Homework vs. Happiness

Oof. I haven’t had the motivation to write anything as of late. But with the school year is slipping away (less than 2 months to go!), I wanted to record our second-year experience at our school in Taiwan.

Students in elementary school have the same teacher, classmates, and schedule for two consecutive years, so there were no changes there. O is in 2nd grade, comes home at noon on most days, and homework is still about 20 minutes each day. This schedule is great because it allows him to relax and pursue his interests. For awhile he was into Rubik’s cube, and now he’s into reading (current favorite genre is fantasy) and coding.

O also participates in a lot of after-school activities like swimming, Lego, balloon modeling, and Go 圍棋. He enjoys Go so much that we signed him up for a competition outside of school and he won 2nd place in the beginner’s group!

We’ve also been able to tutor O in English and math more at home due to his relaxed schedule. He is progressing a lot faster than C in this regard.

On the contrary, 4th grade for C has been filled with homework, homework and more homework. Even though he has the same teacher as last year, the volume and difficulty has increased. It also doesn’t help that 4th graders have school until 4pm on most days, and then C has badminton team practices and after-school activities until 5:45pm everyday. By the time he eats dinner, showers, and finishes homework, it’s already time to go to bed. C doesn’t have a lot of free time to relax and just be a kid. If this is what school is like in 4th grade, I’m nervous about what’s to come in 5th and 6th. 😬

Surprisingly, C hasn’t complained much about the long hours of Chinese homework—or even when Baba and I try to squeeze in extra math and English. I’m grateful he’s so diligent, but we still wrestle with how to balance the endless grind of schoolwork with simply letting him be a kid.

We’ve had to postpone projects because he’s busy all the time. Most weeknights, there’s no time for reading or playing because he’s doing homework right up until bedtime. And when he does get a sliver of free time, I feel guilty asking him to do more. Sometimes, people just need the space to switch off.

We’ve considered working with his teacher to reduce homework, but C didn’t want to. He wants to complete every assignment, and do it as well as he possibly can. (Honestly, he spends more time than necessary perfecting every stroke and sentence!) And so we find ourselves stuck again: we don’t want to temper C’s desire to excel, but we also want to make sure he doesn’t burn himself out.

Going to school in Taiwan has undoubtedly been a life-changing experience for the boys, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder how much more carefree their lives might have been if we had stayed in the U.S. No homework, no midterms and finals, just free time to explore. In the end, we’re still trying to strike that everyday balance between homework and happiness.