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Half-term homework - what have your DC been set?

45 replies

BooToYouToo · 31/05/2011 11:08

Silly me, there I was thinking how lovely to have a week off and planning play dates and days out. Then I looked in their book bags.

My DD (9) has to look at Shakespeare's work so we borrowed the box set of Shakespeare for children from a friend. So far she's read Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, As you Like It, and Othello. Don't think she's hooked "All he writes about is love, and one person dies then someone else kills themself" Smile

My DS (6) has to write about a fictitious town shown on a given map i.e name the road where the swimming pool is etc. Not bad. But then he has to look at a guide book for a town local to his school and write about it, groan.

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LindyHemming · 31/05/2011 11:22

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Tortoise · 31/05/2011 11:25

None of mine have homework over the holidays. Of course we can still do reading books but I don't make them read to me every day.

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seeker · 31/05/2011 11:25

None.

If I had a 6 year old with that amount of homework we probably wouldn;t do it.

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ScrotalPantomime · 31/05/2011 11:26

Erm I assume you mean synopses/story versions of Shakespeare? I'm 24 and I couldn't read all the plays that quickly...

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Bellie · 31/05/2011 11:28

we have one reading book and a book reveiw to do - year 2.

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munstersmum · 31/05/2011 11:29

DS age6, state primary, has to collect info/pics then short write up on 3 types of nocturnal animal.

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BehindLockNumberNine · 31/05/2011 11:30

That seems far to much for both of them.
Dd is 8 and has none. She rarely gets holiday homework unless it is an arty one - over easter she had to look at Kandinsky and create a picture based on his famous 'circles' picture. They could use paint, hamabeads, lego any medium they wished. Smile

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walesblackbird · 31/05/2011 11:30

My son has to create the rainforest Hmm.

They're going to be sorry when I take in a bucket full of earth, some plants dug up from the garden along with whatever wildlife I can muster (real or fake!!)

Might even scrape up some of the cowdung from the field behind the house Grin

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LindyHemming · 31/05/2011 11:31

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mankyscotslass · 31/05/2011 11:32

None for any of mine, not even the usual "collect things from where you have been these holidays" thing.

They even collected in all the reading books! Grin

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sarahfreck · 31/05/2011 11:32

Walesblackbird Grin go for it!!

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WoodRose · 31/05/2011 11:45

DD(yr 1) has her reading book to read. DS (yr 4) has to write an alternative ending to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Predictably, secret agents and a plot to take over the world feature heavily...Grin

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Aliz07 · 31/05/2011 12:00

DD (yr 6) has two maths sheets, to finish Anne Frank's diary and write a review of it and three sheets of literacy.

DS (yr 2) has to keep a diary for the week, two literacy sheets, learn his 3 & 4 times tables and design a pattern out of hexagons and pentagons.

I do get fed up with the amount they're given over holidays. It's supposed to be a break for them.

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LindyHemming · 31/05/2011 12:01

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SnowieBear · 31/05/2011 12:29

DS (Yr R) has his two weekly reading books, six new words to "learn", two short writing practice words, a measuring and recording project using his feet of things around the house, a fact finding project about India, America, Africa and somewhere else (my memory is going...) and has to select a photo or memento from a family holiday for the next show & tell.

And I'm working during this half term! He's not going to be delighted to spend the little time we'll have in the evening this week being badgered by mummy into doing homework. Desperately praying for the strength and imagination to keep it all light and fun!

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mungogerry · 31/05/2011 13:35

We are never given any during the big breaks between the terms; summer holiday, Christmas and Easter. We do have some most weekends (unless it has been a busy week at school or is about to be - e.g. Christmas play week) and we usually have a larger "project" for the half-term breaks.

DD is Y2 homework for the hols and the first week of the term is to "make a tudor house" there is "to be no limit to your creativity, and it would be great to see some with authentic thatched roofs" although they have included a printed sheet with instructions to make one from boxes for the creatively challenged. This is in prep for them studying the great fire of London after half term.

Upon reading her homework instructions dd asked "mummy what's a tudor?" then ran off to the study and hunted for a book on british history. She then googled (under supervision). It is fair to say she is hooked, and this morning asked me to take her to the library where she chose 10 books on the tudor period, and is upstairs right now researching. So far she has found out all about Shakespeare, has asked to go see a play, wants to get hold of some purple carrots, and has asked if we can make pottage for dinner. Oh, and thinks Henry VIII having 6 wives and what happened to them all is fascinating.

Tbh it would have been fine to spend 2 hours making and painting the house, but the fact that she has taken it and run with it herself is wonderful. I have only ever seen her this motivated by a few rare homeworks - making a peg doll, an island with a volcano, and making a the butterfly feeder. Guessing she likes making eh?

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sarahfreck · 31/05/2011 14:18

There's a free print-out to make a paper model of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre here [http://www.papertoys.com/globe.htm] though it would probably be too hard for most Y2s though. If you could photo enlarge it onto A3 very light card, it might be easier though?

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sarahfreck · 31/05/2011 14:19

Sorry www.papertoys.com/globe.htm of course!!

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squidgy12 · 31/05/2011 14:20

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LIZS · 31/05/2011 14:21

ds is revising for Common Entrance exams (he's 13 so Secondary age I suppose technically). dd has to find some photos of her at different ages and needs to practise for her music exam

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BooToYouToo · 31/05/2011 14:35

Euphemia and Scrotal - I don't have a child genius. The Shakespeare story books for kids are about 60 pages of very large type with pictures. Can easily be read in about 40 mins.

Mungogerry - great that your DD is so enthused. You mentioned studying the Great Fire of London next, does that mean all their creations will be going up in flames at some point?

Snowiebear - I thought my DC were overloaded until I learned about the fact-finding you have to do in YEAR R!

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LindyHemming · 31/05/2011 14:37

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TheOriginalNutcracker · 31/05/2011 14:40

Ds (8) has got to do a project on a sports personality. Ds hates sport, so combine that with writing and we will have garunteed tears.

Tbh it pisses me right off. They already get weekly homework, which ds hates but I make him do. I do not see the need for a project during a school holiday.

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gordongrumblebum · 31/05/2011 14:49

Why not get a trainer (or an old sporty t-shirt) and stick/staple facts all over it about the sports personality?
Or even a trainer box?

Sumo???? That would be different!

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TheOriginalNutcracker · 31/05/2011 14:54

Good idea, but unfortunatly we have been told it has to be set out like a proper project.

He has at least decided who he is doing, Tiger Woods Hmm

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