Does your child do their homework at home?

[Mickey'snewestfan]

In an effort to lighten homework loads in backpacks, some of my son's teachers have told them to keep their textbooks at home, and they have a class set that each period uses at school. Kids don't have two assigned texts, they just have one as the other one is shared with other periods. These are books that are used rarely -- for example, I think my son has had 3 assignments in his social studies book all year. The rest of the time they are using other materials.

Last night my son had an assignment in his Social Studies book. On Thursday he doesn't come home from school. Because I work late, he rides the bus to my mom's house and I pick him up after dinner. So, he couldn't do his social studies homework because the book wasn't there. I picked him up at around 8:00 and was slightly annoyed that he hadn't started his homework, because I knew he's get to bed later than I like, but wouldn't have thought much of it, except that we got home and the power was out in our building and all along our street. We managed to find one flashlight, but given that I needed it to walk the dog (down the stairwell, along the dark street, find the poop to pick it up etc . . . ) he couldn't use it to read his textbook. By the time I got home I thought it was too late and told him to go to bed. Power didn't come on until the morning, at which point it was too late to get the work done before the bus.

So, I wrote a note and I assume it will be excused. However, it got me thinking. My kid has often not done his homework at home -- he did it at aftercare until this year, or he goes to my mom's, or he stays and does it in the library at school. Some of his friends have divorced parents and move back and forth. The "keep the book at home" thing doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I guess I could send every book to school with him each Thursday morning, but then his backpack would be heavier, not lighter which was the goal.

So I wonder, how common is it for kids to be doing homework somewhere other than home, not including situations where they go home first and could pick up the book?

 

[NVDisMom]

My dd's do it mostly at home. We also have the text books here so they do not have to be carried back and forth. We have ran into a few situations where homework had to wait until we get home because of the book, but its rare. What we usually run into is the problem of n computer/internet connection. It seems 90% of their assignments require at least to be typed if not online research, pics and references.

 

[scrapquitler]

My DD 14 almost always does homework at home, but sometimes takes it with her to dance class to do during the 1 hour break in between two of her classes. She has two sets of books, except for her science book (we bought copies of all the texts off of ebay to make it easier for her so she doesn't have to carry books back and forth to school, science we couldnt' find the right edition of the book on ebay, so we didn't get that). Some of her homework gets done during study hall, but we discourage that (study hall is first period, and to me, that's 'last minute'). In the case of what happend to you last night, I'd write a note or have my son explain, sorry, couldn't do it because of the power outage, by the time I got home the power was out. Stuff happens,

 

[hereyago]

Mostly DD12 does her homework at home. SHe has a Math and Science textbooks that stay at the house-as they have copies at school. But when she goes to her DF"s for a weekend, she will do homework there. If she forgets her textbook here at house, she can go online and look at the book online.

 

[mamacatnv]

DD also has the dual book scenario - we keep the spare books in my car. Sometimes she comes back to my office, sometimes I take her home and then occassionally she ends up in some other scenario and we have to take a moment and think of how to coordinate the books.

Often she might be with a friend who has the same books. Once in awhile Dad picks her up and then they usually swing by my office/car and get the books, wait til I get home or knew of it in advance and took the book out of my car prior to the schedule change.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I like the dual book things as overall I think it would help kids. More and more texts are being made available electronically--if we lived in the US I would buy them for DD if it meant she did not have to haul books around with her.

To answer your question: it is rare that my kids do homework at home. Generally only when they have a whole lot (and finish up at home) or my son will do reading at home--near bedtime. They both prefer to get their work done on their lunch breaks and on the streetcar/train coming home. It gives them more time for fun

 

[Momvic5]

My ds14 does his homework at home....it always seems to be the same subjects. He is allowed to keep 4 of his textbooks at home. They are HUGE and are too heavy to carry back and forth everyday. He keeps another two books in his backpack at all times, and with just those two books and his notebook, his backpack is at least 20lbs. During the first week of school before I knew he was going to be able to keep some of his books at home, his arm was broken during a football game. I felt so sorry for him. He was trying to carry a huge load of books that literally broke his backpack so I bought him a used set of textbooks to keep at home. Two weeks later, he was told he could keep his books at home.

 

[tvguy]

Only one set of books here, so they had to come home. However, there have been more than one frantic night where phone calls were made, and other kids asked to scan pages from books, and e-mail them to my kids.
Or it meant going to school early and getting the book early, and doing the homework before school (their high school library opened an hour before school started) or during lunch, depending on what time the class was.

I DID have both kids do homework on the showroom floor of a car dealer once............made it clear if we couldn't make a deal by the time the kids homework was done......then there would be no sale. Easiest car negotiating I ever did. We were the only customers in there on a Monday night, it was near the end of the month, and my offer was $250 over dealer cost.

 

[honugirl]

I finally had to invest in a rolling backpack for college. I don't have the luxury of having 2 sets of books (they're just too doggone expensive! Winter quarter I got away cheap, only $225!). It's the only way to go.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I finally had to invest in a rolling backpack for college. I don't have the luxury of having 2 sets of books (they're just too doggone expensive! Winter quarter I got away cheap, only $225!). It's the only way to go.

You couldn't leave as et in a college classroom anyway could you? It wouldn't have worked when I was in school anyway.
A rolling backpack is useless where we live. Narrow sidewalks and cobblestones a good portion of the way--the weight of the frame when they o have to carry is a bigger con than the the pro of when they can roll.
My kids now go to a school which covers one main subject at a time for 3 hours a day (for 4-6 weeks) which is great because it means only (at most) one text book to carry

 

[honugirl]

You couldn't leave as et in a college classroom anyway could you? It wouldn't have worked when I was in school anyway.
A rolling backpack is useless where we live. Narrow sidewalks and cobblestones a good portion of the way--the weight of the frame when they o have to carry is a bigger con than the the pro of when they can roll.
My kids now go to a school which covers one main subject at a time for 3 hours a day (for 4-6 weeks) which is great because it means only (at most) one text book to carry

It depends on what subject you're in, how far into it you are, etc. Some of the departments have lockers for the students, some classrooms are solely dedicated to certain classes, so it's possible to leave books there. Also some profs that have been using certain texts for multiple quarters have texts in their classrooms locked up, but they still make you have your own. I've actually had to divide up my books into separate backpacks for next quarter, since I have so many. There is talk that they may move toward digital media (i.e. ipads, netbooks) in the next year or so, so no more physical text books to carry.

Rollerbackpacks work on rough surfaces. We have tons of pavers and crazy surfaces to go over. I don't use it on narrow sidewalks so I can't attest to that.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids get much of their homework done in school, occasionally go to a friend's house and do homework but mostly do it at home. They have both online access to books and a set at home for most of their classes. More often than not we have an extra kid here doing homework too-especially Spanish because DH is fluent and can help out as needed.

 

[kacaju]

In an effort to lighten homework loads in backpacks, some of my son's teachers have told them to keep their textbooks at home, and they have a class set that each period uses at school. Kids don't have two assigned texts, they just have one as the other one is shared with other periods. These are books that are used rarely -- for example, I think my son has had 3 assignments in his social studies book all year. The rest of the time they are using other materials.

Last night my son had an assignment in his Social Studies book. On Thursday he doesn't come home from school. Because I work late, he rides the bus to my mom's house and I pick him up after dinner. So, he couldn't do his social studies homework because the book wasn't there. I picked him up at around 8:00 and was slightly annoyed that he hadn't started his homework, because I knew he's get to bed later than I like, but wouldn't have thought much of it, except that we got home and the power was out in our building and all along our street. We managed to find one flashlight, but given that I needed it to walk the dog (down the stairwell, along the dark street, find the poop to pick it up etc . . . ) he couldn't use it to read his textbook. By the time I got home I thought it was too late and told him to go to bed. Power didn't come on until the morning, at which point it was too late to get the work done before the bus.

So, I wrote a note and I assume it will be excused. However, it got me thinking. My kid has often not done his homework at home -- he did it at aftercare until this year, or he goes to my mom's, or he stays and does it in the library at school. Some of his friends have divorced parents and move back and forth. The "keep the book at home" thing doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I guess I could send every book to school with him each Thursday morning, but then his backpack would be heavier, not lighter which was the goal.

So I wonder, how common is it for kids to be doing homework somewhere other than home, not including situations where they go home first and could pick up the book?

my kids always do their homework at home and we do have copies of some of their text books at home. I like that they are able to keep the books at home to lighten the backback load. I am married, work until 2pm and my kids always come home after school. In fact, they come home and their homework is done by dinnertime.

But, having said that I do understand why it doesn't work for you.
#1..i'd make sure you have more then flashlight in your home from now on.
#2 how often is your son at your Mom's? Would it be better to keep the boooks at her home?