Year 9 - an hour of homework on weekdays unreasonable?

Agree, setting work for Yr9 is unreasonable. They're knackered after a day at school and their brains are like soup - if they have a chance to rest, then I'd let them grab it.

I sympathise on the novels, though. DS is yr 9 and doesn't enjoy fiction - gets cross if I urge him to read. However, I've found if I stick a broadsheet supplement (Grauniad G2, Times T2) in his hand, a magazine like Time Out or a fact-based book, a funny memoir or biog, he'll happily read.

I don't mind what he reads, so long as it's reasonably well-written. Ironically, he loved Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - mostly because he was horrified. Shag - you could try your DD on that - it'll make you look good if nothing else.

I started a thread about this earlier, and I've since come up with some answers of my own.

Maybe the way to go is to start them on habit of concentrating. So it could be concentrating on something other than homework, but not screens. I'm going to try and get my son to cook supper on Friday night as he never seems to have any homework he wants to do then
Secondly if they won't read, you have to read to them or read with them, or get them to read a newspaper article they are interested in instead of a book.
Competitive things get my son working. So if one child is doing his homework he tends to want to butt in and do his. Also quizzes, offering to test them sometimes is a good way to show an interest without appearing to harass.

The truth is most children come home and they are tired. Tired of concentrating on school stuff. I suppose it is a question of rekindling whatever enthusiasm they ever had in the least aggressive way possible. For ds1 that can be doing the easiest task first, or mixing it up with other tasks that are not so schooly. Or giving him a deadline and reward in form of family time after...we are going to watch x programme, get y done first.

Lo

DS1 in in Y9. I'd say his school h/w averages about 45 mins a night. This is a massive uplift on Y8 where I gather the HoY chipped the teachers about how little h/w they wer settingl! So I am pleased that they are finally knuckling down, though it's been hard getting DS (re-)focused as he is so out of the habit of doing regular h/w- so now, some 'single pieces' can take an hour and half for him to produce what to me looks like 15 or 20 minutes of focussed work!

I am a bit between a rock and hard place because I would like to put a timer on DS and shut his book once the 30 or 40 minutes is over, writing in his logbook that the work was all he'd managed to achieve in the allocated time, the idea being that he'd get the message as the school would for instance make him stay in to complete suboptimal, sparse homework.... BUT the reality is, this is the top academic performing comp in the county, and is very MC thus has loads of alpha, clever and committed DC on its roll. They have Y7s with maths A levels and so forth, so they don't need my DS to 'do well' to bring up any scores so the likely reaction, in reality, will be a shoulder shrug from the school, a demotion into a lower maths set and possibly being made to do double, not triple science, which I dare 'not risk' for him in these straitened times.

As for setting extra work- nah, that's boat's well and truly sailed by 13. I fine times tables andmental maths questions at him and DS2 (11) in the car, and I heavily encourage reading and so forth. Very occasionally I have persuaded DS1 to look in his KS3 Science book, for instance, to check the answer to something.

But I wish the school actually set an hour a night, every night, of proper, focussed, meaningful homework. I see my friend's DSs, 12 and 14, who are at a 'good' private and have been since age 7, and they have a far more disciplined attitude to work because doing h/w is second nature to them.

I don't think doing an hour of homework each night in Y9 is unreasonable, however, I think it is unreasonable for you to sit down with your 13/14 year old daughter and insist she work with you for an hour each night.

Perhaps if she could sit at the kitchen table while you are pottering about, keeping a discreet watch on her, would be more acceptable. Also, by Year 9, I would be expecting the school to be setting about that much homework anyway. If not, then perhaps it would be better to talk to the school initially. I know my DC would have refused to do any work I set them at that age.

i think if she has been st homework by her teachers, then you are not unreasonable to expect her to spend an hour getting it done.

i don't think you are unreasonable to expect her to read for 20 minutes a day

i DO think you are unreasonable to set work for her

What else does she do? And how much homework does she get from school?