You know what is a good homework assignment at the elementary school level? Telling kids to do homework on whatever they want. Read a book (as mentioned in the

You know what is a good homework assignment at the elementary school level? Telling kids to do homework on whatever they want. Read a book (as mentioned in the article), draw a picture, go to the library to look something up, drills if they actually want to do that, write a journal entry, etc. This is what the elementary school does as part of the homework where I live (Japan, not US) and it works quite well. The elementary school ends up ranking quite high in academic scores too. So it isn't hurting the development of the children. I do wish they'd reduce the overall amount of homework, but I guess you can't argue with results. It's still far better than what I see happening back home in the States.