To not bother with weekly ‘busy work’ homework tasks?

I always made it a game with the kids.
we did bits on walks/ way to school.
It was a nice way to bond and I made it fun.
I like teaching though, and I’m the same at work, and people come to me for help with stuff/ new systems.

She’s 5 ffs.

I agree and as a PP said research shows is of no benefit at primary level.

I only ever did readers with mine in primary school. Two of mine are now at university and I can't say I think it ever affected them negatively.

It’s ridiculous. Me and my dh both work full time so we can’t fit in loads of homework for a 5 year old. Ds1 is in year 1. Were asked to help them with weekly spelling tests, maths, reading and writing. He’s doing really well so we’re fortunate we don’t have to push too much. We do some reading and he reads to us but that’s about it.

I am a teacher and I think that’s a ridiculous amount of work for a 5 year old. I wouldn’t complete it. The research shows homework at primary makes no difference. I only read with my oldest who just achieved 4 9s and 5x8s at GCSE so don’t be made to feel bad. Do what you think is best for your child. I think reading is really key, and I support my middle child with her maths because she finds it more challenging.

Genuine question but why? The homework is often literally set just to tick a box and to appease parents who think children should get homework. It doesn't actually benefit the children so why would you encourage someone to waste time at the weekend doing it?

Also the OP does not need a grip. It's fine to disagree with her approach but at least rationally argue why you think she should do the homework instead of just throwing out random insults.

homework set is supposed to be done independently

Just do the reading and spelling and don’t worry about the rest. Enjoy your evenings instead. Encourage playing, sports and helping at home. Life is too short to waste it forcing small children to do homework. Plus they don’t end up further ahead or better off for doing it! By the time they get to high school and need to do homework they’re old enough to manage it themselves.

Most homework is an absolute waste of time. Schools should stop trying to dictate to parents what they do in their time with their own children.

No way do I make my kids do extra school work when they get in. I don’t do extra work after office hours. I need to decompress, as do they. Our primary homework is optional.

Secondary is compulsory though, so eldest does their homework, but it’s their responsibility to decide when and manage their time effectively.

I completely agree

Homework is too much at this age, it's just homework for the parents!

And don't they overcomplicate it!

It should literally be: read a chapter of this book every night. Five minutes.

It's too much

I totally agree. At such a young age this additional homework serves no benefit and negatively impacts on a happy home and family life.

How long does it actually take? We’re all busy. We make time. It’s pretty rushed to be honest but I can’t imagine being so busy that THIS is the thing I decide to not do

Definitely don’t bother in year one, it’s an optional extra I think. Spellings and reading and times tables, fine, but just let the other stuff go unless your kid wants to do it.
They have clubs and music practice if they play an instrument. Plus they should be helping around the house a little bit, learning practical skills like cookery. Plus they have to rest!

I would say - get a grip. Do the homework, save it up to the weekend if needed.

YANBU
For many young, reluctant children spending years bullying them through homework that they lack the maturity to do is counter-productive to their relationship with learning.

After the deep emotional bruising of 6 months of Covid "home learning" with my y2-3 and y4-5 we just couldn't cope with school work in the home and the tedious, repetitive, dull sucession of grammar sheets and maths sheets week after week after week. The reading we did, whether it was them reading to me, me reading to them, or letting an audiobook take the strain when they were struggling. I didn't always fill the reading record as that was another joy-sucker, and reading should be as pleasurable as possible (especially with dyslexic children that struggled with it anyway)

Since y7, they have been fine. They now have the maturity to manage it themselves with a little gentle prompting. The tasks are also varied, purposeful, interesting and connected more directly to their learning in class.

Both of mine need a couple of hours to decompress after surviving a day of school (both have some extent of SENs), then there's sports activities/ scouting and the more severely dyslexic child goes to tutoring where he has specific work to address the gaps in his skills (far more useful than a generic homework worksheet). They've had to be older before they've had the time, energy and maturity to cope with it.

We've always been positive about learning in general life; it just wasn't to be found on a general worksheet sent home from the primary school.

A few posters have mentioned setting habits early... to us, it was a negative, harmful habit that caused too much distress and was counter-productive in the long term. They just weren't ready.

Rather than just not do it, I’d explain to the school your feelings on it. If enough people do so they may review the policy and do away with it! My daughter’s school did last year. She gets reading and from later in y2 a times tables rockstars login but that’s it. Oh they do put up some ‘busy work’ stuff online half termly but it’s optional and so ridiculously easy it’s a waste of time. Another school I worked in also made all homework optional.

My nephew is the same age as my daughter and gets loads. My sister gets really stressed making him do it cos he’s reluctant and finds academics tough.

Btw reading is valuable, my understanding is that spelling practise at home is generally not…they learn the words for that week then instantly forget. It seems like a valuable activity but I believe research suggests not.

I try as hard as I can but I can't keep up with it all. My eldest had reading, handwriting (because this is now a Y5 thing?) and 26 modules (each one roughly equivalent to a one page worksheet) on their online home work system. We both work full time, there are music and swimming lessons to fit in and they do need some time to decompress at some point. Occasionally we absolutely don't have time to fit it in and school will have to accept that.

I think it is more about habit setting in key stage one than anything else, I do think it’s worth doing for that. My eldest is now in year ten and was a child who threw her reading book across the room in frustration in key stage one, it took persistence from the whole family to install in her that homework is non negotiable. That time was an investment in her future, she now just cracks on with it.
In terms of making time for it, we picked Sundays straight after lunch. I sat with them and also got my work out, so they could see we all have work we have to do.
also it’s all relative, I have a friend who grew up in Singapore where she had to do another two hours of homework a night from the very start of school. She thinks the British school system is three years behind in terms of content.

look up the forgetting curve, I think it’s Masenov who researched it?! All about how quickly we forget new learning if we don’t practise to strengthen neural pathways and move it into long term memory. Yes, the homework tasks might seem pointless, but they help your child remember their learning ready for the following week.
fair enough miss the occasional week if you are on holiday etc but otherwise you should do it, it helps your child.

I was a Primary teacher when my children were the same age as the children I was teaching. I was also a single parent and working full time. My eldest son hated homework with a vengeance and it was a huge battle to get him to just sit down and do something . They'd had breakfast club, school and then after school club, 7.30.to 5.30. I was exhausted and hungry and had hours of work to do once they'd gone to bed and they had had enough. I was required to set homework for my class. I hated it. It's utterly pointless. Interestingly my son had a friend, a girl, who was always doing extra worksheets and mini projects and other things whilst my sons wanted to take their clothes off and run round and round the garden letting off steam. The girl went to a crappy University and is now a primary school teacher. My sons went to Russell group unis and earn many, many times her salary. Homework in primary makes no difference whatsoever to life outcomes. Spelling, yes. Times tables,yes. Reading book, yes. The rest of it is a pain in the backside for teachers to set and for children to do.

We’re the same OP. DD moved schools between P1 and P2 and new school sets a lot more homework. She gets worksheets every evening Monday-Thursday (one night last week it was four worksheets), reading books with a journal we have to complete, a “have a go” book, Reading Eggs (I confess we haven’t even looked at this) and we’ve been told she’s about to start spellings. It’s far, far too much, we both work full time and this all has to be done when she’s exhausted after a day at school and afterschool care. There are tears and tantrums every fucking night and it’s not exactly fostering a love of learning or reading. One worksheet last night included “draw and colour sixteen strawberries”, and I told her to just draw sixteen triangles in red pencil and call it a day, just to get it done. I hate the message that’s giving her.

I don’t disagree with homework per se and I think it’s useful so that we as parents know our kids’ capabilities, but I’m now at a stage with the level we’re getting that I think it’s counterproductive.

I disagree. It's good practice to find a routine for doing homework that works for you and works for your child, and then embed it in their brain so deeply that it becomes a habit for secondary school. Maybe I'm influenced by having an ADHD diagnosis and seeing many traits in my older child, but what it means for me is routines need to be embedded in a way which makes them second nature so they don't require any conscious thought or effort to carry out, we just do them on autopilot. Otherwise they don't work.

Our approach is to try to do homework out of the house. So we do it in a cafe before extracurricular activities or in the car straight after I've collected my DC from school before we even leave for home. If we're taking the bus, we do it on the bus. My advice to you would be find the easiest way to fit the homework into your routine without pissing you off too much. Then when we get home, the schoolbag is unpacked, everything is put away and any homework remaining is finished at the kitchen table before anything else is done. It's then packed ready for the next day. The reason for this is that we don't deal well with starting tasks in this house. It's easier to delay coming out of "on" mode for a little bit longer to enable the homework to be finished than it is to switch our brains on again when we've been in "off" mode, relaxing on the sofa watching TV.

You're not wrong that homework doesn't really matter for a Y1. But if you don't do it with her, you're missing a chance to start establishing and tweaking routines that are effective for your DD and your family before the point at which homework becomes more important.

This is what I think too and it's worked well for my kids who are both now at secondary school, they just get on with their homework completely independently of me but know they can ask if they find something a bit tricky. Contrasted with some of my friends children who have been dragged kicking and screaming through all homework tasks from the beginning of primary and who now still need to be cajoled and sat with at secondary. Of course this could be partly personalities at play but I suspect it's also partly to do with the approach, sometimes you just have to drop the rope. For year 1 I would do reading but that's it, they learn so much from just everyday things anyway that I don't think it's worth putting pressure on them and yourself in the process to do extra work for very little actual benefit.

Phonics and reading are important but busy tasks are a waste of time.

I am teacher and don't make my daughter do the homework she gets (reception). There is absolutely no evidence that it improves outcomes at all.
Most teachers I know (including me) don't care if primary aged children do homework. They have to set it as a form of parental engagement for Ofsted etc. They don't think it will actually help children learn.