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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this is too much in nursery?

86 replies

nothingbyhalves · 08/11/2013 18:01

Dt's are in nursery in Wales (they can start half days from age of three here) they have a new teacher since September, and they have weekly homework, this has consisted of learning letters, colour by numbers, fill a page in their homework book with anything to do with dinosaurs for example. On top of this parents have been asked to help them write their name in what us practically joined up writing, and learn to identify about 10 words such as mum dad and kipper, chip, floppy etc. I am starting to feel its too much. The last homework took them an hour! There is a parents evening next week and I thinking about bringing up these concerns. Or is this normal for three year olds in nursery?

OP posts:
BackforGood · 08/11/2013 19:30

'It isn't age appropriate so my child will not be completing this 'h/w' or any h/w. Can I introduce you to the EYFS? '

This ^

I wouldn't be debating it, I'd just let her know that it's not appropriate and my child wouldn't be doing it.

theoriginalandbestrookie · 08/11/2013 19:33

Agree with all the other posters, that's ridiculous. I find it silly enough that DS has come home with homework in P3 that took him over an hour to complete, but getting it in nursery is just daft.

cherry219 · 08/11/2013 19:46

My son is in Reception in Wales and doesn't have this amount to do. I kind of wish he did, he's bored to tears learning to recognise the alphabet and count to ten both of which he's been able to do for a couple of years.

Is it a Welsh Welsh school? If so, they do tend to kick them on ahead a little bit so they can cope with all the extra alphabet/phonics learning they have to do as well as becoming all bilingual and that.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 08/11/2013 20:05

Not only is it totally unnecessary at 3, there isn't much evidence that homework (beyond reading / making craft out of cereal boxes) makes any difference until secondary school.

They're probably going to do more harm than good - the best education is age appropriate and child-centred.

mumofweeboys · 08/11/2013 20:12

Iv heard about this from some of the hot house nurseries - they want them all to be able to read and write before entering a certain feeder schools

WooWooOwl · 08/11/2013 20:12

I have known of a couple of nurseries that do this. They are in areas where there are high levels of deprivation, and it's done to encourage parents to engage with their children's learning.

Some parents genuinely don't know how to do that, so settings give ' 'homework' as a way of getting parents involved in their children's education to improve their outcomes.

defineme · 08/11/2013 20:16

I would take it with a pinch of salt, eg only spend time on it if your dc wants to and I would assume it's given with the best of intentions: to get you to spend time with your child. Lots of books and lots of exploring the world comes naturally to some parents, but some kids will be stuck in front of a school all day and perhaps they're trying topo counterbalance that?

Lilacroses · 08/11/2013 20:20

Sorry but whoever thought of this ridiculous homework is very foolish and knows very little about working with small children. I would imagine this reflects their approach in nursery too. Inappropriate and pointless....talk about putting kids off school before they even start.

Lilacroses · 08/11/2013 20:22

Even if the nursery is in an area of high deprivation this would be excessive for a 4 or 5 year old let alone a 3 year old.

Cyrli · 08/11/2013 20:25

This sounds too much. My ds is in a similar situation - half time nursery class in school. They get a book home for the parents to read to the child and discuss if they liked it. The homework your dts are getting is similar to what my dd got in yr 1 or 2. (and this is in a Welsh medium school so two languages to learn).

AndHarry · 08/11/2013 20:29

Your DCs' nursery sounds barmy. DS is 3 and has been to nursery and preschool. He gets a reading book to take home each week and the children occasionally (as in once a half-term) get 'homework' to bring in some autumn leaves or something equally untaxing. His preschool sends home a curriculum newsletter outlining the theme for each half term and giving suggestions on how parents can support at home e.g they are learning to recognise 2D shapes. Parents can support by identifying shapes in everyday objects. The nursery he attended (completely separate to his Pre-school) was exactly the same.

Want2bSupermum · 08/11/2013 20:30

I would be using the homework as a suggestion. DD is two and she is being looked after at home. I have a curriculum set out for her that was put together with the help of a lovely lady at the community college. I try to stick to that as much as I can. Letter of the week was B so I tried to do as many things beginning with B for her food during the week. Stuff like that.

Pinupgirl · 08/11/2013 20:32

Yanbu op-but I fear my dcs nursery are planning on doing something very similar as they are introducing "target" books for every child which will outline what they need to work on both in the nursery and at home. Sounds a lot like homework to me!!

Honestly I think its ridiculous how early we expect kids to start learning-let them be kids and play ffs!!

hippo123 · 08/11/2013 20:35

Isn't it all learning though play in wales? My 3 year old is in methrin in Wales and gets no homework, neither does my year 2 child other than one reading book a week. The 3 year old just plays with sand and playdoh, well according to her.

TicTocCroc · 08/11/2013 20:36

"DD is two and she is being looked after at home. I have a curriculum set out for her"

Sorry, but that's just mad to my ears.

Junebugjr · 08/11/2013 20:38

Are you in South Wales? I'm there, and my 3 year old had homework too. Now she's in Yr1 and there's loads!

happystory · 08/11/2013 20:50

No no and thrice no. No preschool child needs homework. It's taking involving parents far beyond what it's meant to mean. Don't do it and tell the practitioner in no uncertain terms why you aren't doing it. Early years is about learning through play........

Goldmandra · 08/11/2013 22:32

You know I really despair when I hear about things like this.

I like to think that at least the Early Years community is united against the ridiculous ideas coming from the government about forcing more formal learning on children earlier and earlier. Then I hear about settings like this and realise some people are already doing it voluntarily.

It's so sad.

Mylovelyboy · 08/11/2013 22:34

Far too young. YANBU

phoolani · 08/11/2013 22:45

How does your dc feel/react to the homework? I'm not a big believer in home work benefits at any age really, but my dd had a very structured nursery environment (school type sitting down and learning for chunks of time throughout the day) and some homework and completely thrived on it, couldn't get enough of it. Had she not, however, I would simply have made it clear she wouldn't be doing any homework set unless she wanted to.

KeepingUpWithTheJonses · 08/11/2013 23:34

I disagree with a lot of the posts.

Ds2 is also in morning nursery (in Wales). He gets homework every Friday, the type of which is very similar to that in the op. I don't think it's unreasonable at all, he loves the work, it's all fun stuff that he can also learn from.

They will also begin bringing the first Oxford Reading Tree books home after Xmas. However, at this stage, the books aren't aimed at teaching them to read at all, so aren't IMO exactly 'work'. The first few are completely blank. The idea is for your child to tell you the story. It's aimed at getting the child familiar with the characters from the books that they'll have for ages longer, to encourage creativity and imagination and so that they get used to books in general - how to hold them, how to treat them, recognising the correct way up and the way the pages turn and so on. None of which is unreasonable for a 3 year old IMO.

What I do disagree with is the amount of work. Ds2's homework takes up to 15 minutes. An hour? That is Way OTT. I do not disagree with 'homework' in general though.

BoffinMum · 09/11/2013 07:11

I can find no research evidence that structured nursery education like this (with homework) impacts on the medium to long term educational success of children in any way. In other words, it would not matter how much time you spent on ploughing through reading scheme books or mark making homework or whatever, even if your child completes all the activities, the once who does none of this at all will catch up anyway by the age of 7 or so.

Sorry to all those parents and teachers who like to think that a) you can have masses of control over children's cognitive development at age 3, and b) trying really really hard to get kids to mature faster has an impact on their education at 7, 11, 18 or even 21. It doesn't.

It is possible to mess their development up, for example by feeding them crap, not speaking to them much at all, sitting them in front of the TV for every waking hour, and smacking them if they seek attention, but for normal children in normal households, children have a default development speed and you can't really do anything about it.

What does count is quietly letting children potter around copying grown ups at their own pace. It is educationally infinitely more valuable to let a child build a little world out of bricks and then chatter away as they make up a massive involved story about their mini figures as they interact with the world. It is equally more valuable to put them in charge (yes in charge) of aspects of food buying at the supermarket with you, so they have to count apples spontaneously etc. That kind of thing.

It is possible to work through reading schemes and be a fairly limited reader, by the way. Some schools avoid them and use schemes like KRM instead, using a broader range of books. They seem to end up with higher reading ages at 11.

Ultimately pretty much all homework is there for the benefit of everyone except children at nursery and primary age.

Sirzy · 09/11/2013 07:34

I agree with everyone else that is rediculous. Unless it happened to be something they wanted to do I would refuse to do it

LindyHemming · 09/11/2013 07:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Retroformica · 09/11/2013 07:42

Just inform her that you won't be doing homework as you think it's unnecessary at 3