Struggling with homework for 5 year old

[Aria2015]

My lo is the youngest in class. Just turned 5 and in year 1. By the time he comes home from school he is sooo tired and so we put him to bed early at around 6.30pm. So between school finishing and bed we have to squeeze in dinner, bath and stories.

He had 'homework' in reception but it was to do over the weekend which was fine. He had lots of time to play etc... and we fit the homework in when he wasn't too tired and the promise of something fun to do afterwards.

The problem we're having in year 1 is, that he has weekly reading and spelling homework that requires him to essentially do homework after school most days (if not every day) and we're really struggling. He's coming home and crying almost straight away at the prospect of having to do it.

I've tried to let him relax first and then do a bit bit of course he's tired because it's later in the day. I've tried getting it out the way and tackling it as soon as he gets home but this seems to be the worst and he'll just cry throughout.

I'm feeling really down about it because we only have a couple of hours from him getting home to going to bed and it seems such a shame that he's getting so upset over it and of course it's a struggle for me too.

What do other parents of young children do? Any advice on how we could make this easier on both of us?

I have historically been really lax with homework. I tried really hard with DD2 last week (year 5) we practised in the car going to school. Is that possible?

Apart from homework in primary being optional anyway, I use to wonder how children who go to childminders or after school clubs were meant to fit in homework. In infants mine were collected from after school club, fed, playtime, a shower and then bed. In juniors evenings were after school club and then sport and music activities.

We have lost of home work to do over the term. We have a homework grid with 3 maths things to do, 3 literacy and 3 creative, we also have book to read every night and spellings where we have a sheet and they have to be practiced 5 days a week. We so then have a sheet on KIRF's to do and a sheet about maths symbol knowledge like knownwhat +×÷= is and that plus and add are the same. My son is year 1 too. Last year i also had a year 1 child who had asd and was melting down everyday afterschool so never did homework and didn't manage reading everynight the school used this to try prove we were disinterested in our sons education and didn't want him to progress as he made no progress last year so i don't believe the its up to you what homework they do that the school says as they clearly believe no homework is the reason children dont make progress.

Please don’t ‘tell the teacher’

You and the teacher both want your child to progress and do well in school.

That’s the aim for all parties.

He’ll get there in his win time. Little and often is the goal.

@AuditAngel I'm afraid in the car isn't possible. We are fortunate enough to live just 5 minutes walk from school so not much time to chat. We could probably fit in some spellings as we walk although we've got in the habit of playing games like eye spy on the walk so not sure how he'd react to swapping out one of our walking games for homework lol! Worth a try though.

DS is on it 1. In reception pre lockdown they had weekly spellings, maths and reading.

Reading isn't homework, it's reading. It's just come and read me a book, and I'll read you kinda thing so maybe tie that in with when you'd read to him? Most books don't need to be read every night, how long are they? I'd read it maybe twice and then once on school.

How many spellings? I pop quiz them on the way or from school, whilst I'm making tea etc. How do you spell X or get him a pen and paper. So not siting down for 30 minutes to revise spellings, just little and often in the weekm. Maybe put them up on a wall he sees lots

I spy with my little eye something starting with T

Tree

Spell tree ....

Adds another layer

Does he actually need to learn all his spellings?

Can you test him the day they come home and see if he knows any first, then just practice the rest? Some weeks (not many) DD would only have to practice 2/3 words rather than all 12.

You can also try splitting the list so you only do a few words a day which would take less.

Practicing spelling doesn't always have to be boring,hardwork in a book. He could write them with chalk outside, spell them out loud, make them with magnetic letters, doing bubble writing or rainbow writing(write the word in one colour,then go over it in another colour etc). Make sure he knows the sound/spelling rule for the week.

Reading can take 5 minutes it doesn't have to be a long session or do the whole book. A few pages,or just one checking he understands what he is reading,looking at the pictures, trying to think what might happen next.

DD(y4) finished her book yesterday so we won't be reading the rest of the week but I'll fill in her reading record as if she did.

@Harleyisme wow that sounds like a lot for year 1! What you said about being labelled as not encouraging him in his learning is what I'm afraid of. I hope that by now the school would know that's not the case as we've always done everything they've set, including over lockdown but you never know. To me it's a big jump from what he was expected to do last year but I assume it's all part of what they believe children his age should be capable of doing? It's stressful!

How many spelling and how big a book op?

Primary teacher here. Dont do it, its ridiculous at 5. As others said, if you can sometimes fit the reading into the bedroom routine, great, if not, dont worry. Spellings can be made into a game when hes in the right mood - look at Five Minute Mum for loads of great ideas. But if hes not into that either just don't do it at all, can't have a 5 year old crying every night. And spelling tests at that age are ludicrous. I think most teachers would agree that homework and tests are bullshit in infants, but ime heads just love them for some reason

We do homework while I make dinner. Been known to do it in the morning too, practicing spellings on the school run works well.

For years I only did reading and spellings in the morning. My DS is August born and not ahead of his age so it took so much out of him just going to school.

Luckily he was an early riser (didn’t think that at 5:30am at the time). Could you make even a few minutes before school?

One other thing that helped both reading and spelling was fridge magnets. Both letters and high frequency words - he enjoyed arranging them and it supported reading and spelling as I could ask him to spell one of his words while cooking or getting breakfast.

We do the spellings in the morning over breakfast each morning, so maybe you could try that so it doesn’t impact his evening. Can you do the reading at bedtime? A few pages read by him, then you read his proper bedtime story?

Just don't do it. If you get a chance to speak to the teacher, tell them why, or phone and tell them. There's no need for it. They are in school long enough.
I've never pushed very hard on homework. I did with my eldest and it was always a battle (he's dyslexic, but toom them 7 years to actually listen to me and assess him)

Former year 1/2 teacher here. Homework in ks1 isn't statutory so you don't have to do it. Speak to the teacher and explain what's going on and hopefully they will be understanding. I used to set homework because I had to but I never chased up anyone that didn't do it for exactly this reason.

5/10 minutes isn't much time to find is it, when you're serving dinner or clearing up afterwards? That's probably all you need on spellings - though I remember the pain of them having to write out 10 words 5 times or whatever.

That and one book at bedtime.

6.30 seems a really early night though. Is he sleeping solid for 12 + hours?

Just stop it !!!

This desperate need to make small children study is absolutely vile. Just STOP.

My daughter used to get very tired, especially in the Autumn term. I imagine it is even harder for 5 year olds this year after so many months away from the school routines. It is/was quite a "step up" from reception.

A quick snack or milky drink as soon as we got home helped minimise the risk of meltdowns/tantrums.

We used to tackle reading and spellings in the mornings if we could (and this was made slightly easier because DH had to leave home a good 30 minutes before we did). I always had a photo of what needed to be learned that week on my phone.

At 7+ we had a longer walk the deal was that we'd spend the first five minutes each morning learning/revising on the walk to school and then we could talk about something else/plan playdates.

We always practised spellings over breakfast. She eats quicker than me (at breakfast anyway) so can easily write down 10 words before/during and after.

My suggestion is to find out the reason he is so tired. Second, you might need to implement the homework into a fun activity during a dinner, bath or bedtime. Some children find it hard to transition from reception to Year 1. You are doing well and the teacher would appreciate informing them about your difficulties.

Don’t do it. Explain to the teacher why you’re not doing it. Make as much time as you can to share books/stories. That’s enough. It’s never worth causing upset over.

We did it in the morning before school, we find that by the time DDs done with school she really can't focus on homework properly whereas she's more confident and clear in the morning.

We have spellings to practice for a weekly test, times tables to practice every day, reading to do each night progress on these is to be recorded in a book and by us and given back to the teacher each week. On to of that we have two workbooks to fill out a week 1-2 pages each of maths and English. DD is yr2 but we had this in the 1 too.

We do the spellings over breakfast in the morning. Sometimes DD writes them down, sometimes she just tells me.
We read her book at/just before bedtime.
We do times tables on the way home from school.
And we quickly to the two workbooks when we can fit them in on a morning or a Monday night because I can pick her up straight from school that night.

It is tough but it's managed well now because of us pushing and pushing the routine in year 1. It didn't always work but we took a win for the fact it worked more than half of the time and it's paid off for now.
We do think she gets too much homework but it's instilling a work ethic now, she sees us working at home, this is her working at home.

@Burplecutter

We have spellings to practice for a weekly test, times tables to practice every day, reading to do each night progress on these is to be recorded in a book and by us and given back to the teacher each week. On to of that we have two workbooks to fill out a week 1-2 pages each of maths and English. DD is yr2 but we had this in the 1 too.

We do the spellings over breakfast in the morning. Sometimes DD writes them down, sometimes she just tells me.
We read her book at/just before bedtime.
We do times tables on the way home from school.
And we quickly to the two workbooks when we can fit them in on a morning or a Monday night because I can pick her up straight from school that night.

It is tough but it's managed well now because of us pushing and pushing the routine in year 1. It didn't always work but we took a win for the fact it worked more than half of the time and it's paid off for now.
We do think she gets too much homework but it's instilling a work ethic now, she sees us working at home, this is her working at home.

That sounds like a lot for year 1 and year 2