Homework for 5 year olds

LilElvis

foolofbeans wrote: »

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.

Last summer, at the end of Reception, I bought a set of 33 books from the Biff, Chip and Kipper phonics series - about £20 from Amazon. We have lots of books to read together, or for me to read at bedtime, but it was definitely helpful for my daughter to continue practicing and stretching her phonics ability. She now also chooses from these to read to herself before "lights out".

clairec79

My 5 year old has a reading book and a worksheet each weekend, thats it

maman

missbiggles1 wrote: »

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

Don't knock it. It was all happening in the Village with Three Corners!:rotfl:

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.

ViolaLass wrote: »

There is no evidence in the OP that she is falling behind, only that she is behind in the first place from being a younger child.

I believe there is evidence that some summer birthday children struggle but it's improved since most children now start school in the autumn term (instead of whichever term they're going to be 5). However, that's the peer group OP's child is going to be in until she's 18 so if she's falling behind for whatever reason then she needs help both at school and at home.


If the post was reversed and OP asked what to do because her DD was struggling I'm sure the advice would have been to talk to the teacher. The teacher might then have advised additional practice at home. You'll never please all of the people all of the time!

mumps

maman wrote: »

Don't knock it. It was all happening in the Village with Three Corners!:rotfl:

I did Janet and John books, oh the perfect English family in the 1950s. My older kids did Fluff and Nip, can't remember the name of the books but Fluff and Nip were very important characters. My GC do all sorts, at least 6 different schemes, the only ones they seemed to like were the magic key ones.

I believe there is evidence that some summer birthday children struggle but it's improved since most children now start school in the autumn term (instead of whichever term they're going to be 5). However, that's the peer group OP's child is going to be in until she's 18 so if she's falling behind for whatever reason then she needs help both at school and at home.

Don't you think they sometimes just need time? I am a volunteer at a local school and do reading every week with a group of children. Most of that group, say four of them, made virtually no progress with reading in reception and year 1, two of them suddenly made a lot of progress in year 2 and then in year 3 the other two did.

It has been really interesting watching them, some of them, now year 4, have a higher reading age than children who were considered good readers in reception and year 1. The only additional help they have been getting at school is ten or 15 minutes a week reading to me and some of that time we are chatting about the book and two of them get virtually no input at home if their home/school diary is to be believed. I don't think reading should just be mechanical so I try to engage them but with some of the reading scheme books it is very hard. The other two in the group were ahead of the other four and have maintained their progress but no sudden leap. As their teacher has said to me many times learning to read is a bit of a mystery.

If the post was reversed and OP asked what to do because her DD was struggling I'm sure the advice would have been to talk to the teacher. The teacher might then have advised additional practice at home. You'll never please all of the people all of the time!

My younger two started at 8 and 9, one well ahead of her peers one behind his. Within 12 months with no additional input he had moved from the bottom table to the top table. I am so glad no one pushed him at 4 or 5, it happened to one of his friends who ended up needing psychiatric support, left school at 16 and messed about for a few years before decided he wanted to go to university so signed up for an access course and is now doing well at university. He was at a very pushy pre prep and at 8 I think wasn't able to move on to the prep school as he wasn't doing well enough and failed the exam. It is lovely to see him doing so well now.

By the time they are settled in at senior school and getting ready for external exams they have to conform to expectations for their age but at 4 or 5 it should be child led and if the OPs little one is too tired for homework every night then it just isn't going to be positive.

On a positive note I heard somewhere, can't remember where, that summer babies who go on to A level tend to do better than their peers.

susancs

foolofbeans wrote: »

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.

OP, if homework for your 5 year old is taking an hour after school each day, that is too much. I would sugguest that you talk to the class teacher and I am sure that she will sugguest that you do as much as you can in a set short time period and continue daily reading as you have been.

Nicki

An hour a day sounds like a lot given what you have said has been set!

My Year 1 child is also struggling to keep up with his peers. He gets a reading book every other day, and an English worksheet which contains 10 words which he has to read, then spell and then pick 4 out of 10 to put into a sentence. His maths worksheet is 2 pages. The worksheets come home every weekend. In all holidays he has a project.

Even as a working mum, reading his school book, discussing it and filling out his diary takes maximum 10 minutes per book. The worksheets are done at the weekend and take 15-20 minutes each. The projects take a lot longer but he enjoys them.

Having been worried about him because he was slow to learn to read, I really like doing his homework with him because it is reassuring to me to see how much improvement he makes week by week.

No way though would I make him spend an hour a day doing homework but equally as your school doesn't seem to give out much more work than my child's does I can't understand why it is taking you and your child this long every day!

FenellaWitch

From a personal point of view, I do not think 5 year olds should have formal homework. My 5 year old does have homework but nowhere near as much as some of your children have but trying to engage him after a 6 hour school is nigh on impossible however "fun" I try to make it. He does not want to do it and doesn't even try which ends up with us both stressed. It really isn't worth it.

We read with him every night - classic children's books like Treasure Island. He can't read it but enjoys the story and asks lots of questions about it which I believe is a good thing . The teacher has even told me that he finds the school reading books boring but I do get him to read these as I have to. He has lots of unstructured learning incorporating maths , spelling and he enjoys this because he doesn't see it as work.

At the end of the day, these are still very young children and should be enjoying their childhood. I am all for learning but not foe the sake of meeting targets etc.

pigpen

I don't see the preoccupation with the word 'tests' .. they aren't like formal exams, they are basically end of year/term assessments which teachers have ALWAYS done.. I remember doing them nearly 40 years ago at primary school.. How else are the next class teachers supposed to know what level the children are performing at as a baseline for planning next years lessons? I have certificates and prizes which I got from primary and junior school for doing very well in my assessments/tests/exams, whatever word you use.. they weren't any different to the work we did in class and they were far from stressful.. None of my children have batted an eye an any stage they just got on with it. it is worth keeping in mind that the only way to assess a teachers ability to teach effectively is to assess the childrens knowledge and progress which is what the formal testing is actually for.. better than incompetent teaching! You can at least be assured that the teachers are performing at a minimum standard which previously you couldn't. I understand why teachers might find it stressful but not the children.

They simply changed the names and have the staff record the information in a different manner.. they results used to be logged in an exercise book.. now they are done on a computer and uploaded to Lord knows where.. they are still just the same in essence.


Some September children struggle too.. and some January ones.. it isn't fair to say August children struggle.. they don't all any more than Autumn babies fly through school. My March Born son and my January born son both really struggled. My January son still struggles at 20! My August daughter is doing as well now as my January child was at 10.

mumps

pigpen wrote: »

I don't see the preoccupation with the word 'tests' .. they aren't like formal exams, they are basically end of year/term assessments which teachers have ALWAYS done.. I remember doing them nearly 40 years ago at primary school.. How else are the next class teachers supposed to know what level the children are performing at as a baseline for planning next years lessons? I have certificates and prizes which I got from primary and junior school for doing very well in my assessments/tests/exams, whatever word you use.. they weren't any different to the work we did in class and they were far from stressful.. None of my children have batted an eye an any stage they just got on with it. it is worth keeping in mind that the only way to assess a teachers ability to teach effectively is to assess the childrens knowledge and progress which is what the formal testing is actually for.. better than incompetent teaching! You can at least be assured that the teachers are performing at a minimum standard which previously you couldn't. I understand why teachers might find it stressful but not the children.

They simply changed the names and have the staff record the information in a different manner.. they results used to be logged in an exercise book.. now they are done on a computer and uploaded to Lord knows where.. they are still just the same in essence.


Some September children struggle too.. and some January ones.. it isn't fair to say August children struggle.. they don't all any more than Autumn babies fly through school. My March Born son and my January born son both really struggled. My January son still struggles at 20! My August daughter is doing as well now as my January child was at 10.

The issue isn't about if children have tests or assessments or whatever it is about if it is right to pressure a child about the tests. This mother is being told the child needs to do more work for the test, not for the child's benefit.

When people talk about summer babies being at a disadvantage they are talking about averages not every individual child.

Nicki

Statistically speaking a child who does not achieve at least a level 2 (be that 2a,b or c) by the end of KS1 will not achieve level 4 at the end of KS2 and will lag behind for the remainder of their school careers. This is why teachers (and head teachers) do not like to see children (who do not have identified special educational needs) fail to meet level 2 by the end of year 2. Having a "long tail" (a number of children who missed level 2) also affects the outcomes for the whole class right up to the end of year 6 as although work is of course differentiated if there are a lot of kids doing badly, the brighter kids don't get the attention they also deserve.

So there is nothing wrong in my opinion (speaking as someone with about 12 years experience at governor level in analysing results) in trying to give the kids who just need a bit more practice to master concepts a little more of a push when younger as statistically speaking it will pay dividends for the whole class in the end. Kids with special educational needs which doesn't seem to include the OP's daughter are different and need extra in school support.