Homework for 5 year olds

foolofbeans

I would like opinions and views on how much homework is suitable for a 5 year old child.
Each week my child has two reading books. In addition they have around 30 words to learn (these have stayed the same for the past few months). Now they have extra (20) words to learn and weekly spelling tests so another 10 words which change each week. Then they get a weekly homework sheet which is usually maths.
Over the Christmas holiday period they also got a Christmas themed maths workbook (5 pages although was fairly easy to do) and then there was a big project to complete which required research, writing and collating.
Am I wrong to think this is too much? To be honest, I feel the two books a week are enough and maybe some maths. Often we don't finish all of the work that is prescribed as my child is tired and is already quite jaded at the amount of work.
We regularly read books at home and go to the library but I'm starting to feel I'm fighting a losing battle in pushing the joy of reading rather than just because school tell you to.
To clarify: five year old is in year 1 and is a summer born child so quite young for their year group. I am happy with their progress so far but the school has determined they are behind and need to be pushed more. It was added that tests are to be carried out at the end of the year and my child will not hit the right grade.

Mojisola

foolofbeans wrote: »

It was added that tests are to be carried out at the end of the year and my child will not hit the right grade.

Getting your child to a particular level is for the school's benefit, not your child's.

If he/she is already jaded and very tired, pushing to do more work won't be good for him/her.

missbiggles1

I wouldn't class the reading books as work and learning 30 words in a few months doesn't sound particularly arduous, even for a 5 year old. After all, that's only one a fortnight.

On the other hand, pushing 5 year olds to pass tests rather than to enjoy learning can't be a good idea.

duchy

Often summer babies are a bit behind and if your child is measurably lagging compared with the other children in the class then do you want the school to not care or not ?

Often children who attended nursery will do better as they are more accustomed to learning already compared to children who attended more informal pre-school or stayed home with Mum.

It doesn't sound like a massive amount of homework - and a lot of homework at this point is to get the homework habit . Of course if you resent it/don't think it is important - your child will pick up on it too.

Have you made an appointment with their class teacher to talk about your concerns ? People can give opinions on here but ultimately this is between you and the school as your child is an individual and it would probably be helpful to you to know where they feel your child is behind and how much.

warehouse

OP, my Eldest daughter went to a primary school that by pure luck happened to be one of the best in the country. She had much more homework than we ever expected at such a young age, but in time we all got used to doing it with her and it soon became routine. She was only there to the end of year 3, but when she went to her new school she was absolutely miles ahead of everyone else. It has benefited her massively ever since.

She's now 18, got 4 A's in her AS exams and is able to choose the best universities in the country to study a history degree at. All her 5 choices have accepted her application.

I'm now a firm believer that extra homework when young is a very good thing indeed. You are fortunate to have a child at such a good school IMO.

gayleygoo

When my DS was in P1 last year (age 4), I thought he had a terrible amount of homework. Reading every night (2 books a week, plus school library book at the weekend), a worksheet to complete, nightly handwriting and spelling practice in another book, or a picture to draw, activities involving stuff around the home etc. His homework often took hours because he was so tired after school, and if we left it until after tea he was even crankier and really didn't want to do it.

To be honest, we left some of it out if he was too tired or if it took more than an hour, it didn't seem fair on him. Maybe other kids managed the workload okay but for us it felt like he was at school another two hours everyday, and I felt like I rarely got to spend any quality time with him because of it! I made a note in the homework folder that we ran out of time or did a different educational activity or something, the teacher never complained.

This year though, he actually has much less homework. Reading every night, but other activities are spread over the week. He's doing really well in school so I don't worry that he isn't doing enough homework.

LilElvis

My daughter is in Year 1 and born late August, so at the same stage as your child.

- learning high frequency words was done via mini books which were changed once she was confident. 10 books with a dozen words each - started in Foundation and completed last term.

- reading books are changed once the parents note that they have been read by writing in their diary. The majority in my daughter's class change them daily, so 5 a week.

- spelling tests issued every Friday with the "test" taken the following Friday. 8 words per week focused on their phonics development.

- school library book changed on Thursdays.

- weekly homework set on Friday to be completed by Wednesday or Friday. One will be prepare the child to talk or write on a given subject. Since Christmas we have now added an additional task - this could be maths, "topic" related, or based on another class e.g. this week it was geography and involved writing her address and being able to describe and write about her journey to school, the order of where she goes, how she travels and landmarks on the way.

- project work is given in holidays.

My daughter is very far from excelling, though the school isn't concerned with her progress, but I've had no difficulty with helping her complete her work as the emphasis is on learning being "fun" rather than the very dry way I was taught.

If your child is getting jaded perhaps he is being asked to complete it when he is tired? I let my daughter have a snack and a play in the park or at home before we do homework. On days when she has after school clubs we just read and practice spellings.

Mrs_pbradley936

Before we had tv all day and computer games children would read of their own volition. Besides even if they cannot read well themselves yet, surely you are reading them a bedtime story.

If you really want to help them with reading/spelling get yourself a copy of this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Reflex-Foolproof-Method-Teaching/dp/0140280383/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454071299&sr=1-2&keywords=reading+reflex

Darksparkle

How long does your child spend on homework each day?

Jagraf

Thinking back to year one (she's now 16)

Spellings weekly, with a test
Mental maths, with a test
A book scheme which each child worked through (read for about 30 minutes most night)
5 general questions to answer over a weekend (research and write - eg, how many types of snake are there in the world
Any artwork to complete and usually learning the words of a song.

Most of the above was enjoyable - we did mental maths coming home from school every day sane with spellings.

i thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with her and she still remembers it.

susancs

When my children were in year 1, they had about the same amount of homework as your child (one was born the end of May and the other the end of July). It increased as they went into other years e.g. they had to write a sentence for each of the spellings in year 2 and had a reading sheet with comprehension questions to be answered, art, projects, as well as 2 maths sheets and reading books.

If your child wants to do the 20 minutes per day reading at home using another book, rather than the school one, I would just write that book in the reading record and put a note explaining they were not interested in the school one.

I laminated the 100 key words (important as they make up 70% of reading) in a table format, did them every night and when they recognised the word put a gold star on the square with the key word in it and they got an agreed treat when the whole chart was filled with gold stars.

I always used props to make the maths homework more fun such as raisins, cereal, pieces of pasta, fuit, money. For times tables I had a cd of times table songs linked to the props e.g. 2 groups of 7 raisins is 14. They used to have fun doing maths this way.

For spellings we used to sound out the words and then practise writing them and a recap the night before the test. As they become better at reading the spellings do get easier.

Sometimes if they were tired the night before or we had something on, we got up a bit earlier in the morning to do the homework or did maths sheets, projects at weekends.