that she could reasonably finish in 20 minutes has regularly been known to take two-plus hours. She's over it by the time she gets off the bus, and I'm the bad guy who's forcing her to do just one more math sheet before she runs out to ride her bike or plugs into her iPad for a well-deserved zone-out session. There have been many days when I've had to threaten to email her teacher in order to get her to complete whatever simple-seeming worksheet has come home.
Halfway through her speech, the subject came up."A lot of new studies are showing that homework isn't as helpful as we used to think," she said."So I'm not going to give it. Your job is to work with your kids on practicing their letters every night and reading as much as you can. That's what's most important."
Could it be true? Had I just gotten out of homework for the whole year?! Three weeks in, that seems to be mostly the case, and I am thrilled about it. My kids are 5 and 8 and spend seven hours a day sitting in a classroom, learning in a superstructured way. I want them to be able to spend the rest of their day just being kids: playing with toys, riding their scooters, swinging at the neighborhood park, and yes, reading with me or by themselves.