Homework for 5 year olds

Spendless

Mine are now in yr8 and yr11 and I don't remember them having as much homework in the Infant school years.

They had a reading book, but that was changed every few days not daily. They were allocated a 'reading colour' and you picked books from that allocation as these books contained words suitable to their current reading ability. Every few weeks their class teacher would assess where they were with reading and either keep them on the same colour scheme or move them up to the next one.

I remember being given the 30 words all in one chunk for my eldest, because my friend 'invented' something to help and the school developed her idea. What my friend did was print a few words onto card and laminate it and put it on a key-ring. When she showed school they loved it, but changed it so you have just one word on a card but several of these cards go on the key-ring. Once that particular word is felt learned enough, it/they get changed. It breaks down learning words into sizeable chunks, which I think understandable. If you were learning a play, you wouldn't learn all your lines in one go, you'd do it a bit at a time. Also you can give the child the word key-ring in places you go to, sitting in the car/in the supermarket trolley etc. I fixed a novelty character to mine, to keep DS interested in looking at it.

Homework in the hols though, is a bugbear of mine. Sorry! We get a gazillion threads about how kids shouldn't be taken out of school for a term time holiday, not even to miss half a day because everyone 'should go during the school hols' and then kids get given homework in them. I don't like it for my 12 year old, never mind a five year old. My older one taking his GCSE's is a different matter.

GwylimT

I'm the wrong side of forty and we had homework from reception onwards (which in our case was three years of age).

I wouldn't particularly class reading, spellings and basic maths homework, as whether it is set or not, parents should be doing those things regularly with their children.

My daughter started year two this year, in year one she had a reading book each week (colour coded for different abilities), spellings, handwriting sheets and maths. Each homework was differentiated, when you were able to move up a level you got a certificate and a sticker.

Now she is in year two a lot of homework is based around problem solving, so she has to work out how many people she can invite around for tea without anyone going without a plate etc. She also has a bus timetable and she needs to work out which bus she needs to catch to get to x for a certain time (involves two changes). We did that one last night, so today she wants to go to the bus stop to see what bus she would need to get to the cinema for 2pm. Her book this week is a blast from the past, Biff, Chip and Kipper!

Jagraf

GwylimT wrote: »

I'm the wrong side of forty and we had homework from reception onwards (which in our case was three years of age).

I wouldn't particularly class reading, spellings and basic maths homework, as whether it is set or not, parents should be doing those things regularly with their children.

My daughter started year two this year, in year one she had a reading book each week (colour coded for different abilities), spellings, handwriting sheets and maths. Each homework was differentiated, when you were able to move up a level you got a certificate and a sticker.

Now she is in year two a lot of homework is based around problem solving, so she has to work out how many people she can invite around for tea without anyone going without a plate etc. She also has a bus timetable and she needs to work out which bus she needs to catch to get to x for a certain time (involves two changes). We did that one last night, so today she wants to go to the bus stop to see what bus she would need to get to the cinema for 2pm. Her book this week is a blast from the past, Biff, Chip and Kipper!

I used to quite enjoy this part of my DDs schooling - little projects you could do together. That sounds lovely.

missbiggles1

Jagraf wrote: »

I'm not sure why any 5 year old woukd know the difference between reading a book for fun and reading a book for school. The same with writing. It can all be fun. What's wrong with a child completing a worksheet with lots of pictures on it? Fab experience for everyone.

My daughter went up three years in reading in year one (age 5 to age 8) - their minds are so open to learning in lots of ways.

All kids learning is "play" at that age.

Maybe some parents just find it a chore and they don't want the homework.

I'd agree in theory but the memory of listening to the reading of "Billy Blue Cap" still lingers.....

mumps

duchy wrote: »

Which is marvelous - however this child is already falling behind her peers . I'd imagine a nine year old or younger not in school got plenty of one to one learning -the fact any teaching was informal doesn't really matter- however this doesn't sound like anything like the OP's situation. I'm not seeing any suggestion that the OP is thinking of home-schooling.

I was answering a quote which seemed to be saying that pushing 4 and 5 year olds was the way to academic success. I was putting the other point of view that actually pushing young kids isn't necessary and it is by no means certain that it will achieve the best results. Just like not every child would respond to being allowed to do their own thing like my daughter, no plenty of one to one learning just playing and having fun, not every child is going to do well by starting school at 4, having 6 hours in school every day and then being expected to do homework.

By the way the OP doesn't think there is a problem, the school seem to be driven by passing tests which isn't particularly healthy at five, children mature and develop at different rates and if a child is a summer baby it is to be expected that they will be at a different stage to a child almost 12 months older. This evens out without pushing.

I think the school reading schemes can be pretty awful and most children that I know won't read them for pleasure. At my grandchildrens' school they seem to have the most comprehensive reading scheme I have ever seen, it is about six different schemes combined so on each reading level they have up to 40 books, now when I was at school we had one at each level, when my eldest two were at school they had 3 at each level. With the early books they can read one a night, not too bad but as they go on into say year 3 or 4 the books are longer and the pictures are gone. Children frequently don't finish the scheme because it becomes a nightmare to get them to read books that are boring and too young for them when they are quite happily reading something like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games in their own time for fun. They certainly know how to knock a love of learning and in particular a love of reading out of children.

mumps

Qtipps4 wrote: »

Homework has been researched many times and a benefit has never been found. Children at this age learn best through play and by parents fostering a love of reading and learning. Everyday tasks provide opportunities for this not sitting writing in a jotter or worksheet. There's plenty of time for all that.

This is so true. There was a series on radio 4 last year about education and they had different speakers every week. One was an American guy who had set up schools and trained teachers, he said homework is for parents because parents think its the sign of a good school. His schools were in tough areas and his kids were out performing kids in private schools. I wish I could remember his name.

mumps

Spendless wrote: »

Mine are now in yr8 and yr11 and I don't remember them having as much homework in the Infant school years.

They had a reading book, but that was changed every few days not daily. They were allocated a 'reading colour' and you picked books from that allocation as these books contained words suitable to their current reading ability. Every few weeks their class teacher would assess where they were with reading and either keep them on the same colour scheme or move them up to the next one.

I remember being given the 30 words all in one chunk for my eldest, because my friend 'invented' something to help and the school developed her idea. What my friend did was print a few words onto card and laminate it and put it on a key-ring. When she showed school they loved it, but changed it so you have just one word on a card but several of these cards go on the key-ring. Once that particular word is felt learned enough, it/they get changed. It breaks down learning words into sizeable chunks, which I think understandable. If you were learning a play, you wouldn't learn all your lines in one go, you'd do it a bit at a time. Also you can give the child the word key-ring in places you go to, sitting in the car/in the supermarket trolley etc. I fixed a novelty character to mine, to keep DS interested in looking at it.

Homework in the hols though, is a bugbear of mine. Sorry! We get a gazillion threads about how kids shouldn't be taken out of school for a term time holiday, not even to miss half a day because everyone 'should go during the school hols' and then kids get given homework in them. I don't like it for my 12 year old, never mind a five year old. My older one taking his GCSE's is a different matter.

When my first two were in reception they had a tin with words in. They were old tobacco tins so definitely not acceptable now but they would start off with five words and if they knew them another five would be added. I can't remember how many they ended up with. I used to make two sets of the words and we would play snap with them which seemed to really encourage quick recognition of the words.

I agree with you about holiday homework, two of my kids are teachers and by Christmas they needed the holiday never mind the kids. In her NQT year my daughter was told by her head of department that she was not to do any work over the Christmas, no marking, no lesson prep, nothing. We all need a rest he said and if that goes for the teachers I can't think why it wouldn't apply to five year olds.

Jagraf

There are so many ways for kids to learn and homework can be used cleverly - we are talking five year olds and for my daughter it was excellent and it helped her achieve brilliant results and it wasn't at all stressful. Rather than knocking a system, use it to your child's advantage depending on their learning style. It's an add on at that age and the kids don't even need to think about it being homework.

I can't see anything wrong with playing mental maths in the car, or having a smartie for every word attemped. And every child should read books. Isn't that what we are supposed to do with our children?

foolofbeans

Some great comments and useful tips on how to incorporate the learning into bite-sized pieces and ways to make it fun. Unfortunately it is hard to have bite-sized pieces when the amount of work adds up to almost an hour a day.
I am quite happy with the level my child is at as I believe in the Scandi model that learning should be through play. I want to support the teacher in helping my child to progress but when the teacher mentions her concern is that my child won't pass some meaningless government test that assesses the school and does not focus on the individual child then my motivation to assist wanes.
I thought the amount of work was quite excessive but I see from some replies that it is not far off the norm. I think the plan going forward will be to do continue reading daily and concentrate on the common words so as soon as the teacher sees my child knows them well that will be one less pile of work (although I suspect there will be another pile of words to learn thereafter).
One friend had carried on with the daily work throughout school holidays and found that their child who was behind at the end of term in July had caught up and even exceeded the classmates when returning in September. This seems another good idea to try.

Jagraf

FOB, have you thought about home schooling if you're not happy with the schools teaching methods ? I mean that sincerely (I was happy with my DD primary education so I didn't see an hour a night as an issue). If you are really concerned you may want to find a different approach - home schooling can be very successful.