How much do you help your 6 year old with their homework?

[user1947582]

I'm not sure if DD is struggling or if this is normal. Basically I try to guide her but in the end I have to tell her about 90% of the answers especially with things like phonics. Part of me thinks I should just let her do it wrong so the teacher is aware. But then I also think if I don't correct her or explain it to her so she isn't learning that it is wrong.

Don't let her sitting there getting it wrong.

It's likely that the teacher gives the homework nothing more than a cursory glance. You should be supporting your child with their homework.

We've always taken the approach of letting DD do what she can and anything she can't do with a small amount of prompting from us we tell her to leave, then we add a note to Class DoJo telling the teacher that she found X, Y, Z difficult.

Homework in my view is to practice what you have learned in the class. If they haven't learnt it then it needs covering again.

I am more than happy to work it through with her, to talk about what they covered and take it step by step but if it's clear she hasn't even covered the topic or hasn't understood it at all then I think it's best to make the teacher aware.

Mmm, I didn't realise they got homework at that age. Mine don't seem to, should I be concerned about that?!

I would help if they did though

What sort of homework?

Ds aged 6, yr1, gets 2 reading books, and a phonics sheet each week and has to read those. Somethings he needs a bit of help with unusual words, but mostly the "expression" in reading.

He doesn't get proper homework.

If they need help help them otherwise leave them to it

Her teacher needs to know she’s struggling to complete it with any level of independence.
You can help her, break it down, support her to the answer but you need to make sure her teacher knows how much help she’s getting.
Homework really should just be repetition and practice of stuff she already knows.

Mine get -
Reading book (read 5x a week)
Spellings (practice 5x a week)
Ed shed, maths shed, TT rocks (practice 3x each)
1 maths sheet a week
1 topic with several pieces of work every 1/2 term

I actually checked this with my sons teacher to make sure she was happy with how I was doing it (while I was talking to her about something else) I sit beside him, encourage him to have a go by himself first, help him to spell big words and help him to work things out but don't just give him the answer straight out.

We facilitate (print out sheets, make sure she has the materials she needs etc) and help if asked for the 6yo. I usually check it through once done and ask her to look again at/check/redo any parts that are very wrong or she has been lazy with. She will happily get on with it and the work set is usually pretty easy cementing recent learning, so homework isn't an issue most of the time. Homework has to be photographed and uploaded to an app, so I leave a comment on the picture if she has struggled with a particular element to flag it to the teacher (who, otherwise I suspect, understandably, just sees the upload and ticks her off the list).
My 8yo, on the other hand, needs constant refocusing, encouraging, talking through stuff and checking work. She is autistic and has ADHD though, so despite actually being perfectly capable of the work (again, set to suit the majority of the class and only cementing existing knowledge) she requires a lot of assistance to motivate and stay on task and get started in the first place without a meltdown . She will often refuse to even try the homework deciding she can't do it, despite not having so much as glanced at it. She needs someone to sit and move her through the questions. It is a tortuous and lengthy process. If left to her own devices, she will take hours to produce a very shoddy effort of minimal content and scrappy presentation - the absolute least she hopes she will get away with, although no idea why, as she is always sent back to improve it! Her uploads are frequently accompanied by a message moaning about lack of engagement or explaining the poor rather basic offering was in fact the 3rd version/culmination of 2hrs of effort etc.

You need to teach as well op if she needs help.

As above I had one dc with minimal help and no help at all from year 2 and another who was also struggling with phonics and learning. In the end we got a tutor, for English and one for maths.and ditched phonics and went with sight reading.

I would get to grips with the curriculum and help to teach her yourself.
You could get first 100 hfw and get her going on those if you haven't already. Some children just don't get phonics!

Also the reality is the teacher won't have time to stop classes and help your dc. It's a conveyor belt with classes rolled out and targets of what to achieve each week.
If a child hasn't actually understood, there is not much they can do. One hopes a ta can pick it up with them but it can't be relied upon

I practically have to pin my Yr1 DS down and bribe him to do his homework and I definitely have to help with spelling when he's writing sentences etc. It's a daily struggle!!

Mine is 7, she does her reading herself now, she's always reading!
I help her with her TTrockstars - I put the answers in for her as she says them, she can't do it quick enough and gets really pissed off.
They had spellings as well last year in Y1 and I had to come up with all sorts of exciting games to help her learn them. Was glad when they stopped them, but actually, her spelling is beyond atrocious now they don't do them anymore.

@SkankingWombat I commend your effort with your autistic/adhd child. Mine...I literally don't bother 😬 not worth the meltdowns and conflict

It might be worth suffering her keyboard frustration in the short term. We had the same difficulty with both DCs but they are really quick now. For their yr4 TT test, they get 6 seconds to answer each question and need to input the answer using a keyboard, so will need to be very familiar with the layout. My 6yo yr2 DC is doing well, but even after 2 terms of daily TTRS practice isn't yet anywhere near quick enough typing the answers in. My 8yo yr4 DD, in comparison, is a touch typing demon (on the number pad) after 2 years of bashing them into the keyboard! It remains to be seen if she'll pass the test, but she definitely won't be getting any 'wrong' because she didn't type them in fast enough.

I know she will need to do them herself eventually, but at the minute I'm just focusing on her getting them right 😩 on the heatmap setting we've been on the same few tables for about 2 weeks and that's with me putting them in for her 😩 she just doesn't seem to be able to remember them!

She was the same when they had to do Numbots in R/Y1 as well, I ended up giving up because it was just stressing her out and she definitely wasn't learning anything from it!

So my yr 1 child has reading and maths homework- for both I will help her learn and explain, but happy for her to get things wrong to learn. Then we look at why she got it wrong.

At 6 years old this seems unbelievably excessive. 😳

I've never forced DD9 to do homework and I can honestly say it hasn't impacted on her learning one bit. The only thing we have ever done is to encourage reading at home. I wouldn't worry about homework, especially at 6 years old.

I would also focus on them trying to do it themselves and not being afraid of getting it wrong. An emphasis on 'practicing learning' rather than just completing the exercises can help lay good foundations for later years.

So trying to remember what they were taught in the lesson, and reassuring them that if they don't understand yet it's ok - the learning is the key, not just knowing the right answer.

My 6/7 year old (year 2) seems to have hours of homework - 35 question maths booklet this weekend, a reading comprehension one where you then answer questions, then spellings and writing sentences using the spellings of the weeks and then 2 books on the App to read! Honestly I feel exhausted with it and I have two other young children who need my attention and working full time have to cram all the housework in to the weekend and it feels like half of Sunday is taken up with homework and I feel awful just letting her get on with it sometimes but if I don't sit next to her she seems to struggle and/or lose focus and it takes hours and a lot of stress to get it done

My DC6 has:
-reading book X2 weekly, I listen to him read, but do not intervene. He gets stuck occasionally but just sounds out the word and is grand.

• spellings X10 words weekly. He writes these out twice in a spelling book. He does that by himself and I check it.
• sentence X1 weekly. He writes a sentence with 1 of his words in it. He thinks of that himself, he will sometimes check the spelling of some words with me and I check the end result.

-maths activity X1 weekly. Sometimes a sheet to fill in, but could be a game. He will do a sheet himself and dp will check it, or they will play games together.

So we are there, but not really participating in the actual work. I do think it is important the teacher realises if you are involved with 90% of the answers.

Don't worry too much about getting them right yet, they'll sink in eventually with repetition and you've still got plenty of time - perhaps keep her away from looking at the heat map for now so she doesn't feel like she's failing? My 6yo's heat map is still very much red too (and obviously she only has 2s 3s 5s and 10s, so not the whole table yet either) as they have to know the answer and get it entered onto the screen really very quickly for it to be green. She can recall her 10s instantly, but they are still only orange because she is still gaining the keyboard skills.
My 8yo had a meltdown at the start of the school year because felt she didn't know them, couldn't learn them, and couldn't do it quickly enough (due to a serious class talking to about the end of year test - thanks teacher!), but it's really all come together in the last couple of months. She had a mostly red heat map at the beginning of the year, and it is now green with just one or two yellowish squares, but that is only by a combination of both recalling them very quickly and fast typing.
Do you think learning keyboard skills separately will help her to be more confident? My DD1 is learning to touch type (due to hypermobility, writing by hand is very painful for her so she will need to switch to a laptop once the workload increases in Secondary), has made great progress, and finds the program fun. Her school recommend Typing Club, BBC bitesize, and Big Brown Bear.

@SkankingWombat thanks, I think touch typing is an excellent skill to have, I learnt to touch type on a typewriter at secondary school (i'm honestly not THAT old!) and it's one of the best things I've ever learnt and a skill I still use daily!
Never thought to teach her to be honest, will have a look at the resources you suggested and see if she gets on with any of them! Thank you!