Sooooo fed up with homework

[fircones]

I have a year 5 child and the homework is driving me nuts. 3 pages of reading comments, literacy, numeracy (sometimes something else) and a task.

I'll brace myself - what's normal!

[stargirl1701]

Withdraw your child from homework. It's your right.

[fircones]

I don't mind some and the school set and mark it regularly but it seems to have increased in quantity and it is taking my child ages. I'm trying to work out what is a reasonable amount and how much time should it take.

[IndigoBell]

Is that per week or per night? That seems pretty normal for a week.

The actual (out of date?) govt advice is 30 minutes per day.

Directgov: Homework

[fircones]

It's per week. So three and a half hours a week. Well it is taking longer - probably because I'm doing a thorough check before it goes in.

It has got to the stage where we are not having so many friends over for tea and my child is 9!

Ho hum.

[crazygracieuk]

Why are you checking it? You should hand in your child's work whether it's right or wrong so the teacher knows if your child understands the work or not.

[fircones]

Well as a result of parents evening! Bright child - coasting. I'm trying to encourage self editing. I've always stood back as you say it is their homework but at the moment things need a push. I need to do more than I used to with the usual stories and reading and keep an eye as progress is not as it should be. So I can do nothing or work to improve things. But with homework taking a long time it is taking over too much.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

When you say your child is coasting, does that mean coasting to the extent of actually falling behind? Or coasting as in not doing quite as well as they might do if they really pushed themselves?

Is 3.5 hours a week on homework actually helping them to stop coasting, or just making family life miserable?

Unless they are actually getting behind in a worrying manner, I'd be inclined to stop checking it, set a sensible time limit on what is done and let it be handed in. Or concentrate on making sure one piece of homework is done really well and not worrying too much about the others.

(Caveat - am speaking from my experience as a "bright child" who coasted all the way through primary school and then went to Oxbridge. There were also certain teachers that never got any decent homework from me at secondary, but my mum didn't know that ).

[workshy]

3.5 hours in year 5???

my dd gets
20 maths questions
20 spellings

learning log (find out about x,y or z and present your findings)

maths and spellings are every week, learning log they get 10 days to complete it

[grumpypants]

I hate the learning log so much. Give me a list of sums for them to work through any day.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Just realised I didn't answer the "what's normal" question. DD1 is in Yr5 and gets a piece of maths (e.g. 20 problems) and a piece of literacy (e.g. some creative writing or comprehension) every week. Plus a major project each half term - most recent one being a 3D model of a world river, with information booklet. And reading every night, but she doesn't have to write about it - just note what she's read.

People moan about the projects, but I think they are way better than having an extra topic-based homework each week - you can choose whether to spread the work out or have an epic session at the weekend and finish it.

[mankyscotslass]

DS1 is YR5, he gets 5 lines of writing on a Monday, Guided Reading homework on a Thursday (usually a detailed writing task, but sometimes drawing a picture/story map), and on a Friday he gets a double sided maths sheet to complete.

He changes his reading book whenever he wants.

This is at a very pushy school - I think what he has is a lot, any mnore and I wouold be objecting.

[hardboiled]

OP, that seems a lot to me. DS is in year 5, in a pushy state primary, top set, weekly homework:

• maths 30 min
  
• literacy (comp or writing) aprox 30-40 min.
  
• ten spellings for a test: 5 min.
  
• free reading for pleasure, not monitored or recorded, as much as he wants.
  

Plus once in a while, a topic project over 2 or 3 weeks, in which case he gets less of the other.

[fircones]

Hmm we are reading each night, maths, literacy, reading log - page a comment and sometimes a 'task' + sometimes something else, the odd holiday project.

We've had our first parents evening bump. bright child could do better stuff. I've been okay about progress but I can see it is not what it should be both in term of the work I see and the levels at the moment mostly writing.
So I'm trying to make sure what homework there is, is done well.

I'm not really pushy but I am concerned about the amount of progress or lack of it. I am trying to bolster at home what I feel should be taking place at school. I want to support school but I'd rather there was less homework done well than the amount we have, which to do it well takes hours. This seems like pushing things too much our way. I'm not a teacher.

Lucky my child takes this - they are articulate, read because they want to - the whole lot does not add up at the moment.

[FebreezeYourJeans]

My DD is year 4 she gets;

Monday 30 mins maths
Tuesday Science, usually worksheet 15 mins ish
Wed Comprehension 40 mins ish
Thurs 12 spellings to learn, including writing each word in a sentence to show understanding (for test on Monday so have weekend to complete)
Fri 'Topic' based homework for the weekend , approx 1 hour

In addition she should read every night, not necessarily aloud, and update her reading log.

[PrincessTamTam]

Bugbear alert!!

There is FAR too much homework in my DCs primary (high performing state), they are now giving loads from yr 1 on apparently. I had a major bugbear with this when my oldest ones were there, they just don't need that much, it screws up family life and uses precious time with parents/siblings at weekends. Time that is so important at this age.

It is true that you don't have to do the homework, but my DCs always felt bad if they didn't. In the end I decided to do no more than 1 hour over the weekend and if they hadn't finished, they stopped.

They have YEARS of homework ahead of them (which they really must do) in secondary school, it's ridiculous to make young children do all this unnecessary work. I had no homework at all at primary school and it had no impact on my secondary education. Children should be playing and relaxing at home, not getting stressed over homework - as should their parents!

[fircones]

Goodness - lots of children doing lots of homework. Yes to some but NO to lots. Not enough play time - proper play!