who was the last person to have the wet fish?

[blackeyedsusan]

Need a slap round the face with it.

They have introduced these bloody learning logs, which require a lot of filling in. This means all the learning time at the weekend will be taken up with these damn things and there will be very little time to follow up our own learning opportunities and work at the full extent of her reading and maths which in reading at least does not happen in school. (chapter books at home, yellow band at school, working on the comprehension questions at home too) ( not sure what happens in maths at school, but last year she was having to repeat stuff she could do in nursery not just at home 1:1(just read through her nursery assessments again) )

The thing is she will benefit from practising writing.

It is me that is feeling the tyranny of school, (school run/packedlunches/homework/ guilt over absences due to illness) she loves school.

I just think that there are many more years to buckle down to school set homework and at 5.2 you should be pursuing your own interests out of school. Children are already supposed to read everynight+"do words" which we pay lip service to by reading the book once, having a half hearted chat about the context or whatever and a quick flick through the words, before reading something else a little more challenging. We are doing less of that though now she is in year one and there is less play and more work.

I think I am just being contrary and grumpy and probably would prefer to home educate if circumstances allowed, except they don't and dd benefits from school... which is where the wet fish comes in.

Please talk some sense into me and help me feel better about the whole thing.

[Iamnotminterested]

...learning time at the weekend? What do you get her doing?

[mrsshears]

removes wet fish from round own face and hands to susan

[blackeyedsusan]

Iam not interested actually your post is really helpful. we do not do a lot in terms of time. it is just that we have 2 2hour slots when her brother is asleep and need to fit in free play/tv watching/computer time that is not interupted by a small boy snatching/pushing and homework has to be fitted in that 2 hours too. it will get better with time as ds gets older. (also access visits curtail the time)

mrs s. i put extra words in her envelope to practice. they are words she couldn't read from her book. (flat stanley) we are also learning the meanings as there are quite a few she can not explain. (school words are from the list of first 100 words that she could read 1.5 years ago and still keep coming every week) she reads her yellowe band book (the last 2 were word perfect, with expression and taking account of punctuation) (the other one she struggled with cecil and I now know we have missed this rule) she can talk about them too although they are still very repetitive. we then read one of her library books and discuss the plot/characters/setting etc.

some days we do a bit of maths to keep that ticking over. we have to fit physio/occupational therapy in too which sometimes involves handwriting.

these learning logs are going to be tortuous though it will be beneficial to get her to write. but I am worried that it will become a chore instead of a joy. i am all for a gradual introducton of homework further up the school... but oh my goodness she is still only 5.2 and has the social and emotional needs of a 5.2. i am trying to work out the consequences of not doing the homework. the task that was set and we missed is stuff we have talked about regularly, but not recorded. we will just have to see how it goes.

[iggly2]

2 hours is a lot of time.Does a school really set that much . DS is year 1 age as well and the reading is over veryquickly (we do not really discuss it) and he just reads what he likes. Spellings (approx 10 words) he tests himself . Maths (yippee) now approaching the appropriate time. So all over by weekend (where noisy, mucky, active play can rein).

[iggly2]

What is the log on?

[blackeyedsusan]

2 hours is the window of opportunity we have to work/play undisturbed whist ds is asleep and most of that is for dd to play in peace. the learning log comes home on a friday and goes back well, no-one has said when it is supposed too go back. last weeks homework was to write/draw/stick pictures in of the city. the sort of homework that is a faff. requires either access to the printer (temporarily out of action [technophobe remember!] ) or getting info from town. I think it would take an hour to research and do and on to of reading/words is too much.

reading /words we do in the car when we get home,then have a quick play in the (shared) garden. i could always be stroppy and write in what dd has learnt over the weekend.

iggly, thought your ds was older.

we do not get spellings, yet. (if they do do spelling the first 100 words, i will be able to reasobaly ignore those for a while, though will check she has not forgotten any) parents evening next week and i think I will ask whether the teacher actually checks she can read the words before they are given out and ask for the educational justification for the yellow band books?

[iggly2]

I do think research homework is a pain (only had the one set so far). Ds turned 6 start of October.

[blackeyedsusan]

oh damn and blast. the damn book has come home toniight. (she was absent on friday but there yesterday) there is no information as to when it is supposed to be returned. wwe had a quick stop by one of the areas suggested on the way home as we live 200yrds up the road. we definately do not have time to fill anything in as she has her occupational therapy to do

[blackeyedsusan]

a closer inspection of the homework book and accompanying letter have led me to go into school to see the teacher, who wasn't there (ppa time) the first line of the instructions say to read the learning objective, the letter says there will be a learning objective but the was no learning objective, an open ended task but no objective.

being a bloody awkard parent have chosen and written out relevant sections from ks1 programmes of study instead. [hgrin]