Homework - 9 yr old -year 4.

pingua

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

Have you checked what his reading age is, and if it's going up or down, that will give you a good indication.

Will google that and see if I can find how to do that. Thanks.

Thanks to everyone. Has been a real eye opener to read your replies.

patchwork_cat

No - school should provide you with his reading age. Check your school reports. However our school pooh poohed reading age and said it is not an indicator of understanding.

Lunar_Eclipse

katiejones wrote: »

Mine (year 3, Aged 8 in May) 1 page of literacy and 1 page of maths on a Monday. 10 spelling and 1 set of times tables to be learnt for test on a Friday. 1/2 hr reading a night.

This is exactly what our school gives to children in years 3 and 4. Every other week it's two Maths sheets. My 8 year old has 24 spellings and her 24x table this week, in addition to 2 Maths sheets and a poem or short story comprising at least five of her spellings.

In Y5 it doubles; same again in Y6.

I feel I should add this is a state school. Our local private schools give this much daily; at least an hour's homework per night from Y3 onwards, excluding reading.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about how much homework your child is getting. Whilst reading, times tables and spelling are key life skills, there are far more valuable activities that I would like to see my children doing than a Maths or English sheet that is more often than not marked with a single tick. Most of it is an utter and complete waste of time and turns a lot of primary school aged children off learning IMO.

milliebear00001

I'm a primary teacher (Year 5) and sometimes wonder when our children just get the chance to be children! We work them hard in schools these days, and some schools pile on far too much (in my opinion) homework in addition. Spellings are still routinely given, despite there being not a shred of evidence that simply learning lists of them impacts in any positive way on children's real spelling ability.

My (admittedly, pushy, middle-class, competitive) parents routinely comment that the homework is too 'easy' for their children, despite understanding nothing about why that homework has been set or why it might need to be 'easier' than work covered in class. I often have parents asking for extra work which I often refuse to set.

I give weekly spellings (because my school knows there would be a riot from parents if we stopped sending them home) and maths (half an hour's worth) on a Thursday, to come back Monday. We also set a termly homework that is topic based and usually involves a research piece/presentation. That's it.

If your children are working hard in school, there is little benefit in giving out mountains of homework. Read, talk to, and play games with your child (older children especially do not benefit enough from just time spent doing stuff around the house with their parents).

The children in my classes are high achieving and have excellent general knowledge from outside the classroom. What they cannot do is think for themselves, manage themselves and their stuff, entertain themselves without the aid of an electric plug-socket, etc etc. They would benefit far more from a little more 'boredom time' than they would from extra maths!

minimoneysaver

Not had chance to read the whole thread, but firstly I would check with your child's teacher. The chances are he is supposed to be learning times tables, doing extra reading and possibly computer/book research into their topic, which could be World War 2 or similar. Just because the homework isn't a time wasting sheet of paper, doesn't mean your child does not have homework. Many times the children are asked to learn a particular times table or similar verbally. Your child maybe one of those children who either isn't listening to the set homework or doesn't want to do it.... or maybe the teacher hasn't set anything, but that isn't too likely. Good luck with finding a resolution.

milliebear00001

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

Have you checked what his reading age is, and if it's going up or down, that will give you a good indication.



You really think that's too much?

It isn't possible for a reading age to go down. If it appears so then the test (or marking) is at fault.

Reading age means little - what you need is the standardised (i.e. age-adjusted) score from a really good, comprehensive reading test. It is likely your school does these and you may or may not be given the scores - you can always ask though.

Indie_Kid

When I was in year 3/4 (1997/1998) we were given sums to do, spellings to learn and reading. Might have also been given a sheet or two of work to do as well.

I also seem to remember being given words to learn if we couldn't say them when we had to read the to teacher.

MrsAnnie

pingua wrote: »

How much homework does your child get? Mine comes home with perhaps 10 spellings each week - although its not each week really. And thats it - is that normal?

You know when you think they are going a bit backwards with their work ..... And then the thought that he will be with the same teacher again next year..............

Our primary school is pretty much the same. Althought I understand the arguement that children still need to be children. If NO homework and NO school work is EVER sent home, as in our case, it is very hard (if not impossible) to measure how well the child is doing.


My children get 10 -15 spellings a week and bring home their reading books each day. apparently some children in the class still fail to learn the spellings!!


I buy the workbooks (Letts Revision) and my DDs do two pages of Maths and two pages of English each school night. It was extremely frustrating when I started doing this because I discovered how little they learnt in school, and it seems that if they do not grasp a particular subjsct the teacher just carries on leaving children behind, and the parent is non the wiser. Althought the parent evening were always very positive.

Out of my DDs class in Year 6 only 5 children passed the 11+; and primary school has a good local reputation!!!

It is also stressfull for my children because while all their other friends are outside playing mine have to do home work!! Which I know they resent me for !! But at least my DDs will be prepared for the amount of work involved when they go to secondary school and hopefully will not be behind classmates from other feeder schools (who seem to do more homework).

aaronm_2

no child, sorry

bestpud

DD(8), in year 3, has a literacy sheet and a numeracy sheet per week - they have 5 days to do it.

We are expected to listen to her read every day and work on her times tables.

At the moment, her literacy homework is a 7 week independent project and that's quite nice imo.

She had the same format last year but they actually have slightly less to do this year.

They did a survey at the end of last year, asking parents what they thought of homework, and I know I wasn't alone in feeling frustrated with the time it was taking dd to complete her literacy sheet in particular.

They must have responded to that as dd's is more manageable now - she's moved from KS1-2 so I expected it to increase rather than be reduced.

Some weeks last year, she was spending 2-3 hours on her literacy as they had to do so many different tasks on this one sheet, including drawing pictures etc! :eek: It drove me and her near mental at the time - I got to the point of dreading it, which seemed wrong to me.