Oh you poor thing. It should definitely not be a stressful thing for your family and im sure your son's teacher doesnt mean it to be stressful for you guys.

Here are a couple of my suggestions as a kindergarten teacher:

I think it might be an idea to go back to focusing on his sound knowledge and the sight words. Sight words are learnt from memory but he will l need to know all his sounds to be able to attack unfamiliar words and sound them out. If he is having trouble with this then I would go back to the basics with him.

In regards to the battle with homework. Try a reward chart on the Fridge at home. If he sits down and does 10minutes a night then he gets a sticker for the day. If he gets a sticker each day then he gets something special at the end of the week.

Does your son like computer games?? If he does like the computer I can give you a list of computer games related to reading that he could try out to help him along.

The homework amount is a little excessive. I set my kindy kids a sound a week and they find pics from magazines that start with the sound, sight words (minimum 3, maximum 5 a week). they used to just copy them out. Now they write sentences with them (as they can actually write more now) and a maths sheet. they also have 2 readers for the week.

I also reward my class when they bring there homework in by giving them a smilie for our lucky dip on Fridays.

It is a great idea to stop when he is getting stressed as it wont be worthwhile doing when it gets to that point. Try and get a routine that maybe he comes home and plays/watches tv and at 5pm he stops and sits at the dining room table and does 10minutes of homework. Kids work well with routines as they know what is expected of them.

The games others have suggested are great ideas as well. You can pretend to be book detectives and search out letters/words/full stops, etc.

Good luck FJ. Thinking of you guys.