Does Your Middle School Child Have Too Much Homework?

Nobody really LIKES homework. Students dislike it in general. Parents dislike it when it cuts into family time and causes undue stress. Teachers dislike grading huge stacks of it (believe me, I speak from experience!).

Yet, in school, we have homework. Teachers do what they can to limit how it cuts into family time, but it’s not something they can eliminate altogether. Academics is similar to  playing a sport: practice is vital, otherwise students forget how to do things and never improve. Therefore, the homework is necessary.  

If your student is coming home with STACKS of homework, there may be a problem.  This is not the teacher's goal.  Teachers dedicate a significant amount of time to make sure students have as little homework as possible. 

If you notice your student is drowning under a pile of homework assignments, I encourage you to ask your student the following questions to detect exactly why this is an issue:

1. Is this something you worked on as a class and the teacher asked you to finish for homework?
2. Were you given time at the end of class to start this assignment?
3. Did you work on this during tutorial?
4. If you were stuck, did you ask your teacher for help during tutorial?
5. If you are stuck now, have you emailed your teacher? 

These questions might shed some light on whether the homework issue is partly due to time management. Let me be absolutely clear: a time management problem does not equate to a work ethic problem. Time management involves organization, thinking ahead, and planning. These are learned skills which require the development of the brain's frontal lobe. This executive functioning of the brain is not fully developed until our mid-twenties.  Children, especially in the middle school years, need parents and teachers to help with skill building. They need coaching to learn efficient and effective homework skills which later translate into time management skills.

If time management isn’t to blame and the homework load is causing your child to be stressed beyond reason, or is taking up unreasonable amounts of time, please contact your teacher and let them know. Teachers want to help! Teachers want to work with parents and students to make sure homework issues are being addressed.  Teachers want students to be challenged but not overwhelmed.

Click here if you want to read more about encouraging your middle school student.