Homework

I think that kids need time just to be kids...if you think about it, the spend about as much time at school as adults do at work.  What adult wants to get off work only to go home and do more work?!  One of the things I am going to work the hardest at as a teacher is to have a healthy, fun life outside of the classroom and to not take the class work home with me regularly.  I think that kids deserve that time off too.  Overall, I am not a fan of homework because I feel it takes away from families being able to have fun quality time together in the evenings.  Kids need time just to play...with dinner, baths, homework, what time is left for them to be creative and inventive in designing their own play?  Unstructured free time is so important for children, especially in early childhood.
Having said that, there are some "home" work that I find appropriate...basically, it must be fun, engaging, and involve families.  Books that children can take home and read to a family member, disposable cameras that children are to use to take pictures of their house/family and then later share with the class, games that families can play together that reflect classroom learning, etc.  I think that it is also important to give a time period in which it can be done because everybody has "those nights" where adding one more thing to the family plate would be too much.  I don't believe that homework should just be more practice of what is already covered in school...it has to be something that gets children and parents invested in the activity in a joyful way.  I am going to call it "homefun" instead of "homework" in my class!