Ds started Grundschule in September last year and has been enjoying it and (imo) getting on well.
We have the first parents' evening coming up at the end of this month and one of the things I need to discuss is the issue of homework.
His weekly school hours are:
Mon, Wed, Fri: 8.00 - 11.20
Tues: 8.45 - 3.30
Thur: 8.00 - 12.20
He gets homework every day except Tuesday (when they have Ganztagsschule). Homework consists of 1 x letters/writing, 1 x maths and 10mins of reading.
The school says each of the first two should take 15min each, so an ideal total of 45mins homework a day.
First of all there is no way that my 6yo can complete the writing homework in 15mins, not because it's too hard or too much, as such, but because the level of perfection required. We've had lots back saying "letters are not exactly between the lines" etc. I always check his homework, and often watch while he's doing it, and tbh to me it's been absolutely fine, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. If on occasion he does something obviously wrong, I tell him and he corrects it.
The maths - this is probably more doable in 15/20mins, but only if ds concentrates totally and completely and doesn't get even a bit distracted for a moment...which I'm not sure is entirely realistic at this age, is it? What I mean is that for him to complete a whole page of sums takes longer than 15mins not because he's working out how to do them but because he's not entirely concentrating and totally commited to the idea of getting the homework done :o
Altogether, with the 10mins reading, he absolutely can't get it done in under an hour, and it's usually quite a bit more than that.
What do we do? If he doesn't finish it, he either has to finish it as school the next day (he says in the Pause, which I totally disagree with) or brings it home again...which means we have even more to get done.
How hard can/should I push him? It seems like so much to me, and I don't think it's right that the supervision of eg whether he's doing his letters right or not is down to me (that's what the teachers are for).
Am I just being naive? Is this just the way it is here and we have to do it like this? But then again, i'm not prepared to accept daily battles and struggles over this - how can I make him do it faster AND better? And isn't 1 - 2 hours homework quite a lot for Erstklassler?
I've talked to other friends here and have heard very similar stories, so it's not just us. There are a few whose dc zip through the homework and complain that it was so little, but they seem to be more the exception :o
Sorry this has been so long, but I'd really appreciate any tips or advice or just shared experiences. TIA :)