Homework

Rachel Bennett, 12, loves playing soccer, spending time with her grandparents and making jewelry with beads. But since she entered a magnet middle school in the fall -- and began receiving two to four hours of homework a night -- those activities have fallen by the wayside. "She's only a kid for so long," said her father, Alex Bennett, of Silverado Canyon. "There's been tears and frustration and family arguments. Everyone gets burned out and tired."

Cole's grandma named her puppy Hot Dog because he looks like a plump sausage. Cole volunteered to dog-sit while she's on vacation. She'll be surprised to see his new tricks. "Fetch!" Hot Dog races down the hall. Cole chases after him, bumping into a table. His notebook hits the floor and pops open. Hot Dog snatches his homework. "No!" Cole shouts. Too late. His book report is chomped to bits. "Ms. Allen will never believe this!" His teacher had assigned the first "Little House on the Prairie" book.

Laura Gspoyan and Maxine Chaykovskiy speak as a breathless duo, often adding to each other's sentences. The third-graders share a taste for Flamin' Hot Cheetos and a knack for getting the orange powder all over their hands. They love playing musical chairs and freeze tag, and they often can be found at Gardner Street Elementary School in Hollywood long after the final bell has rung. The girls stay for a program run by Aviva Family and Children's Services, a nonprofit agency that provides care and treatment to disadvantaged youths and their families.

The opening of a computerized homework center was celebrated Tuesday by city officials and residents at the Los Angeles Public Library's Arroyo Seco branch in Highland Park. Students will be able to use CD-ROM installations to access a variety of databases and reference materials to help them with their homework, said city librarian Susan Kent. To help youngsters find their way around cyberspace as well as the bookshelves, the library has hired a homework center assistant.

A new computerized homework center has opened at the Baldwin Hills branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. The CBS Homework Center, the third in the city's library system, will provide students with tutoring and computers, library spokesman Robert Reagan said. Workstations have been set up at the Baldwin Hills library and computers have been loaded with software to help students with their studies, from programs that aid in math instruction to encyclopedias and databases, Reagan said.

Concerned about youth violence and drugs in the city's Grace-Pacific neighborhood, residents are turning a run-down, abandoned house into an after-school oasis and homework headquarters for elementary and high school students. "We are making a definitive change," said Rosalinda Solis, a 13-year resident of Pacific Avenue who is among volunteers spending their weekends painting, replacing rotted carpet and removing mildew and graffiti from the house at 348 Grace Ave.

Homework centers at four local elementary schools and the Boys and Girls Club are set to open by the end of the month, John Bennett, deputy school superintendent, said this week. A $28,560 grant from the 3M Foundation will cover the full cost of the centers for their first year of operation, Bennett said. The Santa Ana Unified School District hopes to win grants from 3M and other businesses to maintain and expand centers after that.

Seven-year-old Matthew Flaherty of Sylmar barely noticed the fanfare around him as city dignitaries and local business representatives officially opened the new homework center at the Los Angeles Public Library's West Valley Regional Branch. While the adults nearby praised the fact that, with this new one, homework centers now exist in 30 of the library system's 60 branches, Matthew and his 9-year-old cousin, Ashley Torres, were busy doing math.

This holiday season many families will be acquiring a home computer equipped to play multimedia programs on CD-ROMs. In some ways, unless you watch out, CyberSanta's gift could provoke a a cyber-headache. The big challenge is not how to get the machine to work--that's what technical-support 800 numbers and your computer-savvy 11 year-old were invented for. The problem is what CD-ROMs to load into the machine.

A proposed Los Angeles city ordinance that would make business owners more "at home" in Los Angeles is the subject of a public workshop to be held Saturday in Universal City. The ordinance would legalize home-based businesses, which are outlawed under current city zoning codes. The only professionals allowed to work at home under the existing law are doctors, dentists and ministers.