Are Kids Being Overburdened With Too Much Homework?

Moms Talk is a weekly feature on Agoura Hills Patch, part of an initiative to reach out to moms and families. We invite you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families right here in Agoura Hills.

Each week in Moms Talk, our council of smart moms will take your questions, and share stories and solutions. Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about the thousands of issues that arise while raising children.

Today's Topic: Are our children getting too much unnecessary homework?

This week's question comes from columnist Charlene Ross:

I have to admit that I’ve never been a fan of homework. I’m not talking about when I was a kid; I mean now, as a mom. It makes me really cranky.

My children are in school for six hours a day. My fifth grader has a minimum of one hour of homework a night and my eighth grader usually has two or three.  When exactly are our kids supposed to be kids?

I feel that a big part of the problem is standardized testing. We are teaching our children to do well on tests and this means lots of extra study time and busy work. Of course I understand that studying for tests and mastering certain concepts takes time outside of school, but some of the work that my children bring home is ridiculous.

I see my kids’ childhoods slipping past them right before my eyes. I know that I didn’t have nearly this much homework when I was growing up–and my mother certainly never helped me with it–and I managed to graduate college and be a semi-productive member of society.

Is it just me or do other parents think that our kids get too much homework – especially busywork. And I’m also wondering – what can we do about it?