It seems it be my sister's way that - excluding Friday ('n Sat 'n Sun) - all she does after school is work on homework with a little TV time squeezed in before bed.
Is that normal? Is that okay.
She's big on the straight A, you straight Aers put in these hours?
I don't think it's okay, especially because I'd like to spend time with her after school and with visits and such (since my apartment is only, like, 5 minutes away from her highschool)
Now I don't remember homework being such a big part of my day, I remember hanging out with friends after school, doing homework sometime before or after that. Especially in my sophomore year (which she are in). Before I was an awful student, I was a very good student, but I don't remember spending SO much time to be a very good student.
So not only am I told we kint hang, but I just thing it's okay factor is below okay as a healthy way to enjoy highschool, not that I know enough to be sure what's healthy for a guy.
That's why I'm asking Hatrack! Yay Hatrack! Thoughts from Hatrack?
Posts: 299 | Registered: Jan 2007
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To clarify: does she do any homework on Friday, Saturday or Sunday? Is she spending these hours on homework on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays only?
Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I'm under the impression (at least) that she does do some homework Friday and I think finishes it Sunday. Maybe with some action Saturday but I think that is her "friend day". I should ask.
I'd really love to spend time with her, but I don't want to get in the way of her learning, it's just I think she's on the Burn Out express.
Posts: 299 | Registered: Jan 2007
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Are there any subjects you can offer to help her with? You don't need to be an expert on the subject to be an effective study partner. Discussing ideas with another person usually leads to better understanding than you can get from spending the same time alone with a textbook.
You should try to figure out if the problem is due to an excess of homework or a lack of effective study habits. Either one could lead to the symptoms you've described, but only the latter is really curable.
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
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Is she doing any advanced work in HS--AP classes, Honors, IB, etc?
Is it possible she's immersing herself in levels she can't handle and jeopardizing herself by doing so?
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I'm in high school and while I'm in my junior year (supposedly the hardest) I have time for wrestling, schoolwork, and friends. Usually what I do is hang out right after school with my friends if I don't have practice and then do schoolwork later. I'm taking 4 honors classes right now, but I still have time for wrestling and hanging out.
If she is spending that much time on homework then she probably is close to burning out. I know I burned out a few times my sophmore year and it was terrible.
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I went to school with a lot of people who did exactly this. It wasn't for me, personally--I rarely did homework after school, I almost always did it during school--but I was also generally a B+ student, not a straight A student, and my course load was only mildly advanced.
Whether or not she's doing extra-curriculars is a big deal. If she's going straight home after school to work on homework and is spending 6+ straight hours doing it five days a week, I'd agree she's either choosing to spend too much time on it, or she's taking classes too difficult for her.
But don't be bothered by the fact that she doesn't spend time socializing after school. Many--most, maybe--of the people I knew in high school spent a very little time socializing after school, if any. We were just all in sports and other extra-curriculars.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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It may not be her or the classes. I have a friend who pulled her daughter recently because the jr. high was giving one to two hours of homework per class per day. They're supposed to have a schedule but all the teachers ignore it, and the assignments were, mostly, busywork. *sigh*
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Are there any subjects you can offer to help her with? You don't need to be an expert on the subject to be an effective study partner. Discussing ideas with another person usually leads to better understanding than you can get from spending the same time alone with a textbook.
This is excellent, I'm totally doing this. At the very least I know the math.
quote:Is she doing any advanced work in HS--AP classes, Honors, IB, etc?
She's doing the AP Honors thing. My mother tells me she spends so much time with homework because she gets a lot and talking with my sis she's hinted at a hefty load.
quote:I'm in high school and while I'm in my junior year (supposedly the hardest) I have time for wrestling, schoolwork, and friends. Usually what I do is hang out right after school with my friends if I don't have practice and then do schoolwork later. I'm taking 4 honors classes right now, but I still have time for wrestling and hanging out.
SEE, this is exactly a thing that is important. She's sophomore year sounding like she's putting in three times more energy into the homework thing than this and losing out on all the non-schoollike activities (not to infer that you aren't working hard, which I know you are, I can see it in your eyes/the consonants of your handle)
This is all what I feared but wanted to hear before I put my meddling gloves on.
I'm going to start inviting her over to do her homework at my place and see if I can help more from there.
As for extrariklulers, there is the viola thing. She does it. She's had concerts before, I don't know how much music and schoolmusic takes up, but s'pose I'll find out.
Thank you guys!! kissy kissy
Posts: 299 | Registered: Jan 2007
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Amongst my friends, it seems that the kids who WANT to work that much, do, and the kids who don't want to work that much, don't. Some people just have the capacity to work a lot without it getting painful. Unless your parents are pressuring her to work a lot, but it doesn't seem like that's happening.
Posts: 930 | Registered: Dec 2006
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I'm currently on trimesters and so normally have 5 classes a day. I have 4 APs and an open hour which is "filled" by a class I'm taking at the community college. Diving season is also underway and so I have practice mon-fri from ~3-5 or 6 and morning practice on mon, wed, fri from 5:45 to 6:45.
Needless to say there are days that I feel exhausted by night. I don't keep track of how long I do homework but i can range from having near none to having a good... 4-5 whatever hours.
I have had straight As. up to now (my senior year of highschool). With that precedent I feel like there's no reason for me to NOT get an A because I know I can do it. I put stress on myself and I'm incredibly frustrated when I simply cannot understand something (for example i was feeling sort of depressed because the math I thought I had a quiz on tomorrow I simply don't understand yet).
I have asked myself many times if the way I'm doing things is how I'd like to be doing them. The answer I've determined is that I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes from learning and doing my homework and everything. I take honors classes, AP classes, because being in non-honors or non-AP classes just aggravates me. The subject matter in them is generally not as interesting and they often feel a bit like a waste of time.
I think everything can be taken too far. I don't know if there's any conclusion here other than that, and a little story(that's probably not as complete as I'd like) about how I'm doing things.
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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Bleh.. just got off of the phone with her. It seems like Friday and Saturday are her "day off" but otherwise Sunday she does the weekend work and from when she gets home to. She says it's very stressful and it makes her wig often but that it's "the normal thing" and what everyone around her is going through. I don't know how to talk about it with her and not come on strong, and naturally she becomes defensive when I question her about such.
But defensive in a certain way, defensive in the way I'm being unfair. I started this thread a little bit ago so actually I just got off the phone with my mother just now, among other things talking to her 'bout our lil' sis. It seems she digs what's going on (maybe like in a Starsnuffer kinda way) and has big plans she's working hard for. Medschool actually (I never knew!). Unfortunately it looks like we don't have "room" for each other in our lives right now what with how our "schedules" are. Much as I got from her and mother.
I'm really super bummed about us not hanging and doing real neat stuff I had planned, it's hard to say in what way I am bummed and 'cause why for some reason, seems like it should be simple, but at least I think it is the way it's gunna go. She's got stuff to do, and we're not going to see a whole lot of each other (at least short-distance! Go phone and internet and music!)
Edit: an -> and, hwow!
[ January 13, 2008, 09:56 PM: Message edited by: The Flying Dracula Hair ]
Posts: 299 | Registered: Jan 2007
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I may be the very last person to offer up advice on schoolwork, as I was a straight C-D student in high school, but... I don't remember any classwork I ever actually DID as being difficult.
Granted, I didn't actually DO very much of my homework (I blame the A.D.D.), but when I did, I always finished it in minutes and always got good grades on it. In fact, I aced nearly every test, even on the subjects I didn't particularly care about.
Has school changed so much? I don't wanna seem like I'm fishing for compliments, but was I just too smart for my classes that the actual content was never a challenge (and so, never interested me enough to DO it)?
The only assignments I remember having to actually WORK on were the ones that asked me to be creative. Namely writing assignments and various presentations (usually History). Heh, usually I overcomplicated those so much that I wasn't able to finish it according to my original plan and ended up throwing something together at the last second.
Argh, I wish I could do it all over again knowing what I know now.
Posts: 636 | Registered: Apr 2002
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From Sylvrdragon: "was I just too smart for my classes that the actual content was never a challenge"
I never took time aside that I called studying until mid-highschool, and I do think that a lot of classes are just not challenging. People ask me why I burden myself with hard classes and I ask them how they can stand taking easy classes. (I realize varying ability levels and all, but there are people who I know are capable of so much more that take stuff that must be boring for them).
so in response, I think that that could be part of the reason. School is too easy, from my point of view. But then I don't really know what to think... like on so many things....(insert discussion of average skill level and how fast subject matter should be covered, whether or not kids would be able to do more if they were just asked to do more etc etc.)
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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A lot of my homework was pretty much busywork, and I learned the material just fine without doing it. Which is why I did as little of it as possible.
And why I'll be homeschooling my kids.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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When my daughter was in elementary and jr high they got a lot of homework. A LOT. But now she's in high school it seems to have tapered off a bit. Either that or she's so smart it doesn't take long for her to get it done. Either way, it seems that she spends less time on homework now than when she was in the lower grades.
Posts: 1042 | Registered: Jan 2001
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I sounds to me that the real issue isn't that your sister has too much homework but that she doesn't have time to spend with you. I think its a pretty common thing when people are in their teenage years, spending time with family is not high on their priority list. If she is like most teenagers, this is a phase she will out grow. Be patient, in time she may be as excited about hanging and doing neat stuff with you as you are.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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