AIBU to not do homework with reception age DC?

I think ask your child's teacher what the expectations are and just do that.

If they haven't spoken to you about this, they are probably quite happy with what you are doing but I can see why you might want to do more if your child isn't on track or the gap with peers is widening.

Other parents might be doing more, or accessing the optional resources on the website, but that doesn't mean that you have to do it too.

Find out the expectations and work out a plan that fits in with your family's lifestyle.

And don't worry or feel guilty - your child is only at the very beginning of this long marathon, and has a lovely supportive mum. In the long run, they will be absolutely fine.

Oh and I never consider reading to be "homework". Reading is enjoyable unless you push a child to struggle through a book they can't manage. My kids were never reluctant to sit for a few mins to read their book.

I disagree with homework in primary school too. Never made my kids do it. They both did some homework in secondary. Not much but whatever was allocated which really was very little. They do enough during the day, they need downtime. If they are struggling with something in particular then I would have like to know so that I could support at home. But random homework for the sake of it. No. There was one teacher who tried to insist on it in primary and I didn’t support them. I told my child it was up to them if they wanted to do it or not. They tended to do it to please the teacher but I really didn’t agree with it.

Our school expect:
A reading book. Its short, intended to be at a level not too challenging and doesn't take long
One sheet a week with letter formation practise. It takes 5 mins max

The teacher suggests activities you can do with kids to explore maths concepts. Its play based - games, doing cooking to explore weights and measurements etc. These are easy & fun and I would guess most good parents are doing this stuff anyway.

Your DC should be reading the book to you. Not you to them. You point at each word and they read or sound it out. 10 mins every day. You might only do one or two pages. A full book could take over a week or so.

They need to learn to recognise the letters and words. You can discuss the picture to see if they understand the story. So point to xx so you can see if they are linking the letter. Eg C A T to a picture of a cat.

The rest is is about habit forming of doing a little something each day.

Don't worry and speak to her teacher after the holiday.

It depends on the school, the kid and the teacher in my opinion. My eldest needed more input from us, his teacher was quite inexperienced and I am pretty sure he is dyslexic like me. My youngest who is currently in reception has the most outstanding teacher, she is utterly fabulous, and he has picked up the phonics quickly so we don’t do any homework at home, not even the reading really. we aren’t fussed about early year targets, my genuine main concern is that he is settled into school, enjoys going and is confident and happy- then learning will come.

Your dd is keeping up. I’m in a class where around a third have not got a clue what is going on. This is the last few years of challenging behaviour from individuals. Evacuations, trashed classrooms. The list goes on. When you meet an 8 year old who can’t read and has zero working memory you do kind of wonder why the parents aren’t doing their bit.

My child struggles with tests. I want to build her confidence so we take up for opportunities given to us by her school.

My DD does a maths sheet, phase 3/4/5 phonics practice and reads her daily school book twice, every day. We also do a written piece on the book she's just read to practice handwriting.

Depends on the school and the child.

We get Maths and English since Year 1. Plus reading. I don't think it's enough. They've learnt very little at school, homework is where the teachers can differentiate more easily in terms of more challenging work.

No idea why anyone has a problem with apps. Mine started school free reading thanks to apps like "teach your monster to read" and have learnt languages to a decent level for their age on apps like Duolingo just because they were interested.

I agree with this. DS gets up to 3 reading books a week (they have to read them twice before they can change them). We don't use the apps much, other than the 'fun' one. I see them as one way to learn but not the only way. They are useful to motivate and support some children and for parents who aren't confident in how to support learning at home. We prefer to support in other ways.

Unnecessarily harsh. There's very little evidence in support of homework at this age.

Reception age children are still very young and not all of them are ready for much formal learning. Forcing homework that a reluctant 4yo doesn't want to do is unlikely to have long-term benefits.

DD's teacher told us this, congratulating us on all we'd been doing. We hadn't. As above DD was very reluctant to do much at home and we didn't push it. Turns out she'd told her teacher we had a homework schedule though. Fortunately the teacher has a sense of humour and roared with laughter saying she couldn't wait to tell the classroom assistant.

@CaptainMyCaptain

I had homework in the 60's in Primary School - Scotland.

They should be wrong their name correctly at this point in reception unless they have SEN but even then they would normally be able to along with lots of other words

Most find maths difficult so you really need to be on top of maths with all DC

Ask their teacher what is expected

www.kumon.co.uk/ try this centre very good especially when kids start young. Kumon centres there everywhere google check which centre is nearest to you.

I do input/intervention with my DS every day and he's classed as "low ability".

He isn't low ability, he's bright and intelligent but neuro-divergent, it's also looking likely that he's dyslexic, the school environment is not one where he thrives.

What so the school set your DC homework which they don't do and you wonder why they are falling behind

I agree you can tell the difference but extra doesn't need to be set homework. My child goes to an Outstanding school with excellent results. In reception, they are only expected to read at home. Parents are generally very motivated and engaged with their children though - my child writes shopping lists and birthday cards and reads menus. Spending time on Doodle Maths or Spelling Shed isn't necessary and nor is doing worksheets.

I'm in NI rather than England so the expectations may be a bit different. In P1 (reception equivalent) we had occasional homework to make a poster and by the end of the year we were getting a weekly reading book. We also had some numeracy stuff home.

DD was getting on fine in school but very reluctant to do much at home. We didn't want school to be a battle at that age and so we gently encouraged but never forced the issue. Her teacher confirmed that was the correct plan and seemed relieved she didn't have to talk us down about it.

This year in P2 suddenly she's all over it and has come on leaps and bounds. I think she was just a bit immature for formal learning last year.

I'd speak to her teacher about your concerns - the teacher may not be worried at all. School at this age is about so much more than the formal learning so if she's making progress academically but also going in happily, making friends, managing her belongings etc then I'd say she's flying.

Get her to notice letters and short words on signs when you're out and about. Do simple counting exercises as you go about your day. But mainly don't get overly anxious.

It depends a lot on how your child is doing - easily managing the extension work, then no I’d just do the reading (because they don’t read for fun in school).

But you say your child will struggle to achieve expected targets by the end of the year, and assuming no SEN, I’d suggest some extra work at home might help reinforce what they are learning in school. I wouldn’t spend hours on it, but I’d do 10-20 mins a day.

I wouldn’t do the ridiculous make-work topic projects, unless your child actually wants to do it.

It's a bit of a catch 22. I strongly disagree with U.K. starting age of 4, but if you're in it, it's best to try to have the child keep up as it can start to effect their self esteem if they become conscious of falling very behind. Just ten minutes a day. U.K. system invests so much time in assessment/reporting/grouping from age 4. It really affects a child's relationship with learning, as I feel many 4 year olds are square pegs being squeezed into round holes - when they'd be organically round by age 6/7 anyway - parents stressing out when teacher has negative feedback that's often related to it just being too bloody soon. Also, whether or not homework is "needed" depends hugely on the calibre of teaching and teacher-child ratio in my view. Add to this that not every child can learn effectively in a class of 30, and it leads me to believe a bit of homework can be a bit of a safety net.

I can tell the difference between a child who does extra at home to a child who doesn’t. Most children can get by but in classrooms these days there is so much missed learning. I do extra with my dd. That’s only since working at a school though.