It would be best to discuss your concern with her teacher - as she would know what is expected of the children. We were advised how long our children's homework should be and if it takes longer, it could be that they did not complete their work in class.

My child was in grade 1 last year and yes some days it took 3 hours and other days even more. Each day was reading / numeracy / spelling. Now he is in grade two it is reading / numeracy / spelling / sentence construction and phonetics so four hours some days is not unusual. I can't even remember having any homework until Standard 2. I find that these days the kids are really pressurized at school and there is really no time for them "just being a kid".

No, the schools just think you need to 'participate' in your child's learning, every day, for hours on end. Does not matter that you probably pay a fortune for school in the first place. My daughter also took ages to complete homework, but you will be astonished to find out how much time is wasted in school, which is why so much work is sent home.

Yes 3 hours is a bit much for a grade one, I can hardly get my daughter to sit still for 30 min before getting bored with the work she is doing.

I think alot of it is to do with the fact that they have to repeat alot of work the whole time, I don't mind it but it increases the workload alot. My daughter is in grade 3 and I was quite impresses with the amount of books she can carry in her school bag.
I think it has also alot todo with how education is done, today alot more education is has to be given by the parents. The work load on the teachers has increased so much with the outcomes based education....

Well aslong as she comes out the other side ... a better educated person then I am happy but yes there are limits

I dont believe your child is a slow learner, rather would advise that you break the homework up. let your child complete one thing at a time and then have a quick break. my daughter concentrates for 30 mins at a time. thereafter its all questions about everything around her but her work.
Good Luck!

Not necessarily. Grade 1 is a massive step up from pre-primary and some kids take a while to adjust to having to sit and focus for a long period of time. Homework should only take one hour max but if your child is daydreaming or getting distracted, it could take a lot longer. Remove all distractions, have her do her least favourite homework first and be very encouraging when she completes. If things don't improve after a few weeks, speak to her teacher and find out if there are other issues that may be affecting your child. I would also suggest only doing one hour of homework and if it is not complete, write a note to the teacher explaining why. Good luck, I have been there and I know how frustrating it can be!

Hi there,
It takes us a good hour to do homework (very painfull as he does not want to do it) it is hard to be positive after a days work but it has to be done. Good luck

I would suggest that you monitor it for the first term, check how long it takes her to do her homework on average. It is a big jump from Grade R to Grade 1. In the second term start helping her set timelines for her homewrok. My son is in Grade 2 now and in Grade 1 he would also sit for a long time. After assessing this for a time, I realised that his homework should not be taking him longer than an hour, but he is easily distracted and very bright so its difficult to keep his attention. We set timelines with a reward such as you can go swim or we will go play cricket, whatever, if he focuses on his homework for that hour. This is working for us and he finishes his homework within that time and knows not to neglect the quality of his work, such as reading and writing. It is important to help her now as the homework gets more through each grade.

Your child is not slow - they do give kids a lot of homework but as most of the readers have commented, a child of 6 or 7 should not be sitting still for 3 hours and completing homework - to me that is absurd.

Break in between for a few minutes and set achievement goals and the time to do the homework will get shorter as she gets more into her groove. Also, try not to interfere too much in what she is doing. I think at the beginning I was complicating things too much by trying to 'help' which was frustrating my son even more - making him lose his concentration. So what if its not perfect?? Its called learning from your mistakes for a reason!

My second one is in Gr1 now and I am much more relaxed with him than I was with his brother who is now in Gr3 and he potters along and does a sterling job with little help from me, just a praise and a pat on the back with the occasional word when its asked. Its frustrating but let her try as much by herself and she will work out her own system - they surprise you!

My daughter is in Grade 2 this year - at a good Joburg private school for girls. Her homework normally consists of maths, numeracy, spelling and reading. Normally it's done by the time I get home - but she goes over what she's done with me for my signature. It takes her about 20 minutes - including reading an 18/20 page storybook. Because she'd done three years of preprimary before Grade 1, she got into the whole thing very quickly and appears not to suffer concentration problems.

There's no way a Grade 1 pupil should be sitting over homework for 3 hours. Either there's way too much homework, which seems unlikely, or the child needs help with focus and concentration.