions come report card time.
Is this going on in your house too?

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Well, it doesn't seem like we're completely alone here! I DO think that some of this last minute push is because of Dd's failure to plan and organize her time in advance, but quite a lot of work was assigned just this week for completion by today ... 1/2 day today and tomorrow off. Then a week off for spring break. Plus ... she does tend to do most things in slow motion. I used to say it took her 20 minutes just to put on her socks!
This actually isn't the end of the quarter -- that was a couple weeks ago and for the first time ever, I wasn't exactly pleased with Dd's grades. Fortunately, only semester grades go on permanent record so I think part of the reason she's now working so hard is because she needs those grades to go back up to where they are supposed to be. Not that they were bad -- just that in two classes her grade dropped a full letter grade -- and it wasn't because she was struggling with the material. She admitted she was just tired of doing the work and 'blew' a couple of assignments off. Completely out of character for her, but even so, Mom was soooo NOT happy!
She did sign up for an AP class for next year in European Studies. I know she will enjoy the class and the material, but I am just a little concerned with the amount of work that she will have and her (so far) failure to effeciently plan and organize her time very well. We actually had to sign an agreement stating that we was aware of the time commitment required for the class. At this point Dd is sure she wants the class, but she'll have two weeks after the start of the next school year to change her mind and drop down to a different history class.
Oh well, nothing much I can do. Thanks for your opinions.
Maybe I was an anomaly, but I had WAY more homework than my ds has to date (he's now in 8th and I hear HS gets a bit worse). We never had in-class time to work. In grade school (we went K-8) in the upper grades I easily had a couple hours/night plus a few hours over the weekend. DS (in public too) usually gets done in 1-2 hours and some nights has less than an hour. This year I've seen more than in years past (there have been a few instances of 3-4 hours in a night), but still nowhere near what I did on a consistent level. But then I went back in the days of 'tracking' and was in the fastest paced group, honors and AP in HS; they don't track any more here and only have some differentiated levels in math in MS, and then more in HS. I was in public school; dh was in Catholic and never had much hw through HS.
Sue
From my experience, I think that 11th grade is the hardest grade because of SAT, ACT, and looking at colleges. Colleges pay the most attention to the junior year of high school, so the person also has to have good grades. I don't think that senior year is that easy either, or at least in the beginning because of college applications and financial aid. My kids are taking a lot of AP classes, which are time consuming and sometimes they only get 4-5 hours of sleep (which is uncomferting), but they are doing well in their classes. Its spring break next week, so they will have free time, but will be studying for the AP exams, which is the first 2 weeks of May.
Stephanie
I tell my daughter that she is doing way too much in school. Three out of her four classes are APs, which is alot. She rarely goes to bed before 1:00 and on bad days(at least once a week), wakes up at 4:00 in the morning. After school she has ballet practice sometimes till 9:00 at night. She is doing well in her classes and I admire her desire to go to a good college, but that is a lot of pressure for a sophomore in high school. This week is her spring break so she is at least getting a little time off.
Adelaide
I hate the idea that on some nights my children only get 5 and sometimes less hours of sleep some nights. Avery, my oldest, throughout her whole high school experience got 4-6 hours a sleep a night. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't (so determined). Her hard work payed off in the end, she is where she wants to be, but her health should come before school work. Sleep is important, especially for teenagers.
Sienna
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