How much work do you do with your yr1 child?

[lovecheese]

Following on from a previous thread. Do you do homework/reading/spellings and thats it, or extra maths or literacy workbooks, or(shudder) Kumon? State schools by the way. Just interested...

[suecy]

Y1 and Y2 kids here. Do stuff sent home from school.

Over and above that I try and encourage them to read books they choose themselves. Have some workbooks around, but would only really do those if they expressed an interest.

Do quite a lot of mental maths on car journeys, but try and turn it into fun stories instead of firing sums at them!

Cannot for the life of me imagine why Kumon would benefit a Y1 child!

[redskyatnight]

Reading every (most) nights.

Spellings every night Mon-Thurs (not from choice).

Some writing at weekends (as required by school - again not from choice).

DS is not keen so we do the bare minimum required.

Nothing that is not prescribed by the school.

[squashpie]

Hi Lovecheese, Yr 1 child - reading every night and double page of numeracy workbook. Would quite like to do spellings but don't feel they are his particular weakness (and don't think numeracy is most confident subject)and don't know when we'd fit it in either because my toddler begins to get a bit fed up after a while spent on his brother!

What do you do?

[lovecheese]

Reading most days, if no new school books then a library or home book eg. Treetops level 12/13, Jacqueline Wilson, Enid Blyton, information book, I let her choose;

Spellings practiced every day Mon-Thurs even if they are easy, think repetition is useful;

On days when we dont read we aim to do a couple of pages in a maths workbook relevant to what they are doing in class at the moment, or some bitesize or practical maths eg. counting money.

However, I too have a toddler to take into account and also an older DD to tackle, hence our time has to be organised (were talking x table practice on the walk to brownies).

[mummyinbeds]

Hi - Yr 1 child - reading every night. He chooses to do lists of sums he writes himself, under the duvet. If he's in the mood he will write sentences, unsupervised and after he's been told to go to sleep. He isn't given homework apart from reading
Reception child - reading every night. She will write lists as part of her role play.

I'm not sure when I'd have time to do anything else with them as I don't get home from work until after 6pm and then it's straight into the tea, bath, reading, bed routine. Both of them are doing really well and are in top groups without pressure from me to work at home.

[Devexity]

We don't do that much formal work at home. DS had freakazoid early reading skills, so has never had scheme books. About 3 times a week we spend half an hour silently reading a book together and I ask him comprehension questions at the end of paragraphs.

We talk about number facts, calculation strategies etc. on the way to and from the childminders or in the car or, often, at the supermarket. Practical and applied problem solving stuff. Science is the same.

We also do an awful lot of pretending inspired by whatever he's been reading about - rather too much pretending for this particular lazy mother. Over the Easter holidays we have been, variously, whale sharks, squires, crusaders, elements and history dragons (don't ask...).

[NoahAndTheWhale]

DS is in Year 1. We read some nights. He gets a piece of homework each week which we do.

I don't do anything else formal with him. If he is interested in doing something then we will do it - he is very into transport at the moment so has been looking up different vehicles and writing things about them. He also decided to draw all the Mr Men and write their names in appropriate lettering (ie Mr Skinny had very thin letters).

He will get interested in mental maths and so we do some. Maybe I am lucky in that I know he is doing very well at school and isn't struggling in any way. If he were then maybe I would do more things with him in a slightly more formal way, but I feel that time at home is the time to do what he wants to do, rather than having more of what he does at school.

[asdx2]

Dd 7 reads every night although usually her own books rather than school reading books.
No other formal schoolwork unless she chooses to do the voluntary homework worksheet provided (usually 1 in 3).
We do lots of game playing (orchard toys) lots of creative stuff and fit in numbers round daily activities like going to the shop, baking,playing bingo etc

[madwomanintheattic]

none.
she reads a lot anyway (has been free reader pretty much since starting yr r) and we often asks questions about number stuff. this morning she said 'i know what 3 x 60 is. i worked it out last night.' and was right - but ds1 decided to deconstruct how she did it and teach her some sort of partitioning thing... i'm pretty sure they're teaching each other tbh.

yr 1 does have an optional literacy homework once a week (about ten minutes worth) but usually we don't do it - it has really dumb stuff like writing words with all the consonants in capitals (or vice versa). i discussed it with the teacher, who knows that dd2 knows what a consonant/ vowel is, so agrees it's a bit of a waste of time. she does it sometimes if it is sentence stuff instead.

[rabbitstew]

We just do the homework given by the school. If my ds1 were struggling at school, however, I'm quite sure I would be doing workbooks with him, or doing something in addition to the work he is getting from school. Our ds1 needs more help with his physical skills, tbh (he has a connective tissue disorder), as the academic side of things comes naturally to him. For us, therefore, the priority is getting him to the playground, riding a bike or doing something else that will help with the physical side of his development. When left to his own devices, reading, maths and writing are on his self-entertainment agenda in any event.

[rabbitstew]

ps he does actually enjoy going to the playground, swimming and cycling! I've made it sound like some form of therapy we inflict upon him!

[Elibean]

Y1 dd here. We read most evenings, and do homework/spellings/maths set by school (once a week, and I aim to get it all done before the weekend).

She has a couple of literacy workbooks, which she can dip into when she feels like it (not often in term time, too busy!) and one maths one (never).

We look stuff up in books and on the computer, we dance, we do lots of nature-y stuff, and she does gardening club, swims and does dance/singing class each week. Plenty, for her, and IMO

[rainbowinthesky]

Dd does her spellings for a test. I choose her spellings for her from out of thin air. Seems pointless really.
We dont get hoem till late most nights so not much else durign the week.
She does mathletics at the weekend.

HAve done various work books until discovered mathletics.

She gets school books from Y2 library but she usually read her own books in teh evening- enid blyton etc.

[squashpie]

I'm interested by the number of state schools giving home work in Yr1. Our school doesn't give any homework until Yr 3, except reading. Weekly spellings come home in yr 2. That's why we do numeracy workbooks; not sure I'd do them in addition to homework, more to reinforce what goes on in the classroom, which is surely what homework is supposed to do.

[Builde]

Nothing other than read most nights.

However, my dd is pretty good at most things, plays happily and constructively and (since we don't have a tv) know that she is always not being turned into a zombie.

But, she is also a child that spends hours writing and drawing so would hate to interrupt her own learning with 'formal' stuff.

[CantSupinate]

I spent 90 min. last Sunday getting yr1-DS to write SIX (count'em, SIX) sentences in his 'Report on the Caribbean' book (on the plus side, I now KNOW how to spell Caribbean correctly).

Homework for 5 year olds is torture targetted at parents, I reckon.

[kitkatsforbreakfast]

Yr 1 ds here. He gets no homework bar reading. He reads with the teacher (or teaching assistant) three times a week minimum so reading at home would only supplement that. Luckily he is bright and a free reader so will read a chapter of book to himself at night (Astrosaurs is v popular at the moment)

He prefers to play after school, and I prefer it too.

[Wandaaa]

In reception DD had 10 flash cards twice a week, 2 reading books, 8 spellings and a worksheet. It was far too much. I agree with CantSupinate 'homework for 5 year olds is torture targetted at parents.' This year in year 1 she has one reading book and I don't instigate anything extra however she loves writing and makes her own books and in the car she often asks me to do 'numeracy' with her.

[cory]

I used to do roughly three reading sessions a week, not more. As a previous poster said, they have so much learning of their own to do. And a lot of the things that go on in your average home are very educational.

[gigglewitch]

another free reader here, we read to and with him every evening anyway so now it's more of a shared thing. They don't get 'homework' as such until yr3, but they bring occasional stuff home, probably about once a fortnight - some questions to ask us or grandparents (history!!) or something to draw or colour.

[GenerationGap]

This thread is the scariest and weirdest I've seen in a long time. This is year 1 children we are talking about, life is not a competition! If they are at school all day FGS let them chill out at home. If they are as 'bright' as you say they will be fine, if not the 'workbooks' 'spellings' 'projects' will just make them hate you. I had NO homework at primary school and managed to get a degree.

[rainbowinthesky]

Generationgap - lots of children enjoy doing school type work outside of school. Dd loves doing mathletics, writing, reading, spellings etc and asks to do them. Should I say no?

[wheelsonthebus]

BTW, can someone tell me what free reading is? I hear the term all the time but don't really understand it