I. Hate. Homework.

[Doodlez]

"It should only take 30 minutes per night Mrs Doodlez".

"Stop after 30 minutes and just write a note in the homework diary Mrs Doodlez".

IT.
DOESN'T.
TAKE.
JUST.
30.
FECKIN'.
MINUTES.

He won't stop after 30 minutes. It HAS to be finished. He gets upset and frustrated and tries to swear blind that if it's not finished, he'll be sent to Broadmoor detention.

He won't accept that's not the case.

He's 8 years old.

An 8 year old should not have to give a toss about homework.

[as you were]

My dd (almost 5) in primary 1 gets homework every night, reading book AND practising sounds, which involves writing words beginning with the sound of the day and finding/cutting/sticking pictures of things that begin with that sound. It can take ages, causes arguments and frustration and makes us both miserable (the reading is fine as the books have no words yet!)

If i say i will write a note to the teacher saying she is too tired to do it she gets very upset! Poor toot is shattered after being at school 9am til 3.15.

It gets excessive doesn't it? My 4 yo had reading h/w every night (fair enough, he can read one of the ORT books in about a minute flat) but now he's on Level 6 (which he still finds boring and too easy) he has to write about the book, rate it and draw a picture of what happens in it. Suddenly his 2 minute h/w is taking aaaaaages. At least they're stretching him I guess. He does go to a pushy school though...

I sort of feel that if they don't 'get it' after 6 hours at school, 15 mins at home when they are too tired to take anything in won't make much of a difference at that age!

Poor lad - is it possible for you to "chunk" it up a bit, get him to do one chunk at a time and after each chunk assess whether to start the next - then he feels he's achieved something, and you can write a note to his teacher telling him that's what you've done?

In Yr one we now have a book a day and 10 spellings a week which I think is OK - any more and I think I'd have rebellion on my hands!

Agree with Appletrees about the boring and repetitive bit. Oh I so wish that my dc would get set topic work instead of endless shit 'literacy' which is set and marked by the TAs and handwriting. The week dd1's granddad died she had to define the word 'autopsy'.

Unfortunatley though she does get sanctions - one teacher yells til she cries and the other takes away her playtime. Once she'd been ill so I sent in a note explaining why her homework hadn't been done. The teacher made her miss her playtime because she didn't bother to read the note until after lunch.

I hate the dc's school sooooooooo much.

It's interesting to see how it varies. My DS1 went to relatively pushy state primary and had homework twice a week, spellings to learn etc. He's just started at a selective independent secondary school. He is very bright and I have no doubts at all that it is the right place for him. His marks are always in the top 5 out of 25 so far. But the kids from independent primaries have obviously been doing much, much more and so for DS1 the shock of the homework now expected of him is quite big!

If your child doesn't want you to talk to the teacher/give a note about time limits, try saying it to the teacher with the child there. It worked for me.

I had spoken to the teacher privately and said she would be doing no more than 40 minutes (still far too much) homework, then said it to teacher in front of DD, and teacher was all "OMG NO! You must NOT do any more than 40mins, you should be out playing and having fun!"

A bit of reading and some spellings are okay.That only takes about 10 minutes. Am a bit shocked that a teacher would ask a primary school child to define 'autopsy'. I don't really want my children knowing that they even exist at their ages. Also, I thought it was an American word, the Englich equivalent being 'post mortem'. Might be wrong though

I agree with you.

'Englich' should say 'English' obv. I need spellings from the teacher!

Karma, dd1 get sent home with a book that she has to work through. Each week she gets another word family to work on, and this one was words beginning with 'auto' - automatic, automobile, autopsy. They have to define them and put them into sentences.

Apart from the fact that this particular word was incredibly inappropriate it is also bloody boring! And forgotten within a fortnight.

Although I did get a belated apology from dd1's teacher for that it was too late. But she hasn't a clue what they are doing because the TAs deal with it.

Oh God this brings back awful memories of struggling with some dreadful poster making/drawing/colour this in etc etc homework in primary.
I hated it, was rubbish at it and used to feel sick most days with misery that mine was only ever just about good enough. I could have done 5 pages of sums or spellings or whatever in half the time, but that required more effort to set and mark on behalf of the teachers so of course we never got it.

I remember several occasions when I didn't do it - too busy with other after school stuff, visiting family or friends for the weekend and being utterly, utterly terrified at going in the next day. Mum and Dad would have said it was ok and have written a note to the teacher, but they would still do the ritual humiliation in front of the whole class 'oh everyone else has found time', the bastards.

Once I was in secondary and it was 'proper' homework then I never had a problem with it and was much happier, but primary arty-farty homework was hell.

Homework policy will be a major deciding factor in where we send DS.

Oh and knitpicker to continue your survey....

I have a good degree in an academic subject from an RG university, somehow, having always been dreadfully unmotivated about studying outside of the classroom - I wonder why!!
Had a fairly unfulfilling career before having children, now taking a career break to be at home with my kids before I re-train, hopefully to be a teacher

Ali, I think that's why topic work is so good - the arty farty types can go colour in and wordy ones can write out twenty facts, and maths ones can write something about the geometric shapes of the pyramids or something.

Which is why the dc's school policy drives me nuts. Esp. as they tell big fat lies as to topic work not being allowed by the curriculum!

My six year old told me last night that if they don't do their homework, they get kept in at playtime. I find a) homework (other than reading practice and the odd spelling) totally inappropriate for the age and tiredness levels b) completely mad to keep children in at breaktime aged six for something that they are probably reliant on their parents to do.

Wrong, wrong, all wrong. I only haven't been up to the school about it as I'm keeping my powder dry for something really objectionable :)

Onetoo, that sound pretty objectionable to me! To be fair getting kept in only happens at KS2 at our dc's school. God, being kept in is just the worse thing possible for a 6 yr old.

spiritmum I think it depends how the school approach it. My middle school (8-11) loved topics, but much more emphasis was placed on how they looked rather than the content. So if you produced something factual, accurate and interesting that looked a bit boring you would probably get a C. If you produced something incredibly light on content but full of pretty pictures and nicely laid out pages you would get an A and your work would be praised and shown in front of the school.

I distinctly remember having a smug smile to myself when I got set into top stream for everything (except Art!!) in secondary and others who had been teacher's favourites were set lower - and I wasn't the only one who suddenly flourished.
A horrid experience for us all really, which probably set up life-long resentments and hang-ups. If they had been more balanced in their praise it would have been better for everyone.

Doodles, has the teacher told your DS that he was allowed to stop if infinished after 1/2 hour? I find that for some weid reason mine would be reluctant to trust me on the issue but would have their mind put at rest if the teacher said exactly the same thing.

"IME (primary school) parents who demand extra homework aren't doing so because they are interested in furthering their child's education. They are doing it because they want their child's cleverness to be validated by the teacher."

I do not see how really. The teacher surely do not need the homework to validate children cleverness as they surely have a good picture of it from actua school time work? Probably more a case of parents wanting to see how their children are doing.

I had homework every night in primary school, I cannot remember my parents helping much or even checking it had been done. It seems that theses day we parents feel like failures if homework is not understood or completed. When we were little it was our responsability and we would be told off or explained the work better (depending on teacher/circumstances)but it would never reflect on our parents. I think now it does and if we do not find time every day to suppervise/check/help we feel we are going to be judged.

I also think there is a cultural aspect to HW. On the continent parents would not dream of complaining children have HW, it is just part of the "school package".

I did not like it when they had homework on Friday for Monday, it really does ruin everybody's week end (especially as Dcs go to Arbic lessons on both Saturday and sunday morning, HW on top of that was really not giving them a break at all. They now get it on Wednesday for the next Wednesday or Friday for Thursaday wich is more manageable. I did notice this year though, that Ds2 has much more HW than DD1 used to have in Y5. I do wonder if it is due to the fact there is now a lot more music lessons and other type of "non accademic" things and they are playing catch up as there is not enough actual "school" time to do it all?

That's a good point, Ali. DD1's school is very obsessed with handwriting and appearance. Soon when she is judged capable we'll have to send in a fiver for a crappy fountain pen for her to use.

Still, I think if topic work is used correctly it's a good thing. I loved it at primary school and would work on topics at home even though we rarely had homework as such.

Re reading my post, I probably was not given enough HW

dd2 age 8 got told to write out her favourite poem for homework. This is what she took in:

Homework! Oh, Homework!
by Jack Prelutsky

Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you
away in the sink.
If only a bomb
would explode you to bits.
Homework! Oh, homework!
You're giving me fits.

I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework
my teacher assigns.

Homework! Oh, homework!
You're last on my list.
I simply can't see
why you even exist.
If you just disappeared
it would tickle me pink.
Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!

Idontknow, what did the teacher say?

She laughed and read it out to the class - I was quite pleased about that!

Brilliant poem