To long for traditional homework?

[PeoniesandTulips]

Before Christmas, DD(5 y/o)'s homework was fine. They were given a weekly reading book and a little activity each day, which was always related to what she was doing in class. She knew it would take 5 minutes at the most and was quite happy to do it.

After Christmas, the school changed its homework policy and now we are given monthly 'Shared Home Learning Challenges' (current examples: make models, write a poem or a song, create a game). There are some good ones in there (e.g. find objects which start or end with a sound we have learned in class) but they are heavily encouraged/bribed with house points to complete the more complicated assignments. You can also only do each activity once for it to count

On the whole, it is so much work for parents. I love doing crafty things with DD, but having it assigned takes all the joy and spontaneity out of it.

Is it too much to ask for Maths on a Monday and Wednesday and phonics on a Tuesday and Thursday?!

[Itinerary]

I agree that maths and phonics homework are important too. But perhaps the school had received feedback from parents who didn't like the traditional homework and wanted something more creative?

[BackforGood]

Feedback your thoughts to the school.
When I've been involved with parents' forums, sometimes the staff have been quite surprised by feelings over things like this, and actually quite happy to either change back, or compromise (you'll never get the whole population agreeing over homework).