Primary school homework

RHYSDAD · 19 June 2017 at 3:52PM

I'm at the end of my tether with the amount my boys are getting. Alongside the 15 minutes reading, spellings, mental maths and English comprehension, they also (because as a family we obviously have b ugger all else to do) are set really in depth projects that my boys have no interest or enthusiasm for. I can't MAKE them be interested in it all. I agree wholeheartedly with the first four but trying to get a 9 year ASD child to understand how and why we call elections and to understand the office of Prime Minister is frankly tantamount to be driven insane. Even our four year old is set mini projects. Talk about hammer them into the ground.... 😤
I don't remember being set any when I went to primary school

Guest101 · 19 June 2017 at 4:13PM

RHYSDAD wrote: »

I'm at the end of my tether with the amount my boys are getting. Alongside the 15 minutes reading, spellings, mental maths and English comprehension, they also (because as a family we obviously have b ugger all else to do) are set really in depth projects that my boys have no interest or enthusiasm for. I can't MAKE them be interested in it all. I agree wholeheartedly with the first four but trying to get a 9 year ASD child to understand how and why we call elections and to understand the office of Prime Minister is frankly tantamount to be driven insane. Even our four year old is set mini projects. Talk about hammer them into the ground.... 😤
I don't remember being set any when I went to primary school

You cant be bothered to explain to a 9 year old why we have elections? Surely a simple grasp of why and how it works isn't too difficult. There's a odds on chance theyt've covered the topic at school, so you wont be starting from scratch

mark5 · 19 June 2017 at 4:18PM

Totally agree, my 8 year old typically gets 80-90 pages of level 15 books to read each week, maths homework, English homework, spelling words to learn and as you say silly projects she has no interest in as she's fed up of all the other homework and just wants time to herself.

I can't see anything changing though!

mark5 · 19 June 2017 at 4:25PM

Guest101 wrote: »

You cant be bothered to explain to a 9 year old why we have elections? Surely a simple grasp of why and how it works isn't too difficult. There's a odds on chance theyt've covered the topic at school, so you wont be starting from scratch

They come home from school, want to relax and play and your straight on their case to get on with homework, they don't want to learn at that point they just want to relax.

It's much more intense than it was in the 80's!

Guest101 · 19 June 2017 at 4:54PM

mark5 wrote: »

They come home from school, want to relax and play and your straight on their case to get on with homework, they don't want to learn at that point they just want to relax.

It's much more intense than it was in the 80's!

That's ok. If that's what you choose to do.

But if or when they fall behind, and are struggling to learn new material because they don't understand the old - who will be to blame?

Presumably it will be the fault of the school?

FBaby · 19 June 2017 at 4:55PM

I can't MAKE them be interested in it all

For one, homework is not about being engaging about interesting activities, it's about additional work to embed the learning. It's not fun and it's another thing in life we do because the effort put in will pay off some day. It's just discipline.

Of course, it works better if you can find a way to make it not so daunting, and have some form of reward to look forward to.

lilmiss1982 · 19 June 2017 at 5:37PM

I would suggest speaking to school about the homework set. If your child has special educational needs it might not be realistic for them to complete exactly the same tasks as the rest of the class for homework and they should look at adaptions.

You should speak with the class teacher and then the head.

They should be able to help.

My son's school have been excellent as we had issues with homework. My son was told if he spent a set amount of time on it and it was incomplete it was ok if he had put the time in.

indsty · 19 June 2017 at 5:53PM

Definitely speak to the teacher concerned and let her know your difficulties. But a lot of "project" stuff can be included in day to day life. Start conversations at the tea table, while coming home from school, while in the park, visiting the library - education can be included from the time they wake up until they go to bed.

I am not saying they shouldn't have their "me" time, playtime, sports time, just make use of any time you do have - if you seem interested in a subject then they will be too. If you see it as a chore you can't expect them to do otherwise.

barbiedoll · 19 June 2017 at 7:22PM

Try what we did and space the work out over the evening.

Any hardcore written work had to be done before any playtime/console time etc. We used to do the spellings every morning and evening on the way to and from the childminder (10 min walk each way). Mental maths was 10 mins before bed and reading was 15 mins in bed (school) and half an hour of reading of own choice (mostly comics, but it's all reading!)

You think it's bad now, just wait till they're doing GCSE maths...it's completely incomprehensible!

Fireflyaway · 19 June 2017 at 8:32PM

My child's school is the opposite. Virtually no homework and now in year 6 its a short worksheet that takes ten minutes. No reading etc. Going to be a big shock when senior school starts in September.
I think some homework is good. If you want to get ahead in life, putting in some extra effort is a good habit to get into. However.... Too much might put the child off learning and end up being counterproductive. Talk to the teacher and see what other parents think, but in the meantime try to be positive. If you start to complain and belittle the value of homework your child will most likely pick up on it and become even less enthused.

warehouse · 19 June 2017 at 8:51PM

RHYSDAD wrote: »

I'm at the end of my tether with the amount my boys are getting. Alongside the 15 minutes reading, spellings, mental maths and English comprehension, they also (because as a family we obviously have b ugger all else to do) are set really in depth projects that my boys have no interest or enthusiasm for. I can't MAKE them be interested in it all. I agree wholeheartedly with the first four but trying to get a 9 year ASD child to understand how and why we call elections and to understand the office of Prime Minister is frankly tantamount to be driven insane. Even our four year old is set mini projects. Talk about hammer them into the ground.... 😤
I don't remember being set any when I went to primary school

Yeah I get it, I've been there, but now I look back it's probably the best thing that could have happened.

My eldest is 19 now. At primary school she was given vast amounts of homework, many of the parents complained, I also thought it was a bit too much, but we got on with it. It soon becomes the norm and you get used to it.

When she was at the end of year 4 we moved to a different area and she went to a new school. Not only was there hardly any homework but she was MILES ahead of all the other kids in every subject, it was quite a shock. Because of that when it came to take the exams for secondary school she smashed it.

She got A*, A, A in her A levels last year and got the University she wanted. She got in the hall of fame for her school and currently has her picture on the wall. All that because she got a fantastic start to her education at a primary school that cared enough to give her a lot of homework.

Embrace it.

Primary school homework

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