I’m going to start with a PSA: Teachers are professionals. Every teacher is different and has their own opinions. Yes-there are some not-very-good teachers, but there are many, many very good teachers. So whether or not you agree or disagree with what I’m about to say, we need to trust our teachers to do what they think is best for their students. Regardless of your feelings about homework, please be respectful of our fellow teachers who have differing opinions. 

I don’t really like homework. Part of that reason may be out of pure laziness that I don’t want to put in the work to copy, assign, collect and grade all of those papers. I’m not going to lie about that-sometimes I feel lazy. But also, there are lots and lots of studies out there that say homework isn’t all that’s cracked up to be. Now, I haven’t read many of them in detail but we pretty much get the jist that homework usually a waste of time [at the elementary level]. I won’t bore you with going over the details, but if you want to read some good articles about the topic, here are a few from my favorite education site Edutopia:

https://www.edutopia.org/no-proven-benefits

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/homework-vs-no-homework-wrong-question-maurice-elias  (this one is good in explaining the difference between good and bad homework, something I will be talking a little about as well.)

We really don’t need our students doing busy work when they go home, and usually that’s what homework is. Teachers have too much to do to pick out quality, meaningful homework to go home (if you can, than I applaud you because you are better than me). We need students to be doing meaningful work, both in and out of the classroom. If we cannot give them that, then why give them anything at all?

Studies show that students learn more when the work they are doing is meaningful and worth while. They need to be learning through real-life applications to fully comprehend and apply material. That is something that we need to be educating all teachers and parents about. We need to educate them about what they could be doing at home that will be the most beneficial for their child.

As teachers we need to educate parents that they need to be communicating with their child on a daily bases. They need to talk about their day, problem solve, cook together, play together. They need to let their child play with their friends after school! Or even play on their own with toys. So much is learned through these experiences that kids aren’t getting these days. There are so many things kids can learn just by interacting with their parents and with others. Go to the store and talk about money. Count and read things at the store. Even learning body language, like learning not to go around mom or teacher when she’s mad or stressed (because we all know that happens!) is a very important skill!

I created a handout for parents, along with other parent forms, that you can get it from my TPT store by clicking the picture below. This handout includes the ideas (and more) that I talked about above that parents can do with their students, other than the typical “homework” busy work. These are actual meaningful things that will both help the child learn and bond with their parent.