For the past few months, while my family has been in Cape Town, South Africa, my boys have not done a drop of homework. They’ve studied long and hard during school hours, but there have been no reading logs to sign, no math lessons to reinforce, and no grammar sheets to complete.

Although the amount of homework my boys have in New York is somewhat reasonable, I cannot overstate the feeling of levity that has descended upon my family. They are spending more time playing chess, Boggle, and Scrabble. They are spending more time talking to me at the dinner table. More than anything, though, they are amusing themselves more, by tossing a ball around, building a marble run, making card houses, drawing flags from around the world, reading articles in the newspaper about a new species of leopard discovered in Borneo, or curling up with a book.

In Cape Town, my children have just as many extracurricular activities, if not more, as they do in New York. After school here, just as in the city, they have a tennis lesson, or a play date, or a cricket match … okay, in New York it would be a soccer match.

But when we arrive home after the sports or the chess or the play date, there isn’t that feeling of dread. Without the deadline of homework looming and without the inevitable struggle that so many parents of young children face, the otherwise-dreaded witching homework hour is downright pleasant.

My early evenings in Cape Town have been regained as family time, which is exactly what opponents of homework point out is being taken away when children — particularly elementary-age children like mine — are loaded with homework each night.

Educators who believe in limiting homework do not advocate for no homework. They advocate for carefully constructed homework, limited and thoughtful homework. They are especially concerned because elementary students in New York, and all across the country, are finding themselves facing an increase in homework time, though there is a lack of evidence to suggest that homework during these years correlates with academic achievement.

When I covered this subject several months ago, educator Alfie Kohn told me that teachers have seven hours every day to reinforce their lessons. “Parents should have a say in what their children do after school. Parents should be able to enjoy spending time with their children,” Mr. Kohn, author of “The Homework Myth” (Da Capo), said.

I thought I understood what he meant when he said the phrase “reclaiming family time,” but after these few months, I really know the kind of family time I will be missing out on when I return to New York next week.

The way New Yorkers measure and value their time is different from anywhere else in the world. Our city is faster and more efficient than any other, and most of us who choose to live and raise our children here value that aspect of living in the city that never sleeps. If you need your driver’s license renewed instantly, you go to License X-Press on 34th Street and Seventh Avenue. Do you need a visa in your passport by tomorrow? Go to “It’s Easy” at Rockefeller Center. You want pad thai delivered to your door in the next 15 minutes? No problem. Need a refill of Lexapro at 2 a.m.? There’s the Duane Reade on your corner.

It’s hard to switch gears when it comes to our children. I think if I counted the number of times I told my children to hurry in a single day I’d be mortified. “Go put your shoes on. Hurry up,” I say. “Time for dinner, hurry”; “We’re going to miss the orthodontist appointment. Push the elevator button, hurry,” and, of course, “Just sit down and do your homework. Hurry up and get it done.”

Children thrive in a gear different from the one we prize in the newsroom, on Wall Street, or at the diner, however. During many nights in Cape Town, instead of fighting with the boys to hurry and get their homework done, we play Monopoly — for hours. My husband takes the gang for a walk on the beach to collect shells, or we read a book aloud from cover to cover.

I imagine there are plenty of parents of young children who feel that if it weren’t for homework their children would be watching television or surfing the Web for an additional hour each night. However, city parents blame the schools for piling on the homework at an increasingly young age, and the schools place the blame squarely on the shoulders of demanding, competitive parents.

It’s much easier to imagine the benefits of young children doing homework than to consider the drawbacks of cutting short the period of time in which they can be free to pursue personal interests, read, and play. But after a few homework-free months, I can more fully appreciate the drawbacks. We all should because there are many.

sarasberman@aol.com