how much time should a child spend doing homework

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Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

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Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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How Much Homework Is Enough? Depends Who You Ask

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Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education ( Viking)—the latest book by author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson (co-authored with Lou Aronica), published in March. For years, Robinson has been known for his radical work on rekindling creativity and passion in schools, including three bestselling books (also with Aronica) on the topic. His TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” holds the record for the most-viewed TED talk of all time, with more than 50 million views. While Robinson’s latest book is geared toward parents, it also offers educators a window into the kinds of education concerns parents have for their children, including on the quality and quantity of homework.

The amount of homework young people are given varies a lot from school to school and from grade to grade. In some schools and grades, children have no homework at all. In others, they may have 18 hours or more of homework every week. In the United States, the accepted guideline, which is supported by both the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, is the 10-minute rule: Children should have no more than 10 minutes of homework each day for each grade reached. In 1st grade, children should have 10 minutes of daily homework; in 2nd grade, 20 minutes; and so on to the 12th grade, when on average they should have 120 minutes of homework each day, which is about 10 hours a week. It doesn’t always work out that way.

In 2013, the University of Phoenix College of Education commissioned a survey of how much homework teachers typically give their students. From kindergarten to 5th grade, it was just under three hours per week; from 6th to 8th grade, it was 3.2 hours; and from 9th to 12th grade, it was 3.5 hours.

There are two points to note. First, these are the amounts given by individual teachers. To estimate the total time children are expected to spend on homework, you need to multiply these hours by the number of teachers they work with. High school students who work with five teachers in different curriculum areas may find themselves with 17.5 hours or more of homework a week, which is the equivalent of a part-time job. The other factor is that these are teachers’ estimates of the time that homework should take. The time that individual children spend on it will be more or less than that, according to their abilities and interests. One child may casually dash off a piece of homework in half the time that another will spend laboring through in a cold sweat.

Do students have more homework these days than previous generations? Given all the variables, it’s difficult to say. Some studies suggest they do. In 2007, a study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that, on average, high school students spent around seven hours a week on homework. A similar study in 1994 put the average at less than five hours a week. Mind you, I [Robinson] was in high school in England in the 1960s and spent a lot more time than that—though maybe that was to do with my own ability. One way of judging this is to look at how much homework your own children are given and compare it to what you had at the same age.

Many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all.

There’s also much debate about the value of homework. Supporters argue that it benefits children, teachers, and parents in several ways:

• Children learn to deepen their understanding of specific content, to cover content at their own pace, to become more independent learners, to develop problem-solving and time-management skills, and to relate what they learn in school to outside activities.
• Teachers can see how well their students understand the lessons; evaluate students’ individual progress, strengths, and weaknesses; and cover more content in class.
• Parents can engage practically in their children’s education, see firsthand what their children are being taught in school, and understand more clearly how they’re getting on—what they find easy and what they struggle with in school.

Want to know more about Sir Ken Robinson? Check out our Q&A with him.

Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson

Ashley Norris is assistant dean at the University of Phoenix College of Education. Commenting on her university’s survey, she says, “Homework helps build confidence, responsibility, and problem-solving skills that can set students up for success in high school, college, and in the workplace.”

That may be so, but many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all. Families have busy lives, and it can be hard for parents to find time to help with homework alongside everything else they have to cope with. Norris is convinced it’s worth the effort, especially, she says, because in many schools, the nature of homework is changing. One influence is the growing popularity of the so-called flipped classroom.

In the stereotypical classroom, the teacher spends time in class presenting material to the students. Their homework consists of assignments based on that material. In the flipped classroom, the teacher provides the students with presentational materials—videos, slides, lecture notes—which the students review at home and then bring questions and ideas to school where they work on them collaboratively with the teacher and other students. As Norris notes, in this approach, homework extends the boundaries of the classroom and reframes how time in school can be used more productively, allowing students to “collaborate on learning, learn from each other, maybe critique [each other’s work], and share those experiences.”

Even so, many parents and educators are increasingly concerned that homework, in whatever form it takes, is a bridge too far in the pressured lives of children and their families. It takes away from essential time for their children to relax and unwind after school, to play, to be young, and to be together as a family. On top of that, the benefits of homework are often asserted, but they’re not consistent, and they’re certainly not guaranteed.

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Strategies to make homework go more smoothly.

Routines and incentive systems to help kids succeed

Writer: Peg Dawson, EdD, NCSP

Clinical Expert: Peg Dawson, EdD, NCSP

Here is the best guide to helping kids do homework successfully that we’ve seen, published by the National Association of School Psychologists on their website, NASPonline.org . Our thanks to NASP for sharing it with us.

There are two key strategies parents can draw on to reduce homework hassles. The first is to establish clear routines around homework, including when and where homework gets done and setting up daily schedules for homework. The second is to build in rewards or incentives to use with children for whom “good grades” is not a sufficient reward for doing homework.

Homework Routines

Tasks are easiest to accomplish when tied to specific routines. By establishing daily routines for homework completion, you will not only make homework go more smoothly, but you will also be fostering a sense of order your child can apply to later life, including college and work.

Step 1. Find a location in the house where homework will be done. The right location will depend on your child and the culture of your family. Some children do best at a desk in their bedroom. It is a quiet location, away from the hubbub of family noise. Other children become too distracted by the things they keep in their bedroom and do better at a place removed from those distractions, like the dining room table. Some children need to work by themselves. Others need to have parents nearby to help keep them on task and to answer questions when problems arise. Ask your child where the best place is to work. Both you and your child need to discuss pros and cons of different settings to arrive at a mutually agreed upon location.

Step 2. Set up a homework center. Once you and your child have identified a location, fix it up as a home office/homework center. Make sure there is a clear workspace large enough to set out all the materials necessary for completing assignments. Outfit the homework center with the kinds of supplies your child is most likely to need, such as pencils, pens, colored markers, rulers, scissors, a dictionary and thesaurus, graph paper, construction paper, glue and cellophane tape, lined paper, a calculator, spell checker, and, depending on the age and needs of your child, a computer or laptop. If the homework center is a place that will be used for other things (such as the dining room table), then your child can keep the supplies in a portable crate or bin. If possible, the homework center should include a bulletin board that can hold a monthly calendar on which your child can keep track of longterm assignments. Allowing children some leeway in decorating the homework center can help them feel at home there, but you should be careful that it does not become too cluttered with distracting materials.

Step 3. Establish a homework time. Your child should get in the habit of doing homework at the same time every day. The time may vary depending on the individual child. Some children need a break right after school to get some exercise and have a snack. Others need to start homework while they are still in a school mode (i.e., right after school when there is still some momentum left from getting through the day). In general, it may be best to get homework done either before dinner or as early in the evening as the child can tolerate. The later it gets, the more tired the child becomes and the more slowly the homework gets done.

Step 4. Establish a daily homework schedule. In general, at least into middle school, the homework session should begin with your sitting down with your child and drawing up a homework schedule. You should review all the assignments and make sure your child understands them and has all the necessary materials. Ask your child to estimate how long it will take to complete each assignment. Then ask when each assignment will get started. If your child needs help with any assignment , then this should be determined at the beginning so that the start times can take into account parent availability. A Daily Homework Planner is included at the end of this handout and contains a place for identifying when breaks may be taken and what rewards may be earned.

Incentive Systems

Many children who are not motivated by the enjoyment of doing homework are motivated by the high grade they hope to earn as a result of doing a quality job. Thus, the grade is an incentive, motivating the child to do homework with care and in a timely manner. For children who are not motivated by grades, parents will need to look for other rewards to help them get through their nightly chores. Incentive systems fall into two categories: simple and elaborate.

Simple incentive systems. The simplest incentive system is reminding the child of a fun activity to do when homework is done. It may be a favorite television show, a chance to spend some time with a video or computer game, talking on the telephone or instant messaging, or playing a game with a parent. This system of withholding fun things until the drudgery is over is sometimes called Grandma’s Law because grandmothers often use it quite effectively (“First take out the trash, then you can have chocolate chip cookies.”). Having something to look forward to can be a powerful incentive to get the hard work done. When parents remind children of this as they sit down at their desks they may be able to spark the engine that drives the child to stick with the work until it is done.

Elaborate incentive systems. These involve more planning and more work on the part of parents but in some cases are necessary to address more significant homework problems. More complex incentives systems might include a structure for earning points that could be used to “purchase” privileges or rewards or a system that provides greater reward for accomplishing more difficult homework tasks. These systems work best when parents and children together develop them. Giving children input gives them a sense of control and ownership, making the system more likely to succeed. We have found that children are generally realistic in setting goals and deciding on rewards and penalties when they are involved in the decision-making process.

Building in breaks. These are good for the child who cannot quite make it to the end without a small reward en route. When creating the daily homework schedule, it may be useful with these children to identify when they will take their breaks. Some children prefer to take breaks at specific time intervals (every 15 minutes), while others do better when the breaks occur after they finish an activity. If you use this approach, you should discuss with your child how long the breaks will last and what will be done during the breaks (get a snack, call a friend, play one level on a video game). The Daily Homework Planner includes sections where breaks and end-of-homework rewards can be identified.

Building in choice. This can be an effective strategy for parents to use with children who resist homework. Choice can be incorporated into both the order in which the child agrees to complete assignments and the schedule they will follow to get the work done. Building in choice not only helps motivate children but can also reduce power struggles between parents and children.

Developing Incentive Systems

Step 1. Describe the problem behaviors. Parents and children decide which behaviors are causing problems at homework time. For some children putting homework off to the last minute is the problem; for others, it is forgetting materials or neglecting to write down assignments. Still others rush through their work and make careless mistakes, while others dawdle over assignments, taking hours to complete what should take only a few minutes. It is important to be as specific as possible when describing the problem behaviors. The problem behavior should be described as behaviors that can be seen or heard; for instance, complains about h omework or rushes through homework, making many mistakes are better descriptors than has a bad attitude or is lazy.

Step 2. Set a goal. Usually the goal relates directly to the problem behavior. For instance, if not writing down assignments is the problem, the goal might be: “Joe will write down his assignments in his assignment book for every class.”

Step 3. Decide on possible rewards and penalties. Homework incentive systems work best when children have a menu of rewards to choose from, since no single reward will be attractive for long. We recommend a point system in which points can be earned for the goal behaviors and traded in for the reward the child wants to earn. The bigger the reward, the more points the child will need to earn it. The menu should include both larger, more expensive rewards that may take a week or a month to earn and smaller, inexpensive rewards that can be earned daily. It may also be necessary to build penalties into the system. This is usually the loss of a privilege (such as the chance to watch a favorite TV show or the chance to talk on the telephone to a friend).

Once the system is up and running, and if you find your child is earning more penalties than rewards, then the program needs to be revised so that your child can be more successful. Usually when this kind of system fails, we think of it as a design failure rather than the failure of the child to respond to rewards. It may be a good idea if you are having difficulty designing a system that works to consult a specialist, such as a school psychologist or counselor, for assistance.

Step 4. Write a homework contract. The contract should say exactly what the child agrees to do and exactly what the parents’ roles and responsibilities will be. When the contract is in place, it should reduce some of the tension parents and kids often experience around homework. For instance, if part of the contract is that the child will earn a point for not complaining about homework, then if the child does complain, this should not be cause for a battle between parent and child: the child simply does not earn that point. Parents should also be sure to praise their children for following the contract. It will be important for parents to agree to a contract they can live with; that is, avoiding penalties they are either unable or unwilling to impose (e.g., if both parents work and are not at home, they cannot monitor whether a child is beginning homework right after school, so an alternative contract may need to be written).

We have found that it is a rare incentive system that works the first time. Parents should expect to try it out and redesign it to work the kinks out. Eventually, once the child is used to doing the behaviors specified in the contract, the contract can be rewritten to work on another problem behavior. Your child over time may be willing to drop the use of an incentive system altogether. This is often a long-term goal, however, and you should be ready to write a new contract if your child slips back to bad habits once a system is dropped.

Click here to download the homework planner and incentive sheet .

Frequently Asked Questions

To help homework go more smoothly, e stablish a routine that includes a time and place where it will be done, a planner that lists each assignment, scheduled breaks when some of the work is done, and a reward system for kids who are not motivated by good grades alone.  

Set a good homework routine following these steps: Find a location in the house where homework will be done. Set up a homework center stocked with needed materials . Establish a homework time. Use a daily homework planner so that your child has everything in writing.  

One tool that can make homework go more smoothly i s a Daily Homework Planner , which lists each assignment, how long it should take to complete, and what rewards may be earned for completing each assignment.    

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How Do Kids Spend the School Day? Recommended Times and Structure

Verywell / Sahara Borja

Attending Class

Doing homework.

• Socializing
• Being With Parents

Eating Meals

Being physically active.

• Enjoying Nature

Using Electronics

How to fit it all in.

Today's kids are busier than ever, dividing their time between school, activities, tutoring , and family time. When they're not busy with scheduled activities, kids have to make time for homework, sleep, and personal care.

Is there a way to balance it all and still provide some structure? Sure; making room for the priorities just takes a little planning. Of course, when it comes to time management , flexibility is also important. There will be times when you need to make adjustments to meet your child's needs. See how your child's schedule compares to others when it comes to key daily activities.

It may seem like your children spend all of their time at school . According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), students may spend anywhere from three to seven hours a day in school depending on their age and the state in which they live.

This figure does not include transportation time as well as before or after school activities. Consequently, the number of hours individual children spend at school can vary dramatically.

As for the number of school days in a school year, there is much less variation. According to the NCES, the number of school days in different states ranges from 160 days in Colorado to 180 days in Hawaii.

This means kids are not in school about 185 days or more a year, which includes weekends and breaks. On those days, kids have the opportunity to enjoy nature, spend time with family and friends, and exercise.

How much time each day should kids spend on homework ? A general rule among teachers is 10 minutes per grade level: 30 minutes per day for a third-grader, 50 minutes for a fifth-grader, and so on.

This rule has been around for decades, but gained legitimacy when a review by Harris Cooper of Duke University suggested that 10 minutes per grade level really is the best practice. This amount can vary dramatically between children, however.

Time needed for homework really depends on the school's homework policy, the teacher's philosophy, and the type of coursework your child is taking. High school students taking AP courses might spend more time on homework than a student in general education courses. Some educators don't assign homework unless they see a strong need for at-home practice.

Expect less homework in schools that have a strong hands-on emphasis. You can expect more homework in schools that focus on regular practice or have "flipped" classrooms, where kids cover new material at home and practice skills at school where they are supervised. Another time you can expect more homework is in advanced level classes, like those that offer dual credit to high school students.

To keep your student on task during the school year, try establishing a schedule or block of time when homework will be completed.

Allow your child to help decide when this will take place. Doing so gives them some sense of control over their day and will more likely lead to positive results when it comes to completing assignments.

Socializing With Others

Experts agree that school-age children need to have friends. Friends help children build social skills such as listening, sharing, and problem-solving . Children also learn how to handle their emotions through relationships with other children.

Research doesn't dictate any specific amount of time that is necessary for children to socialize with friends. The quality of the friendships and whether or not the child is generally happy with their social time are most important. Children or teens may have just a few friends or several friends.

If you feel that your child would benefit from having more or better quality friendships , start by suggesting that your child to get involved in clubs or activities where they can meet new friends. If your child seems a little shy or like they need practice meeting new peers, try coaching them on how to make friends.

Being With Parents or Caregivers

Don't stress about spending quality time with your kids. Research from a large-scale longitudinal study on the effects of time with parents compared to child and teen outcomes had some surprising results.

The biggest takeaway is that time spent with a parent who is stressed out and moody can decrease positive outcomes, while more time does not show a strong benefit. For this reason, it's important to be mindful of your family's moods.

It's also important not to put too much pressure on yourself when it comes to spending time as a family. The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family , found no relationship between the time a parent spent with their 3- to 11-year-olds and the child's academic achievement, behavior, and well-being. Teens do get into less trouble when they have six hours a week or more of positive, engaged time with parents.

That means that parents can and should take a big sigh of relief. These results suggest taking care of yourself first and not sacrificing or martyring yourself for the sake of your children is best. If you find yourself stressed out about money, you can return to work or work more hours without feeling guilty .

You also will be in a better position to spend time with your kids in the teen years when the benefits are much more tangible. Just try to enjoy your time together no matter what that looks like. It still stands to reason that your child will benefit from having some positive attention from you every day.

The amount of time a child needs to sleep varies according to their age. But every child, no matter their age, needs adequate sleep. Not getting enough sleep has been linked to falling asleep during school or missing school altogether.

What's more, kids who don't get enough sleep struggle to wake up in the mornings, and have trouble learning or doing school work. If you are concerned that your child is not getting enough sleep, learn what symptoms to watch for as well as what steps you can take to improve their sleep habits .

Sleep Recommendations

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the recommended sleep times for school-age children are:

• 10–13 hours each night for 5-year-olds
• 9–12 hours each night for 6- to 12-year-olds
• At least 8 hours each night for kids 13 years old and older

Verywell / Nusha Ashjaee

Most experts recommend 20 to 30 minutes to eat a meal, and 10 to 15 minutes to eat a small snack. Keep in mind that even children's bodies need 20 minutes after eating before they begin to register feeling full.

To make sure your children have plenty of time to finish their food without feeling rushed and get adequate nutrition, emphasize the importance of family meals . This time not only provides your kids with the nutrition they need, but it also gives you valuable time together as a family.

What's more, regular family meals promote healthy eating and protect against childhood obesity . Make sure you are selecting healthy options for your family and that electronics are turned off and away from the table. Meal time also is a great time to catch up on what's going on in everyone's lives and to laugh together as a family.

Children should engage in 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Not only does regular physical activity promote health and fitness, it also leads to lower body fat and stronger bones .

Physical activity—which should consist of aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities—also has a positive impact on a child's brain health. Studies have shown that exercise improves cognition and memory as well as enhances academic performance and reduces symptoms of depression.

When kids exercise daily, this also sets them up for good health in adulthood. It reduces the likelihood that they will experience heart disease, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes. Plus, being physically active is a great stress reducer. It allows kids to take their minds off of stressful things and do something fun.

Enjoying Nature and the Outdoors

Many children spend much more time indoors than they did in previous generations. Various studies have linked this increase in indoor time to obesity and other health issues.

While it is important to note that some of these effects do not have enough research to say with certainty that indoor time is to blame, it makes sense that time spent outdoors and away from screens would be good for children and adults alike.

How much time outdoors should you aim for? The U.S. National Wildlife Federation suggests at least one hour a day. This nature advocacy group even includes this concept in its "Be Out There" campaign, calling it a "Green Hour." Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also recommends 60 minutes of unstructured, free play (indoors or out) every day.

You can help your children get in their physical activity time and their time in nature by getting them outdoors. If you're short on ideas, try hiking on a local nature trail or tending a small container garden.

For years, the AAP had fairly strict recommendations limiting the use of any electronic devices to a few hours a day. However, in late 2016, new guidelines were announced that are much less stringent. The guidelines were created in response to how we are using media today.

This change came about because electronics and screen time have become a facet of almost every part of our lives. Children use tablets and computers at school. Cell phones with video messaging are used for daily communication. And internet use for homework is more likely to be required than optional. Then, after a child's required use of electronic media, there is still entertainment and free time to consider.

Overall, the recommendations indicate that electronic media use for entertainment should be limited to one or two hours a day. Parents should ensure that this entertainment is high quality, and create screen-free zones (like the family dinner table), so children and teens learn to function without their devices. Doing so not only allows them to relax and de-stress but it also gives them the space needed to be creative.

Of course, during the 2020-2021 school year, kids may have been online multiple hours a day just to get an education. Now that schools are being encouraged by the CDC to return to in-person learning, finding a balance between using electronics for school and for socializing and entertainment is important. You may even want to consider taking a few days to detox from technology as a family.

It can be a challenge to meet all of these recommendations. One way to manage is to combine one or more activities so you can get more done in less time.

For instance, time outdoors in nature, away from electronic devices, can be combined with exercise and even time with same-age friends. Meanwhile, the time a child or teen needs to be engaged with a parent can be met by eating dinner together. Thirty minutes each night totals more than six engaged hours. The only activity you can't mix with others is sleep.

The key to fitting in everything a child needs is to establish a daily plan or school year routine. Pre-planning or scheduling also can reduce parent stress, keeping the time you spend with your child positive.

A Word From Verywell

As you think about how to structure your child's typical school day, try not to be too rigid with your planning. With the exception of sleep, you can be flexible with how your kids are spending their time and tailor your routines to meet their specific needs.

The key is that they are getting appropriate rest, attending school, and doing their homework. Socializing, time with family, physical activity, electronic use, and family meal times can be adapted as the days unfold.

National Center for Education Statistics. Number of instructional days and hours in the school year, by state: 2018 .

American Psychological Association. Is homework a necessary evil ?

Cooper, H.  The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents . New York, Carrel Books, 2015.

Sakyi KS, Surkan PJ, Fombonne E, Chollet A, Melchior M. Childhood friendships and psychological difficulties in young adulthood: an 18-year follow-up study . Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry . 2015;24(7):815-26. doi:10.1007/s00787-014-0626-8

Siennick SE, Osgood DW. Hanging out with which friends? Friendship-level predictors of unstructured and unsupervised socializing in adolescence . J Res Adolesc . 2012;22(4):646-661. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00812.x

Milkie MA, Nomaguchi KM, Denny KE. Does the amount of time mothers spend with children or adolescents matter? . J Marriage Fam. 2015;77:355–372. doi:10.1111/jomf.12170

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. How much sleep do I need? .

Cohen JF, Jahn JL, Richardson S, Cluggish SA, Parker E, Rimm EB. Amount of time to eat lunch is associated with children's selection and consumption of school meal entrée, fruits, vegetables, and milk . J Acad Nutr Diet . 2016;116(1):123-8. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2015.07.019

Dwyer L, Oh A, Patrick H, Hennessy E. Promoting family meals: a review of existing interventions and opportunities for future research . Adolesc Health Med Ther . 2015;6:115-31. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S37316

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Physical activity guidelines for school-aged children and adolescents .

Kemple KM, Oh J, Kenney E, Smith-Bonahue T. The power of outdoor play and play in natural environments .  Childhood Education . 2016;92(6):446-454. doi:10.1080/00094056.2016.1251793

Childhood Pediatrics. Nature play: Prescription for healthier children .

Barnett TA, Kelly AS, Young DR, et al. Sedentary behaviors in today’s youth: approaches to the prevention and management of childhood obesity: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association .  Circulation . 2018;138(11). doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000591

The National Wildlife Federation. Connecting kids and nature .

American Academy of Pediatrics. Energy out: daily physical activity recommendations .

Media and young minds . Pediatrics . 2016;138(5). doi:10.1542/peds.2016-2591

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guidance for COVID-19 prevention in K-12 schools .

By Lisa Linnell-Olsen Lisa Linnell-Olsen has worked as a support staff educator, and is well-versed in issues of education policy and parenting issues.

Should Kids Get Homework?

Homework gives elementary students a way to practice concepts, but too much can be harmful, experts say.

Getty Images

Effective homework reinforces math, reading, writing or spelling skills, but in a way that's meaningful.

How much homework students should get has long been a source of debate among parents and educators. In recent years, some districts have even implemented no-homework policies, as students juggle sports, music and other activities after school.

Parents of elementary school students, in particular, have argued that after-school hours should be spent with family or playing outside rather than completing assignments. And there is little research to show that homework improves academic achievement for elementary students.

But some experts say there's value in homework, even for younger students. When done well, it can help students practice core concepts and develop study habits and time management skills. The key to effective homework, they say, is keeping assignments related to classroom learning, and tailoring the amount by age: Many experts suggest no homework for kindergartners, and little to none in first and second grade.

Value of Homework

Homework provides a chance to solidify what is being taught in the classroom that day, week or unit. Practice matters, says Janine Bempechat, clinical professor at Boston University 's Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.

"There really is no other domain of human ability where anybody would say you don't need to practice," she adds. "We have children practicing piano and we have children going to sports practice several days a week after school. You name the domain of ability and practice is in there."

Homework is also the place where schools and families most frequently intersect.

"The children are bringing things from the school into the home," says Paula S. Fass, professor emerita of history at the University of California—Berkeley and the author of "The End of American Childhood." "Before the pandemic, (homework) was the only real sense that parents had to what was going on in schools."

Harris Cooper, professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and author of "The Battle Over Homework," examined more than 60 research studies on homework between 1987 and 2003 and found that — when designed properly — homework can lead to greater student success. Too much, however, is harmful. And homework has a greater positive effect on students in secondary school (grades 7-12) than those in elementary.

"Every child should be doing homework, but the amount and type that they're doing should be appropriate for their developmental level," he says. "For teachers, it's a balancing act. Doing away with homework completely is not in the best interest of children and families. But overburdening families with homework is also not in the child's or a family's best interest."

Negative Homework Assignments

Not all homework for elementary students involves completing a worksheet. Assignments can be fun, says Cooper, like having students visit educational locations, keep statistics on their favorite sports teams, read for pleasure or even help their parents grocery shop. The point is to show students that activities done outside of school can relate to subjects learned in the classroom.

But assignments that are just busy work, that force students to learn new concepts at home, or that are overly time-consuming can be counterproductive, experts say.

Homework that's just busy work.

Effective homework reinforces math, reading, writing or spelling skills, but in a way that's meaningful, experts say. Assignments that look more like busy work – projects or worksheets that don't require teacher feedback and aren't related to topics learned in the classroom – can be frustrating for students and create burdens for families.

"The mental health piece has definitely played a role here over the last couple of years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the last thing we want to do is frustrate students with busy work or homework that makes no sense," says Dave Steckler, principal of Red Trail Elementary School in Mandan, North Dakota.

Homework on material that kids haven't learned yet.

With the pressure to cover all topics on standardized tests and limited time during the school day, some teachers assign homework that has not yet been taught in the classroom.

Not only does this create stress, but it also causes equity challenges. Some parents speak languages other than English or work several jobs, and they aren't able to help teach their children new concepts.

" It just becomes agony for both parents and the kids to get through this worksheet, and the goal becomes getting to the bottom of (the) worksheet with answers filled in without any understanding of what any of it matters for," says professor Susan R. Goldman, co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois—Chicago .

Homework that's overly time-consuming.

The standard homework guideline recommended by the National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association is the "10-minute rule" – 10 minutes of nightly homework per grade level. A fourth grader, for instance, would receive a total of 40 minutes of homework per night.

But this does not always happen, especially since not every student learns the same. A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Family Therapy found that primary school children actually received three times the recommended amount of homework — and that family stress increased along with the homework load.

Young children can only remain attentive for short periods, so large amounts of homework, especially lengthy projects, can negatively affect students' views on school. Some individual long-term projects – like having to build a replica city, for example – typically become an assignment for parents rather than students, Fass says.

"It's one thing to assign a project like that in which several kids are working on it together," she adds. "In (that) case, the kids do normally work on it. It's another to send it home to the families, where it becomes a burden and doesn't really accomplish very much."

Private vs. Public Schools

Do private schools assign more homework than public schools? There's little research on the issue, but experts say private school parents may be more accepting of homework, seeing it as a sign of academic rigor.

Of course, not all private schools are the same – some focus on college preparation and traditional academics, while others stress alternative approaches to education.

"I think in the academically oriented private schools, there's more support for homework from parents," says Gerald K. LeTendre, chair of educational administration at Pennsylvania State University—University Park . "I don't know if there's any research to show there's more homework, but it's less of a contentious issue."

How to Address Homework Overload

First, assess if the workload takes as long as it appears. Sometimes children may start working on a homework assignment, wander away and come back later, Cooper says.

"Parents don't see it, but they know that their child has started doing their homework four hours ago and still not done it," he adds. "They don't see that there are those four hours where their child was doing lots of other things. So the homework assignment itself actually is not four hours long. It's the way the child is approaching it."

But if homework is becoming stressful or workload is excessive, experts suggest parents first approach the teacher, followed by a school administrator.

"Many times, we can solve a lot of issues by having conversations," Steckler says, including by "sitting down, talking about the amount of homework, and what's appropriate and not appropriate."

Study Tips for High School Students

Tags: K-12 education , students , elementary school , children

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How Much Time Should Be Spent On Homework?

• Dr. Sam Goldstein , Sydney S. Zentall

At the elementary level we suggest that homework is brief, at your child’s ability level and involve frequent, voluntary and high interest activities. Young students require high levels of feedback and/or supervision to help them complete assignments correctly. Accurate homework completion is influenced by your child’s ability, the difficulty of the task and the amount of feedback your child receives. When assigning homework, your child’s teachers may struggle to create a balance at this age between ability, task difficulty and feedback. Unfortunately, there are no simple guiding principles. We can assure you, however, that your input and feedback on a nightly basis is an essential component in helping your child benefit from the homework experience. In first through third grade, students should receive one to three assignments per week, taking them no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. In fourth through sixth grade, students should receive two to four assignments per week, lasting between fifteen and forty-five minutes. At this age, the primarily goal of homework is to help your child develop the independent work and learning skills that will become critical in the higher grades. In the upper grades, the more time spent on homework the greater the achievement gains.

For students in middle and high school grades there are greater overall benefits from time engaged in practicing and thinking about school work. These benefits do not appear to depend as much upon immediate supervision or feedback as they do for elementary students. In seventh through ninth grade we recommend students receive three to five sets of assignments per week, lasting between forty-five and seventy-five minutes per set. In high school students will receive four to five sets of homework per week, taking them between seventy-five and 150 minutes per set to complete.

As children progress through school, homework and the amount of time engaged in homework increases in importance. Due to the significance of homework at the older age levels, it is not surprising that there is more homework assigned. Furthermore, homework is always assigned in college preparatory classes and assigned at least three quarters of the time in special education and vocational training classes. Thus at any age, homework may indicate our academic expectations of children.

Regardless of the amount of homework assigned, many students unsuccessful or struggling in school, spend less rather than more time engaged in homework. It is not surprising that students spending less time completing homework may eventually not achieve as consistently as those who complete their homework. Does this mean that time devoted to homework is the key component necessary for achievement? We are not completely certain. Some American educators have concluded that if students in America spent as much time doing homework as students in Asian countries they might perform academically as well. It is tempting to assume such a cause and effect relationship. However, this relationship appears to be an overly simple conclusion. We know that homework is important as one of several influential factors in school success. However, other variables, including student ability, achievement, motivation and teaching quality influence the time students spend with homework tasks. Many students and their parents have told us they experience less difficulty being motivated and completing homework in classes in which they enjoyed the subject, the instruction, the assignments and the teachers.

The benefits from homework are the greatest for students completing the most homework and doing so correctly. Thus, students who devote time to homework are probably on a path to improved achievement. This path also includes higher quality instruction, greater achievement motivation and better skill levels.

This column is excerpted and condensed from, Seven Steps to Homework Success: A Family Guide for Solving Common Homework Problems by Sydney S. Zentall, Ph.D. and Sam Goldstein, Ph.D. (1999, Specialty Press, Inc.).

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Are you helping your child with his homework too much or too little?

By Jennifer Graham

SALT LAKE CITY — Before you sit down to another evening of ninth-grade algebra after a long day at the office, consider this: Children whose parents help a lot with their homework may not perform any better on standardized tests than those who do it all by themselves.

That's the finding of a recent global survey that examined parents' attitudes about schools and their involvement in their children's education.

In a survey of more than 27,000 parents, the London-based Varkey Foundation found one-quarter of parents worldwide spend seven or more hours a week helping their children with homework.

Parents in India helped the most, spending an average of 12 or more hours each week helping with homework and reading to their children. Parents in Japan spent the least, about 2.6 hours. American parents, clocking in 6.2 hours, were just below the global average of 6.7 hours.

Presumably, parents are assisting their children in hopes that they will perform better academically. About 4 in 10 parents said it is "very important" that their children go to college. But analysts rarely found a correlation between increased parental involvement and better test scores, which raises a question: Should parents be helping with homework at all, and if so, what is the optimal amount of involvement?

The answer may vary by family, but experts generally agree it's important that parents at least know what their children are working on and how much time it's taking them to complete it. Taking an interest in your child's homework also helps to create a home in which learning is valued, said Joshua Cramer, vice president of a Kentucky nonprofit that promotes family learning.

"There should be a daily habit of learning that happens in a home, even after a long day," Cramer said.

What researchers found

The Varkey Foundation’s research, conducted online in December 2017 and January 2018, involved more than 27,000 parents in 29 countries, who answered questions ranging from the quality of education their children receive to what parents worry about most regarding their children’s future.

Drilling down about how much parents help with homework, the foundation asked parents how much time they spend helping their children, whether they believe the time spent is sufficient and what keeps them from spending more time helping their children.

They then examined how the countries fared on the Program for International Student Assessment , a test that measures the reading, math and science literacy of 15-year-olds around the world. That test, known as PISA, is given to a representative sample of students every three years. About 5,700 American students took it in 2015.

Only in three countries — Singapore, China and Vietnam — were parental involvement and test scores relatively high. In some other countries, however, PISA scores were lower than average even when parental involvement was high.

Nearly 40 percent of parents in Colombia, for example, reported spending seven or more hours helping with homework, but the average PISA score there was 416. That's more than a hundred points lower than Japan, where 45 percent of parents said they did not assist their children at all, yet the average PISA score was 538.

Germany also had a high percentage of parents who said they don't help their children at all (36 percent compared with 19 percent in the U.S.), but the average German PISA score was 509, higher than the United States.

Globally, one-third of parents said they spent too little time helping their children, and one-half said it’s because they’re too busy. Twenty-nine percent of parents said they didn't think they knew enough about the subject matter to help, and 19 percent said they don't think it's their job to help.

About one-third of American parents, however, said there were no particular obstacles to not helping their children. Their lack of involvement, however, could be because they believe their schools are doing a good job educating their children without their help.

The U.S. came in second, behind Kenya, in the number of parents who rate their child's education as fairly good or very good.

'32 different situations'

Regardless of what's going on in India or Finland, most American parents believe they're doing just what they should with regard to helping their children. Sixty-one percent said they they're giving the right amount of assistance, compared with 21 percent who said too little and 13 percent who believe they're helping too much.

That roughly corresponds with what Marrianne Asay sees as a fifth-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School in Highland, Utah.

“There are some parents who are micromanaging, or enabling a little bit too much, but not all,” said Asay, who also has three children of her own and is one of the national nonprofit Hope Street Group’s Utah Teacher Fellows .

Asay’s children are 16, 20 and 22, but when all were in primary or secondary school, she says figures she spent about two hours a week, just being supportive and making sure the work was getting done. But she says the amount of parental involvement can never be consistent because every child requires different amounts of help.

“I have a friend who spends five to six hours a week helping one child who has a learning disability, and maybe one hour a week helping another,” she said, adding, “I have 32 students, and they have 32 different situations."

Regardless, the amount of parental help generally decreases as children age, the Varkey Foundation found. The amount of help begins to fall off when children turn 11, and between the ages of 16 and 18, 41 percent of students are getting no assistance from their parents at all, the survey said.

Why homework?

The subject of whether children should have homework at all has been contentious in recent years, with many parents complaining that homework causes stress for both them and their children and interferes with family activities.

Some schools have implemented homework-free weekends; others have done away with it altogether, such as a Florida elementary school that only asks its students to read for 20 minutes each evening.

In fact, the culture of homework and its necessity varies by nation, which may help to explain the foundation's findings about parental involvement.

In Finland, where parents spend only 3.1 hours helping each week, students only did about three hours of homework each week in 2012, according to the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.

According to the U.S. Department of Education , the perceived importance of homework has waxed and waned with cultural changes.

"In the 1960s, educators and parents became concerned that homework was crowding out social experience, outdoor recreation and creative activities. Two decades later, in the 1980s, homework again came back into favor as it came to be viewed as one way to stem a rising tide of mediocrity in American education," a government pamphlet , "Homework Tips for Parents," says.

The Department of Education says homework is good for children because it helps them learn how to study and manage time. Also, "it can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility."

Parent can help their children by making sure they have a quiet place to study and all the materials they need, such as a pencil sharpener, calculator and dictionary. They should provide guidance, but not answers, the Education Department says.

The government's tips also stress that parents should not say anything negative about the child's assignments and not instruct them to do something a different way, which is also something Asay said is important. She finds it frustrating when a child comes in and says a parent told him he didn't have to do it the way he was instructed in class.

“I love when parents give support and help, but they should mostly just guide them. When someone says, ‘I was struggling on No. 12, but my mom helped me through it,’ I think that’s fantastic.”

Previous research specific to the United States has found a correlation between parental assistance and homework completion. In 2003, researchers at Duke University analyzed 22 studies on the subject and concluded that parental involvement helps students complete their assignments and reduces the number of problems they have doing it.

"Yet the effect of parental involvement on achievement was negligible to nonexistent, except among the youngest students," the researchers wrote, reaching a similar conclusion to the Varkey Foundation's.

The importance of family learning

The psychologist and parenting columnist John Rosemond argues against parental assistance except for occasional feedback or answering a rare question. "The operative word is and should always be 'occasional,'" he has written , saying the child needs to understand that she alone is responsible for her schoolwork.

Nearly 1 in 5 parents the Varkey Foundation surveyed said homework is the child's job, not theirs. For some parents, this position is likely a relief, since one poll by the National Center for Family Literacy (now the National Center for Families Learning) found that nearly half of parents have difficulty understanding their child's homework.

It's not individual assignments that matter most, but the emphasis on learning that helps children succeed, said Cramer, vice president of the National Center for Families Learning, based in Louisville, Kentucky.

If parents struggle with the subject matter, or if homework is assigned “for homework’s sake,” there isn’t much value a parent can add, which is why the center focuses on continual learning for both parents and students, particularly in a low-income family, Cramer said.

“We don’t think there’s a magic number (of hours), but we know that when parents show that they value education and learning and create that academic habit in the home, this can help improve academic achievement," he said.

Parents can show learning is important not only by being interested in a child’s homework, but also by making learning part of everyday life, whether in the car, at a supermarket or in the backyard, Cramer said.

“Homework can be a gathering point for that kind of learning, but what’s most important is having a daily habit of learning, which can also just be reading to your child, or having your child read to you.”

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Your Age-by-Age Guide to Homework

Are you scared to look in your child’s book bag at the end of the day?

And I’m not talking about the forgotten sandwiches that migrate to the bottom of a full backpack.

I mean the dreaded homework assignments that loom within folders and binders, just waiting to be ignored and fought over for the rest of the evening.

Typically when parents think of the word “homework”, they quickly associate it with the term “fight”.

But homework doesn’t have to be a fight – a struggle at times, yes, but now a full out war.

Understanding what homework looks like at each grade level is a great start to helping support your child in completing their school work.

Also, the earlier you focus on creating an environment of learning and studying, the easier time your child will have as they progress through school.

Here’s your guide on setting up your child for academic success as well as what kind of homework to expect for each grade:

Setting Up For Success

From day one, homework is important in developing good study skills.

In order to encourage your child to complete their homework and take it seriously, you need to establish a proper homework environment .

Here are some tips for setting your child up for homework success:

• Set a regular homework time. Homework should be done at the same time each evening to establish a routine. Just make sure you’re allowing your little one some time to decompress when they get home before jumping into more schoolwork.
• Create a study area. Give your child a place to with proper lighting, materials and few to now distractions.
• Keep an eye on their work. Involve yourself in the process not only by helping them with homework, but monitoring their progress as well.
• Be a role model. While you may not have homework at this stage in your life, you can model good study habits by reading and pursuing your own learning opportunities.

You may think your child is a little Einstein when they start school, but the learning material will progressively get more difficult as they age.

Encouraging good study habits will give them the skills they need to continue their success through school.

Grade-by-Grade Homework Guide

Kindergarten.

When your little one is in kindergarten, it’s likely they won’t have much for homework.

However, you may find the teacher sending home easy tasks such as practicing sight words, letters, numbers and working on patterns.

Since there shouldn’t be a lot of academic expectation from children this young, it’s easy to navigate the homework by making it fun and play-based.

Children learn best through tactile activities, so materials such as PlayDoh can be used to create numbers and letters as well as designing patterns using different colors.

A whiteboard is a great tool to practice what they are learning, especially sight words. Write out the word, have your child read it and let them erase it before moving on to the next one.

Kindergarten homework tends to be pretty repetitive, meaning that your child is likely going to practice the same material each night on a week-to-week basis.

Even if your little one is catching on quick to the material, it’s important to keep up with the homework habit. This is going to help them develop healthy studying habits as they move from grade to grade.

Elementary School: Grades 1 to 2

Once your child moves from kindergarten into grade 1, the learning environment becomes less play-based and more academic.

This doesn’t mean you can’t continue making homework fun! At this age, their focus is still on playing, so you can keep using novel materials when doing homework.

The workload is likely not going to increase during these grades, but the material may become more challenging.

In order to keep homework from becoming too time consuming, you may have to mix straight-up review with play.

Use unique activities when it comes to concepts your child is struggling with and quick reviews for the learning objectives they have easily grasped.

By these grades, teachers typically encourage your child to be reading. This aspect of homework can be delayed until bedtime – which makes reading seem less like “work” and more like a leisurely activity.

Elementary School: Grades 3 to 5

By the time your little one enters grade 3, and until they finish elementary school, they should begin to complete their homework independently.

While it’s important that you remain on standby to help them with difficult concepts, you should be able to set up each homework activity and allow them to complete them on their own.

During this time, students begin to progress from simply practicing basic skills and mastering them onto more complex skills.

This means that homework is going to become more challenging, which is why focusing on a good homework routine during these grades is very important.

If you find your child resisting their homework at this age, there’s nothing wrong with offering an incentive for completing it. Try to stay away from monetary rewards and focus more on fun activities they can engage in once homework is completed.

Remember to not make homework seem like a cumbersome chore – instead, cheer your child on as they work through it. Praise them for doing a good job.

Middle School: Grades 6 to 8

Once your child hits middle school, they should be able to complete their homework assignments on their own.

Homework at this grade level is going to shift more heavily from practicing concepts to completing assignments such as essays and projects.

This is the beginning stages of the foundation of study skills they will need to succeed in high school as well as college or university.

During this time, students are beginning to rely more on technology to complete their assignments. Make sure your child has access to a tablet or computer they can use to conduct research as well as seek help for their homework.

However, it’s important for you to stay involved in their progress. Regular check-ins with their homework will not only help your child stay on track but it will also show them that you want to be involved in their education.

High School: Grades 9 to 12

It’s in high school where a student’s homework load balloons and becomes more time consuming than it was before.

Luckily, kids at these grade levels are able to choose a portion of their courses, so they have a vested interest in what they are learning.

However, with all the changes they are experiencing emotionally and physically, this period of their lives can be extremely stressful.

Maintaining that homework routine is more important now than ever. Stressed-out teens may become overwhelmed with the workload and feel compelled on throwing in the towel on completing homework assignments.

Continue to be supportive by helping them plan and prepare for homework assignments as well as tests and exams .

While you may not be able to help them with the homework material (what is “new” math, anyway?), you can certainly lend a hand when it comes to time management and getting the homework done.

You Can Make the Difference

When left to their own devices, children can’t be expected to take their schoolwork 100% seriously.

It’s your job as the parent to support and guide them through their homework and assignments.

Building good habits now is going to make all the differences as your child progresses through school.

How do you deal with homework hurdles? Share your tips in the comments!

My name is Chelsy and I am a single mother, blogger, and freelance writer. I blog about parenting at Motherhood+Mayhem (motherhoodandmayhem.online) and about working from home at Mama Needs Coffee (mamaneedscoffee.online). When I'm not writing or blogging, you can find me building blanket forts in my living room.

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My Child Spends Too Much Time on Homework

Some kids take hours to do their homework. It may seem wonderful to have a child willing to put so much time into completing homework, but more often than not a student who takes so long to finish an assignment is struggling. Some kids who spend too much time on homework have learning difficulties, others may be hampered by attentional difficulties.

However, a good proportion of kids who spend too much time on homework are struggling with some type of processing speed difficulty. They may read slowly, hand-write slowly, or even spend an inordinate amount of time moving an idea from his head onto a piece of paper. Some of the children who display these processing speed difficulties may be diagnosed with ADHD, or learning disabilities. However, many children simply do not  work quickly and efficiently. For many kids with slow processing speed it’s not just about doing schoolwork, but it’s completing chores, responding to others in a conversation, or having difficulty getting ready to get to school in the morning.

Processing speed difficulties reflects the rate at which children are able to take in information about their world and do something with it. In school, slow processing speed often affects reading speed, writing fluency, and even the capacity to formulate ideas and express them verbally. Kids who tend to do their homework at a snail’s pace are often characterized by extremely slow handwriting (when they try to write neatly) or hasty, illegible handwriting that needs to be redone before turning in and assignment.

Unfortunately, many kids who take forever to do their homework become exceedingly frustrated with school work and become negative in their self appraisal. This is in part because they will often observed that students in their classroom do their work more quickly than they do. As a result, kids with slow processing often  feel dumb or stupid, rather than recognizing that they simply move more slowly. If this is the case with your child, it is extremely important to have these processing speed issues evaluated and then to help your child and his teachers to understand that slow processing is not a choice.

While we can make some modest improvements in processing speed through interventions such as  playing action video games, enhancing time awareness, and using technologies such as typing or dictation, slow processing speed will continue to be a concern. Processing information slowly is not a choice just like being a slow runner is not a choice. We can make improvements in both processing speed and running speed, but a child will be somewhat limited by his ceilings in the specific ability areas.

The most important thing that a parent or teacher can do for a child with slow processing speed is to him them to understand the nature of this difficulty and to make appropriate accommodations and develop strategies to address it. Rather than blaming the child, it becomes important to do things such as reducing the amount of homework given, providing some help with scribing or technology, and allow for  alternative forms of completing one’s work. When these interventions take place, not only will the child become more efficient, they are likely to become a more committed and less frustrated student.

See our strategies for students with slow processing speed . Read our educator’s guide to slow processing speed in the classroom and our parent’s guide to slow processing speed to learn how to help a child with slow processing speed in the school and home settings.

Featured image: Flickr user Phil Roeder

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Kids Receive 3 Times the Recommended Homework Load, Study Says

E lementary school children often receive far more homework than recommended by a leading education group, according to new research. The study , published in the American Journal of Family Therapy , found that the average first and second grader had three times the recommended homework load.

The National Education Association recommends that elementary school students receive 10-20 minutes of homework per night in first grade. That figure should grow by 10 minutes per year, the NEA recommends. The study found that teachers regularly assign homework that exceeds that recommendation.

The survey, based on an analysis of survey results from more than 500 parents in Rhode Island, suggests that the average student spends nearly 30 minutes on homework in the first grade, a number that grows steadily over the years. Time spent on homework peaks in 10th grade at 54 minutes per night, according to the study.

Researchers also found a disparity in homework patterns based on parents’ education level as well as a family’s racial background. On average, parents of Hispanic students said their children spent significantly more time on homework than their non-Hispanic counterparts in second, third and 12th grades.

For children with parents of different education levels, time spent on homework was consistent in early years. However, a sharp disparity emerges in high school, where children of parents with college degrees spent significantly more time on homework.

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How Much Homework Do American Kids Do?

Various factors, from the race of the student to the number of years a teacher has been in the classroom, affect a child's homework load.

In his Atlantic essay , Karl Taro Greenfeld laments his 13-year-old daughter's heavy homework load. As an eighth grader at a New York middle school, Greenfeld’s daughter averaged about three hours of homework per night and adopted mantras like “memorization, not rationalization” to help her get it all done. Tales of the homework-burdened American student have become common, but are these stories the exception or the rule?

A 2007 Metlife study found that 45 percent of students in grades three to 12 spend more than an hour a night doing homework, including the six percent of students who report spending more than three hours a night on their homework. In the 2002-2003 school year, a study out of the University of Michigan found that American students ages six through 17 spent three hours and 38 minutes per week doing homework.

A range of factors plays into how much homework each individual student gets:

Older students do more homework than their younger counterparts.

This one is fairly obvious: The National Education Association recommends that homework time increase by ten minutes per year in school. (e.g., A third grader would have 30 minutes of homework, while a seventh grader would have 70 minutes).

Studies have found that schools tend to roughly follow these guidelines: The University of Michigan found that students ages six to eight spend 29 minutes doing homework per night while 15- to 17-year-old students spend 50 minutes doing homework. The Metlife study also found that 50 percent of students in grades seven to 12 spent more than an hour a night on homework, while 37 percent of students in grades three to six spent an hour or more on their homework per night. The National Center for Educational Statistics found that high school students who do homework outside of school average 6.8 hours of homework per week.

Race plays a role in how much homework students do.

Asian students spend 3.5 more hours on average doing homework per week than their white peers. However, only 59 percent of Asian students’ parents check that homework is done, while 75.6 percent of Hispanic students’ parents and 83.1 percent of black students’ parents check.

Teachers with less experience assign more homework.

The Metlife study found that 14 percent of teachers with zero to five years of teaching experience assigned more than an hour of homework per night, while only six percent of teachers with 21 or more years of teaching experience assigned over an hour of homework.

Math classes have homework the most frequently.

The Metlife study found that 70 percent of students in grades three to 12 had at least one homework assignment in math. Sixty-two percent had at least one homework assignment in a language arts class (English, reading, spelling, or creative writing courses) and 42 percent had at least one in a science class.

Regardless of how much homework kids are actually doing every night, most parents and teachers are happy with the way things are: 60 percent of parents think that their children have the “right amount of homework,” and 73 percent of teachers think their school assigns the right amount of homework.

Students, however, are not necessarily on board: 38 percent of students in grades seven through 12 and 28 percent of students in grades three through six report being “very often/often” stressed out by their homework.

Helping your child with learning difficulties deal with homework

by: The GreatSchools Editorial Team | Updated: September 20, 2023

Print article

How much help with homework should parents of kids with learning disabilities provide? Teachers generally encourage parents to adopt a “hands-off” policy, wanting students to complete schoolwork independently. On the other hand, when assignments are incomplete or missing, teachers often call parents, giving them the responsibility of overseeing their child’s work. In this article, Betty Osman, Ph.D., describes the extent to which parents should become involved with their children’s school assignments.

Homework has been part of U.S. education system since the beginning of this century, but in recent years the amount of homework expected of young people has increased exponentially. It is not unusual for today’s first graders to have homework that is both challenging and time-consuming. Although many young people need (or want) a parent’s help with homework from time to time, children with learning disabilities (LD), particularly those in “inclusive classrooms,” are likely to require extra time and more assistance to complete assignments. They tend to resist homework, procrastinate on starting assignments, and perceive themselves as less competent than their peers.

Parents frequently express their concern and confusion about how much homework-help they should provide for their children. I think the answer becomes clearer when we think about the purpose of homework.

According to an article in The American School Board Journal (October, 1996), there are three reasons for homework:

• To provide practice and reinforce previous instruction.
• To develop student responsibility.
• To involve parents directly in supporting their children’s learning. (There is evidence that children are more successful in school when parents are involved in their education.)

With regard to the first purpose, that of reinforcing skills taught in school, a parent might ask, “Has my child learned the requisite skill and is he capable of completing the work independently?” (I have seen children with reading and writing disabilities who receive daily remediation in school and then are given lengthy book reports for homework.)

It may also be unrealistic to expect a child to do homework alone as the requirements of the classroom become more challenging. Like it or not, a parent (or surrogate) may have to share the burden of homework if the child is to succeed academically.

Most parents of children with learning disabilities would agree that, although the will to help is strong, the emotional involvement with one’s own child can make helping with homework difficult. As one parent said, “Homework is an activity that involves reading, math, and parent testing.”

If a child is a competent student, it is relatively easy for a parent to edit a composition or quiz her for a test. But when learning is a struggle and material learned one minute is forgotten the next, it is frustrating for the parent, as well as the child. This frustration is exacerbated when an exhausted parent is summoned at nine o’clock at night to help a child with homework he has forgotten or put off until the last minute. A parent’s natural instinct at that point may be a fight-or-flight response.

The most obvious indication of trouble with a subject is when the books don’t come home at all. “I don’t have any homework” or “I must have left it on the bus (or in school)” are two of the common ways children express their dislike of homework or their fear that they can’t do it. As a second grader said through his tears one day, “It’s just not fair! We work hard in school all day and then have homework, and my teacher isn’t even there!”

Then there are some children who actually do their homework but “forget” to hand it in. Translated, this usually means they feel inadequate relative to their classmates, are ashamed of their work, or want to punish themselves, their teachers, or their parents. That’s what psychologists call being “passive-aggressive.” It’s not what the children do that is troubling; it’s what they don’t do that makes us angry.

Here are strategies  parents can use to effectively help with homework, with a minimum of frustration for both parent and child:

• Make sure assignments come home. A daily planner or sheet signed by the teacher may remind a reluctant student of an assignment. As one child said, “It helps me remember when my mind wants to forget.”
• Establish where homework should be done. This does not necessarily mean in a child’s room seated at his desk. Some children really dislike being alone in a quiet room, particularly when they have a task to perform that they don’t like — and homework usually fits that description. Help your child find a corner of his own, whether on the kitchen floor or on his bed with a lap desk to lean on.
• Establish when homework should be done. Right after a long day at school may not be the best time. Most children need “a break,” in the form of a snack, a bicycle ride, or social time with friends. It is important to be clear, though, about the time to return home (an alarm watch or phone call might ensure compliance). For many children, the hours just before or after dinner are best for homework. That way, there are no midnight surprises. Some children can rise early in the morning to complete an unfinished assignment, while others work better with the privilege of staying up a little later at night.
• Contrary to common belief, listening to music on the radio may actually help the young person focus on a task. As one woman said, “When I have to concentrate, I turn on the radio to screen out my internal noises.” (TV, however, is not included!) In some instances, merely having a parent present in the room may be sufficient, providing the comfort and company the child needs, even if dad is reading his newspaper.
• Remember that every child eventually reaches his saturation point. There’s an old saying, “The brain can only absorb as much knowledge as the seat can endure.” Parents have to recognize when a child is tired and has reached the point of diminishing returns. That is the time to stop homework, and let the teacher know the child did as much as he could. It is also a good idea to ask your child’s teacher how much time he should be expected to spend on homework and be guided accordingly. For some children with learning disabilities, the challenge is the length of the homework rather than the difficulty of the assignment.
• Rather than have children attempt an assignment and then ask parents for help when it is not understood or isn’t done, I recommend that a parent start a child on the homework, to ascertain that she understands it. One or two math problems solved together or a composition started is reassuring for a child and should preclude the need to relearn the material and redo the assignment. Once children feel secure, they usually can finish a task independently and gain confidence in the process.
• Provide assistive tools when possible , such as a calculator or even a parent scribing for a young child for whom written work is challenging. With the teacher’s sanction, you can act as your child’s “secretary” until he becomes more facile with handwriting and/or the computer.
• And finally, respect your own feelings and ability to work with your child . If working together is contraindicated, with either you or your child angry or in tears, it is better to be your child’s good and supportive parent than a frustrated, ineffective teacher.

In sum, parents can expect that children with learning disabilities will require more guidance, more assistance, and probably more support than their classmates for whom learning is easier. But we should try to keep homework from becoming the focus of family life and the most dreaded word of the day.

• The Truth about Homework: What the Research Says Might Surprise You. By Susan Black The American School Board Journal v183, n10, p 48-51 (October, 1996)

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How Much Time Should A Child Spend On Their Homework?

Doing homework is an integral part of a student’s learning process. However, how much time should be devoted to doing homework every day is hard to determine since every student has different learning styles and needs.

While some children who do one hour of homework daily perform significantly better at school, others may spend two hours on homework and still show little to no increase in their grades.

The amount of time a child should spend doing homework depends on several factors, including the child’s ability, the complexity of the assignment, and the amount of feedback given.

Nonetheless, there is no clear-cut rule to follow, education experts provide some recommendations on how much time your child should spend on their homework.

Recommended homework time for primary school students

When young children start school, the emphasis should be on allowing them to develop a love for learning.

Since young children usually still lack the necessary abilities to benefit from an assignment effectively, giving them lots of homework can add unnecessary stress, making it potentially counterproductive. Instead of homework, daily reading may be more beneficial, especially if the parents are involved.

Research has shown that students who read, particularly those who read for pleasure, can perform better in school. This may mean that they graduate from secondary school with better results.

Primary school students from Primary 1 to 3 should get only around 1 to 3 tasks every week, each of which should take no longer than 15 to 20 minutes. On the other hand, those from Primary 4 to 6 should be given around 2 to 4 assignments weekly, with each of them amounting to between 15 and 45 minutes. The primary purpose of homework at this age is to assist your child in developing independence and study abilities that will be crucial when they reach higher levels.

Recommended homework time for secondary school students

As students advance in their education, homework and the amount of time spent on it becomes more significant.

The benefits of homework for students from secondary school onwards include the acquisition of learning abilities required to dive deeply into a subject and retain what they learn.

However, this does not mean that secondary and JC students should be given too much homework. Excessive homework requiring 90 to 100 minutes can reduce a student’s drive and concentration.

Therefore, while homework is essential for academic development for secondary and junior college students, teachers should avoid giving too many low-effort and repetitive assignments. Instead, they should instill consistent and healthy work habits and promote autonomous and self-directed learning in children.

Regarding the recommended amount of time spent on homework, lower secondary school students should be assigned roughly 3 to 5 sets of tasks every week, each lasting 25 to 30 minutes.

Once they reach upper secondary, they should then be assigned to a maximum of 5 weekly homework sets, spending about 45 to 75 minutes of work on each subject. This is because, in upper secondary, they should be sufficiently prepared for their O Levels which is in 2 years’ time.

There is no one-size-fits-all standard for how many minutes or hours children should spend doing homework every day. This is primarily because different children learn differently. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when determining the amount of time your child should spend on completing their assignments.

The ones mentioned in this article are only recommendations provided by education experts. Still, the best way to know how long your child should take to do their homework is to determine their unique learning style and needs.

Moreover, if you feel that your child needs more focus and support for the more challenging subjects such as math and science, you should consider signing them up for primary science tuition or primary maths tuition in Singapore.

Tuition centres are known for helping many students excel academically by improving their concentration, deepening their understanding of school lessons, while developing excellent and consistent learning habits. With that, there are some factors to take into consideration when choosing a tuition centre as well.

Mavis Tutorial Centre is the one you need for the most effective and reliable tuition classes! We are a highly trusted tuition centre in Bedok with other outlets around Singapore, offering exciting and efficient classes in various subjects, including Mathematics, Science, English, and Chinese. Feel free to contact us to learn more about our courses today.

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Where Parents Help Their Kids With Homework

How much time every week do you spend helping your children with their homework? If you live in India, you probably spend more time helping out than in other countries. According to an Ipsos survey conducted for The Varkey Foundation and published by The World Economic Forum , parents in India spend an average of 12 hours every week sitting with their children and helping them after school. By comparison, Brazilian and Russian parents both average 7.5 hours of homework helping every week while in China , it averages 8.2 hours. U.S. parents spend about 6.2 hours a week helping out while in Japan, it's only 2.6 hours.

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This chart shows the average number of hours per week spent helping by country in 2018.

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Why Experts Say Parents Should Limit Their Kid's Screen Time

Should parents limit screen time? Learn how cutting down kids' screen time can have measurable benefits, including improved sleep and better grades.

How Excessive Screen Time Is Harmful for Kids

• Benefits of Limiting Your Kids' Screen Time

Strategies for Setting Screen Limits for Kids

If you've ever wondered whether it's worth fighting with your child over the amount of time they spend in front of their phone, tablet, or television, the answer is a resounding "yes" according to experts. While certain types of technology can enhance the way children learn and socialize , excessive screen use can take a toll on their bodies, minds, and relationships.

Less social media and gaming means kids can spend more time interacting with friends and family, going outside, getting some exercise , or reading. Studies have shown that setting limits on screen time can have a positive effect on kids' physical, social, and behavioral well-being, and it can even improve their academic performance. Here's why experts say parents should limit their kids' screen time.

Research has shown that kids spend more time using electronic media devices than they do on any other activity—an average of seven hours a day across all age groups. Young children ages 2 to 5 are on phones and tablets for just under two hours per day. School-age kids spend an average of four to six hours on devices per day, and teens log up to nine hours.

How do you know if your child is spending too much time on their screens? When technology becomes an emotional crutch to escape sadness or boredom or continually disrupts daily life (like mealtime), those are signs that a child's screen use is excessive. Screen-preoccupied kids may also frequently worry about things like battery life and their devices being taken away.

Spending too much time on screens has been linked to inadequate sleep , poor grades, and a greater risk of obesity. There are psychological tolls, too, especially among older children. One study showed that teens who are on their screens for seven or more hours per day are more than twice as likely to have depression or another mental health concern than those who use screens for an hour or less per day.

Benefits of Limiting Your Kids' Screen Time

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents limit screen time to no more than one hour a day for kids ages 2 to 5 and avoid screen time altogether for babies and children under 18 months. An exception to this rule for all young children may be video chatting with family and friends, which boosts communication skills and is considered "high-quality" media use.

When unplugged, toddlers and preschoolers will have more time to develop important skills . Simple playtime activities such as imaginary games or manipulating toys are deceptively important for learning and building creativity. Children whose screen time is limited also enjoy more time to build communication skills, move their bodies, and get adequate rest.

Researchers have found that when parents monitor their older kids' tech habits—restricting the amount of time kids are allowed to use their devices or actively discussing themes and other aspects of the content they are watching—there is a positive social, academic, and physical impact.

One study looking at third, fourth, and fifth graders linked kids' screen limits to overall wellness. When parents monitored media use, children had reduced exposure to media violence and negative messaging as well as improved sleep, lower body mass index (BMI), better school performance, improved social behavior, and reduced aggression.

Editor's Note

Body mass index (BMI)  has long been seen as the ultimate measure of physical health, but it can be inaccurate and problematic. While some health care providers still use BMI, it’s important to remember that it’s a dated, biased measure that doesn’t account for several factors, such as ethnic descent, race, gender, and/or age.

Technology makes certain educational concepts more engaging, connects children with peers and distant family members, and provides fun entertainment for kids (and sometimes, a welcome break for parents!). But limits are key to making sure that kids' screen use does not hamper their health, development, and mental well-being. Below are strategies you can use to set healthy limits for your kids.

Set time limits and stick to them

Whether it's one hour of TV after homework is done or no more than 30 minutes total of TikTok or Snapchat , establish clear rules and limits for your kid's screen use. Apple, Android, and many cable and wireless carriers provide parental control tools that allow you to have your child's access to the internet or even certain programs and platforms limited to certain times.

As tempting as it may be to give in when kids beg, whine, and bargain for more time to chat with friends, watch a favorite show, or finish a round of Fortnite, be as firm and consistent as possible when enforcing screen time limits.

Don't allow screens in the bedroom

The AAP advises against allowing your child to have any media devices in their bedroom. Kids who have a television or mobile device in their bedrooms end up being online much more than children who don't. These children also get less sleep than others, regardless of how often they log on, potentially because of the effect of blue light emissions from tech devices on sleep-wake cycles.

To encourage other activities and protect kids' sleep, consider having your kids plug in their phones, tablets, or any other devices in a room other than their bedroom at night.

Know what your child is viewing

Research shows that viewing content with a child and actively discussing themes, thinking about what's viewed critically, and talking about the effects and meaning of the viewed content is one of the best types of monitoring parents can do. Get into the habit of knowing what your child is seeing and hearing when they are online, playing video games, or watching TV.

It's Never Too Late To Set Limits

There's no shame in letting kids indulge in age-appropriate apps, videos, games, and social media platforms during downtime. There's a lot of good to come from kids' access to high-quality digital media, including increased social connection and exposure to brain-stimulating content. But it's smart to set limits, and never too late to create healthy rules around screen time.

Young children’s use of smartphones and tablets .  Pediatrics . 2020.

Screen time and children . American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry . 2024.

Screen time: Know your child's limits . Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . 2019.

Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study .  Preventive Medicine Reports . 2018.

Where We Stand: Screen Time . American Academy of Pediatrics. 2023.

Media Use Guidelines: Babies & Toddlers . KidsHealth from Nemours . 2022.

Media devices in parents’ and children’s bedrooms and children’s media use .  American Journal of Health Behavior . 2018.

Association between portable screen-based media device access or use and sleep outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis .  JAMA Pediatr . 2016.

Desensitization and violent video games: mechanisms and evidence .  Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am . 2022.

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Shots - Health News

Parents are key when it comes to limiting screen time for kids, study finds.

Maria Godoy

The biggest predictor of screen time for kids is how much their parents use their devices, a new study finds. Kathleen Finlay/Getty Images hide caption

It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me.

As the parent of a tween and a young teenager, I couldn't help but think of these Taylor Swift lyrics when reading the findings of a new study that looks at the links between parenting strategies and screen use among young adolescents.

The study looked at data from more than 10,000 12- and 13-year-olds and their parents, who were asked about their screen-use habits, including texting, social media, video chatting, watching videos and browsing the internet. The researchers also asked whether their screen use was problematic — for example, whether kids wanted to quit using screens but felt they couldn’t or whether their screen habits interfered with school work or daily life.

One key finding that jumped out at me: One of the biggest predictors of how much time kids spend on screens — and whether that use is problematic — is how much parents themselves use their screens when they are around their kids.

" It's really important to role-model screen behaviors for your children," says Jason Nagata , a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco and the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Pediatric Research . "Even if teens say that they don't get influenced by their parents, the data does show that, actually, parents are a bigger influence than they may think."

It's very common for parents like myself to feel guilty about their own screen use, says Jenny Radesky , a developmental behavioral pediatrician and media researcher at the University of Michigan.

But instead of beating ourselves up about it, she says, it's important for parents to realize that just like kids, we too are vulnerable to the draws of technology that is deliberately designed to keep us scrolling.

"We have been asked to parent around an increasingly complex digital ecosystem that's actively working against our limit-setting" — for ourselves and our kids, she says.

So your tween wants a smartphone? Read this first

But even if parents are fighting against bigger forces designed to keep us glued to screens, that doesn't mean we are completely helpless. Nagata's research looked at parenting strategies that worked best to curb screen use specifically among early adolescents because, he notes, this is a time when kids are seeking more independence and "because we tend to see kids spending a lot more time on media once they hit their teenage years."

So, what does work?

Some of the study's findings seem fairly obvious: Keeping meal times and bedtime screen-free are strategies strongly linked to kids spending less time on screens and exhibiting less problematic screen use. And Nagata's prior research has found that keeping screens out of the bedroom is a good strategy, because having a device in the bedroom was linked to trouble falling and staying asleep in preteens.

As for that finding that parental screen use also really matters, Radesky says it echoes what she often hears from teens in her work as co-medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health .

"We've heard a lot from teenagers that when their parents are using their phones, they're really stuck on their own social media accounts — they just look unavailable,” Radesky says. "They don't look like they're ready and available for a teen to come up and talk and be a sounding board."

Given the addictive design of technology, Radesky says the message shouldn't be to blame the parents. The message should be to talk with your kids about why you feel so pulled in by screens. Ask, "Why do I spend so much time on this app? Is it time that I feel is really meaningful and adding to my day? Or is it time that I'd love to replace with other things?"

'Anti-dopamine parenting' can curb a kid's craving for screens or sweets

She says she favors this collaborative approach to setting boundaries around screen use for young tweens and teens, rather than using screens as a reward or punishment to control behavior. In fact, the new study shows that, at least with this age group, using screens as a reward or punishment can actually backfire — it was linked to kids spending more time on their devices.

Instead, Radesky says it's better to set consistent family guidelines around screen use, so kids know when they can and can't use them without obsessing about "earning" screen time.

And when it comes to tweens and teens, coming up with these rules together can be a good way to get kids to buy into boundaries — and to help both them and their parents break bad screen habits.

This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh.

• screen time
• teens and screens