Absolutely, VanillaPumpkin. And what about parents who are illiterate so can't help their children? There's a serious equality of opportunity problem here.

I was pondering this last night. Dd1 has just started reception, last week. We have already had a lot of worksheets come home. They are not homework as such as I don't think they have to be returned, and they are quite fun to do, but I did find myself wondering when on earth a working Mum would manage to find the time to do these with their dc between dinner bath and bedtime (at 6.30 for my exhausted dd1). I suppose there is the weekend of course but actually we didn't manage to find the time to do two single page letter worksheets this weekend and I am a SAHM. I hope I am more organised by the time the real homework starts!

I would never actually do their homework for them (not much point), but I do find I need to be around as an enforcer, and for dd (11) I need to do quite a bit of extra explaining in maths, as she missed a whole term last year due to some silly idiot putting her set in the classroom at the top of the stairs she is disabled) and failing to provide any teaching for her. So she is now in her SATS year, minus one term of maths+the 5 weeks she was in hospital last term. I could spend my energy suing the school for their lack of access, but I've decided it is better spent on ratios and protactors.

megalegs my ex has a maths phd, I could forward the problem to him for perusal

problem is he lives in Barcelona so I don't know when/if he'll respond

ds1 is only 4, his (private) reception class already gives him reading and writing homework. He tries to get me to do the writing for him and his teacher told me a lot of the other parents are actually doing that!! incredible!!

Has anyone worked out how I can explain the way I arrived at the answers for DS2's maths hw further down this thread yet? Then I can help him work out the other 4 problems on the sheet without telling him the answer but rather how to find the answer himself.

Also, what is the concept being taught do you think. (Missed his teacher this morning )

oh ok we're talking about MATHS hw!

No the idea is you sit there and tear your hair out

The aim is obviously to put hairdressers out of business. I think they fail to teach it at school (because it's weirdo NEW MATHS) and so they hope you'll do better at home

I often find with my DS's homework (yr 3 and 4) that they can't just be left to sit and do it. More often than not, they need a lot of supervision and input from me or DH. Quite often a lot of what comes home is clearly something that they're going to need a lot of help with and I find myself thinking what's the point of sending home work that the parents are obviously going to have to do?

in senior school i think kids should be able to get on with it and ask your help

when i cant help - and they dont know what to do.

i write in homework diary - i cant do this and ds/dds instructions were not clear. we did attempt it so i dont think a detention is deserved!

Oh thanks Megalegs - will the Anderson shelter have to be life-sized? I will have to get my father to come down for a visit as he spent many a night in one during the War.Perhaps I will have to start on it now as year 6 is only 3 years away.
Have to say that dd's teacher this year is giving more of the type of homework I like - this week's is a paragraph of incorrect comma use which they have to correct.She can do this entirely under her own steam and ask me if there is anything of which she is unsure.

Oh the games - my heart sinks at the games. DS1's teacher has children similar age to mine, she goes easy on the hw and never gives them holiday homework. I heart her

Hey fourboys - I too have four boys - fun isn't it.

I'm on a mission to get DD1 learning to do it herself (only Yr1, so trying to set up some good, sanity-preserving habits).

BUT they keep sending home jolly "here's a game you can play with mummy in order to learn some thinly-disguised mathematical concepts" worksheets.

We have plenty of games at home, thanks, and most of them are decidedly more exciting and educational than anything that emerges from Orange Class.

Thankfully, DD1 lost interest in the last one just before I started climbing up the walls. Checked she had understood the concept "duh! Yes, of course mummy" and called it a night.

I hate homework! felt the same when I was at school!
My boys all appear to require my input but i'm finding it increasingly hard to help as my yr6 ds is doing things beyond me! dh is great with maths thank god! I'd be up a creak without a paddle on my own!!!! Tonight my two eldest ds rolled their eyes at eachother when they realised dad was out on maths night! and ds3 shouted 'whey hey i'm alright ive got art!' What im going to do when all four hit secondary I dont know!!!

I agree, I think primary school homework is set to torment parents, and a complete waste of time at that age AND I'm a teacher

Couldn't agree more. I get sick of doing homework for reception, y2, y6 and y7. Especially because my dd's think I'm thick!

troubleshoot - tis the wine!!

Are you secondary though MB?

DS2's teacher is a great teacher but she has returned to the infants after many years teaching Y4. I think they are using her to 'troubleshhot' a tricky class and it's working.

I admire her, she isn't afraid to stretch the children and DS2 is thriving on it. I just wondered if my perception at what hw is for was wrong?

I teach and my view is 'It is their homework not mine'

Often homeweok that I set it to check understanding of something that we have done in class. I'm not interested in knowing if the parents can do it, I want to know if the kids can do it!

DS's usually get worksheets which they are able to complete independently quite easily. They are 8 and 10 now, but other than insisting they sit down and get on with it, we rarely get involved at all with this sort of homework, and haven't done since they were 5 or 6. We certainly don't sit with them or check their work.

They do have project-type homework or games, or occasionally something they decide to strop about, and then we do get more involved. I also still listen to ds2 read and sign his book.

I've bored you all off my thread haven't I never mind. I think the solution might be to talk to the class teacher, get a copy of this terms plans for maths so I can see where she is coming from. Still this does not alleviate from my inital bugbear, that is, in a perfect world my boys would sit at the kitchen table silently doing their homework whilst I flit about cooking tea and drinking wine.

Right, DH doing bedtime. DS1 is in Y3, he has maths and literacy hw each week, officially 20 mins of each but the literacy usually takes him 5 mins (tonight he had to correct the spelling mistakes in a letter from baby bear to Goldilocks.) He need very little help although always check it as he is prone to careless mistakes. Maths nearly always a game which he plays with DS2 at kitchen table whilst I cook etc..

DS2 has literacy which he usually manages with a little guidance or spellings to cover, copy write etc.. Maths though is always very tricky. He is good at maths and we usually get there. The problem I have is that I find it hard to explain a concept to him in the same way that he has learnt about it at school, also I feel I shouldn't have to, the hw should be extending or reinforcing whatever concepts are being taught at school that week surely.

Tonight we did this:

Add pairs of numbers in the group below to make three new numbers. Each number in the group can be used only once. The three new numbers are one apart from each other.

The numbers in the group are:

8 2 7 9 3 4

Write the three new numbers in order.

Explain how you worked them out.

I We worked out that the missing numbers were 10 (8+2) 11 (7+4) 12 (9+3), (actually I started DS2 off with 8+2 and he did the rest but how would you explain how you worked it out.)

I'm sure it's blatantly obvious and I shall be getting my coat in a bit but with 3 doing hw and DS4 clinging, whingeing or flooding bathrooms it's not easy.

That was just question 1.

I loathe art homework, where we always have to provide "textured materials" or similar stuff......

Yes I do. Minimal intervention if help asked for. But it's their homework, not mine. However, if my primary aged children are tired then I have occassionally almost done it for them or told them to leave it.
I don't think I've seen more than a passing glance of my secondary aged children's homework. Have had some interesting conversations about work they've done in school that's related.

We have to practically do DS's!!

I think a lot depends on the age of the child. At infants school level (ie. reception, keystage 1) a parent has to sit with their child to make them do their homework in many cases. As children get older they get more independent.

My son does his home work in the kitchen, I am often doing something else as well as keeping an eye on him. I find the use of cooker timer helps prevent him from day dreaming. It also helps to see if he is really stuck or just being really lazy.

He he as done absolutely nothing after half an hour, then I do not let watch any TV or play on the computer for the rest of the evening. I don't make him sit for any longer.

Have popped back in the post tea/pre bath hour of lunacy (I just let them get on with it). I showed Dh DS2's maths and asked him to explain how he worked out his answers. DH pondered this for a few mins and then replied "in my head". Give me strength. Will return after dishwasher loading.

Idling - the model making is yet to come, friends DD had to make an Anderson shelter in Y6.

Glad I'm not wannabe tonight though Blu.

Blu: have asked mumsnet HQ for that to be quote of the week

i dont agree with parental involvement with homework - esp coursework!

A MN-er wrote an article for the Times on 'homework for parents' and used my antics making an iguanadon costume for world book day as an example!!

here is poor Wannabe's homework challenge!

Blu I've splattered tea all over my keyboard . (was it not you who caused me to ruin a keyboard on that buggy thread? if so, please stop making me laugh)

Well our junior school insists on parents working with children - the whole point being to get us involved.

'We' have just got top marks for a project and I am feeling very validated

tbh they would get nonsense from dd if left to it.

See, homework is now defined as something that a child sitting alone can accomplish as long as his Mum and 11,000 MN-ers with a variety of professional experience in everything from astro-physics to Sanskrit poetry are on hand to help as they get the tea on.

As I am not busy with tea (dd round at a friend's house) I will sympathise. IMO, homework should be something dd can sit down to do by herself at the kitchen table asking me the occasional question should she need to. It should NOT be ''make a model of your house'' (cue competitive parents making one with real miniature bricks), ''make a model of a London Landmark'' or ''make a model'' of ffing anything!!! Can you tell that I am not keen on model-making?!

Megalegs - it's because everyone is helping Wannabe with her emergency 'design and build from scratch an engine of propulsion' homework that her 5 year-old has to give in tomorrow - presumably after sitting alone and geting on with it by himself!

Yes I think they it should be an extension of something they have done at school that day.
Never seems to be though.

I've done my usual thing of posting at tea time.

I will return later with an example of DS2's maths hw and perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how to enlighten him.

Or should it be the case that you sit with them, quietly tearing your hair out because they don't understand what they are meant to do.

I thought that hw was an extension of what had been learnt at school and so should be something the child can sit and do without lots of help.

Tonight I have almost come to blows with DS2 who utters the imortal "I don't geddit." before I've even begun explaining his, to be honest, bloody difficult Y2 maths hw.

DS1 on the otherhand (Y3) tears through his in 5 mins and then always has a bloody maths game that needs two or more players, a dice, a pack of playing cards, a roulette table, a troupe of acrobats,a herd of elephants etc...