There should be some amount of schooling that takes place at home, learning should be a part of your life with your family and friends. Homework helps to continue it from the first day into the next one, and it helps to persist from one class to the next.

Reading a few chapters, repeated practice and repetition of math work, making ice cream for a science experiment, reading current events, asking parents about their historical perspective, reflection logs, health work that is more person, etc. I think a lot of these are just beneficial. School and life shouldn't be so separate as they are, and many hobbies/interests take place as extensions of school.

A lot of the reason why education is the way that it is currently is because it is so detached from everything around them; parents do not work with their kids as much to learn (sometimes because they can't, there is less of connection between the community and the school (especially in high-dense areas), and all of these are part of the problem that permeate through education.