Is Too Much Homework Bad For Your Kid?

From kindergarten to high school, research suggests that some kids are getting too much homework.

When students are pushed beyond their limits to handle a workload out of sync with their level of development, it can lead to significant stress – both for children and their parents.

How Much Homework Should They Be Doing?

LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) has come up with a time allocation for students’ homework, and that too only for 4 days a week. The guideline aren’t compulsory to follow though.

Special consideration should be given to students in Advanced Placement, School for Advanced Studies (SAS), International Baccalaureate, honors, and other gifted programs.

What should you as a parent do if you suspect too much homework?

If there’s too much homework, you should get in touch with your child’s teacher by phone or mail and clarify the issue to him/her.

If multiple parents speak to the teacher regarding the issue, a pattern may emerge that can be addressed easily by the teacher in class.

Note: It is okay to prioritize health and sleep over homework. It has been found that homework counts for only twenty percent (or even less) of the student’s grade. So skipping an assignment in favor of sleep and health won’t affect the overall grade of the kid.

Negative Effects Of Too Much Homework

1. Reduction in social interaction

Children having a lot of homework are impeded in their time of social interaction.

Social opportunities provide them with the chance to know about:

• Conflict management,

• Impulse control, and

• Various other social skills.

If there’s a check on their socialization opportunities, their general development can suffer.

2. Disturbance in life balance

Children having too much homework would face a tremendous amount of difficulty in balancing their life.

This could very well impact their circadian rhythm. If excessive homework’s given, it may cut into the downtime that students need to sleep or relax, which can ultimately have a huge impact on their day-time cognitive abilities.

3. Negative influence on active learning

Active learning plays a crucial role in encouraging participation and honing problem-solving skills in students.

Homework doesn’t provide this kind of opportunities and eliminates time for self-motivation which, in a sense, could play a direct hand in building imagination, intuition, or problem-solving skills in the student.

It can also limit a child’s time to explore his/her own interests, which could provide a ground for career choices later.

4. Becoming unproductive over time

Researchers have found very little correlation between the amount of homework and academic success.

In fact, it’s recommended for children to have only ten minutes of homework for the best results. Anything more than this could be counter-productive over time.

How Can You Help?

A child struggling with excessive homework may need help from his/her parents to get it done on time. It’s important that this help teaches the child as to how to do these things on his/her own rather than focusing on simply getting the job done.

Here are a few tips that can help:

       1. Plan beforehand

Encourage your kid to predict how long it can take to complete each assignment.

Ask questions about the things involved in the assignment before you come up with your suggestions about the solution. You would want your child to know what’s expected of him and plan ahead so s/he can deliver on time.

       2. Overcome the hurdle of procrastination

If your child has trouble with procrastination, set aside a particular homework time each day and a reasonable punishment if s/he doesn’t start his/her work on time.

Tell him/her that the longer s/he procrastinates, the longer it’ll take him/her to complete the homework.

       3. Involve a tutor

In some cases, parents may not have the time to provide the level of help to their child’s need.

A professional tutor may come in helpful in such situations.

       4. Talk to the teacher

If you think your child’s facing too much homework, talk to his/her teacher in a non-confrontational way.

Emphasize on the fact that his/her teaching methods aren’t probably working in your child’s case and a compromise somewhere has to be done for the sake of the kid.

With that, we’ll bring this post to an end for now. Hope you had a great read.