Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to do DDs homework this evening?

78 replies

UnspecialSnowflake · 18/05/2015 14:27

I am so bloody sick of the homework the school sends home. DD is in year two, and every half term we get given a sheet with a list of homework projects on it, one to be done each week, in any order we want.

Every single sodding project involves either model making, doing a PowerPoint, creating a fact sheet or a poster or some other sort of research which is far beyond the solo abilities of the average seven year old. Maybe I'm being a brat but I don't want To spend yet another evening creating a fucking fact file on some random animal. I want her to have a maths sheet, or some spellings to learn, or maybe some comprehension, or just something that she can do mostly by herself.

As far as I can see all the DCs in her class are learning from these homework projects is that your parents do the bulk of your homework for you. And the very worst thing is that these efforts don't get marked by the teacher, the children mark each other's parents work.

Argh, rant over.

OP posts:
BackforGood · 18/05/2015 23:59

All this "you can't find 30mins to help with homework" business is not really taking into account people's lives.

Many of us don't get in until 6pm, then have to get the tea on, get everybody bathed etc for the next day - take one dc to cubs, another to swimming lesson, eat, wash clothes, maybe do the on-line shop or 1001 other pressing things before getting the dc to bed and settling down to do some more work. No, it doesn't involve spending ages doing homework with each of your dc. Reading with them - absolutely. Helping with spellings - certainly. Testing times tables or number bonds - no problem, but that is very different from spending time doing s "project" with one of them.
So many people have all sorts of pressures on their time, maybe caring for a child with additional needs, or having a new baby in the house, or caring for elderly parents, etc.,etc.etc,

Homework is completely pointless at this age. Full stop. Homework that means the parents have to do it is even beyond that.

PerspicaciaTick · 19/05/2015 00:01

My y2 DS gets similar homework. He is more than capable of knocking up a fact sheet, biography or poster using PicCollage. Then I print it for him.
It's between him and his teacher to work out if he is doing enough/the right sort of stuff. Let them do their own work, all you need to do is provide the time, space and resources.

olgaga · 19/05/2015 00:03

steppemum Then your school is very unusual.

The curriculum is national. Every child in every school gets some kind of homework from an early age. You csn be the big I am and take it up with the school.

Or you can help your child to learn knowledge and learning techniques.

I notice you didn't respond to my other points.

crustsaway · 19/05/2015 00:07

Big I am?

Err, you do the spellings and reading, that's enough. You also tell the school that your child was learning other important life skills if they enquire whether ridiculous "projects" were completed.

BackforGood · 19/05/2015 00:10

olgaga - In what way is Steppmum's school unusual? Confused

I totally recognise her description.

olgaga · 19/05/2015 00:14

In that only one member of staff has children - the Head.

SE13Mummy · 19/05/2015 00:24

My DDs get very little in the way of homework and I'm very happy about that. They are expected to read regularly and are occasionally asked to see if they can find out something related to the following week's learning e.g. in what ways are grasshoppers beneficial to humans but they are not set pointless worksheets or similar. Once per half-term they are usually set an open-ended task e.g. find out about river courses or make up a game about something you've learnt this year. They usually receive the task after one holiday and it's due in after the next e.g. Set on November 1st, handed in 3rd January. The first morning after the holiday is dedicated to looking at each other's projects and talking about what they've found out from them.

It's a maximum of 6 tasks per year and is a real ' anything goes' approach. Some children do a few minutes each week and produce posters, gel pen lists etc., others have sewn a creature and made a shoebox habitat, one I've seen was a toy lion with post-it notes stuck to it with information about lions on each post-it, someone baked a river cake, another child drew a picture of a river. I've not been aware of any competition between children or parents and I know plenty of parents (me included) who don't like weekend homework or computer-based programmes that require daily access to Matheletics or similar as it feels very much like more of the same. If the school is inspiring children to want to share what they've learnt at school with their families, great. Projects (open-ended, not too often and where anything goes) can be a useful vehicle for this and is so much more valuable than worksheets or spelling tests provided parents set time limits and let their children hand in what they've done, finished or not.

olgaga · 19/05/2015 00:31

Completely agree, SE13mummy.

I think it's easy to over-think it, but if you concentrate on what your child needs you can't go wrong.

BeCool · 19/05/2015 00:47

I have child in y2.
I've never once done her homework nor do I ever intend to.
At most I would show Dd how to start a PowerPoint document - well I would if I knew!

Don't do it!

BeCool · 19/05/2015 00:51

Damn - if the school ever sent homework home for me, I would be reading them the riot act.
I've done my schooling thanks.

TheNewStatesman · 19/05/2015 04:25

Refuse to do it.

Seriously.

Next time the school sends home instructions about making a pyramid out of toilet rolls, just don't do it.

Do some spelling word practice with her or sums or what-have-you, and send the piece of paper or notebook to school with her, with a note at the bottom stating that "We did this instead of the homework task, because I believe my daughter needs spelling practice not craftwork practice."

PowerPoints? Christ almighty. PPT will be obsolete by the time our kids graduate--there is NO POINT in spending study time memorizing the minute of how to make PPT slides.

goingmadinthecountry · 19/05/2015 05:19

Some schools and teachers are utterly mad. Complain, or you'll be splitting the atom by Y6! Actually, I'd probably spend a whole day doing the whole term's work (recording your efforts on ppt which you could send to headteacher and governors) and dump it all in the office. My final slide would be something like, "Now we're off to enjoy childhood and having fun."

Fairenuff · 19/05/2015 07:48

Next time the school sends home instructions about making a pyramid out of toilet rolls, just don't do it.

OP shouldn't be doing it anyway. But the child should.

olgaga none of the teachers in my primary school have children either, except the head and hers are adult children.

MammaTJ · 19/05/2015 10:04

This sounds very like the homework my DS gets. Is the school in a town beginning with M?

I quite like it, there is a variety of things to choose from, something written, something to look at or something to make.

Artandco · 19/05/2015 10:10

But it's the child's homework not yours. Just let them get on with it. Does it matter that the toilet roll castle looks crap? No, they did it themselves and that's what was asked.

We don't get home until gone 7pm. DS has homework every night and I don't find it too much. We get in and he sits at table and starts homework himself whilst dh or I prep dinner. We help as needed but def don't do it. He reads his school book at bedtime

Heels99 · 19/05/2015 10:18

Good Grief are there really parents that do their kids homework??? Why??
So, model making, my year 2 dds love this they would raid the recycling box and make something. It would look like a 7 year old did it, as it should, and take half an hour. Job done. Powerpointbthey couldn't do I would send note in saying don't have PowerPoint skills but have drawn picture instead. Or I may teach them basic PowerPoint depending on time available.

So called professional, assertive adults are doing their kids homework rather than discussing the issue of unsuitable homework with school or allowing kids to do their own homework. This is utterly bonkers and bad parenting.

Op, get a grip, re read your post you do the kids no favours by behaving like this. They do their own homework, or discuss unsuitable homework with school or bin the bloody homework and go to the parK! Current situation is ridiculous!

BarbarianMum · 19/05/2015 13:12

PowerPoint may be obsolete but presenting information to an audience certainly won't be. Learnig to organise and present your ideas in a coherent way with suitable visual aids is what making a PowerPoint presentation is about, not making text fly. And it's a damned useful skill.

viva100 · 19/05/2015 13:48

I remember these projects from when I was a kid. Half the class had their parents do it for them. Some of those same kids also still needed their parents' help all the way through high school. I think you should stop doing her homework. You're not helping her in the long run.
Also, my 6 year old niece uses the computer, she can google and put photos into a word doc etc. Maybe it would be more helpful if you taught her the basic skills so she can do it herself?

Eebahgum · 19/05/2015 18:23

I'm a teacher and I hate homework too. Some parents want more, some want less, some want worksheets & independent work, some want practical projects. Classic case of "you can't please all the children all of the time". I can guarantee you I don't spend hours setting & marking it for my own pleasure though.

BettyCatKitten · 19/05/2015 18:55

Yanbu. I think ks2 should be an hour longer and kids work at school, not home.

silverglitterpisser · 19/05/2015 22:17

Yanbu, many a time when my dd was at junior school I would not do the weekend projecty homework and I would send a note to school on the monday saying "Glittersdd has not done the homework this weekend as she has been busy being a child" . I did get it mentioned at parents evenings etc but I just dismissed it. Always did spellings, times tables n reading n would do the projects IF we had time or DD particularly fancied it but no way would we be sat researching something on a computer on a glorious summer day, we'd b out having fun!

DD is presently in line for all As n Bs at gcse so I'm sure it never hindered her.

There is too much homework for younger children n it puts unnecessary pressure on both children n parents, making it counter-productive.

maninawomansworld · 20/05/2015 15:58

Apart from reading, spelling and basic maths I am completely opposed to formal homework for primary school children and I just refuse point blank to do it, it's ridiculous.

It has no benefit whatsoever to the child and only serves to create an atmosphere of stress and conflict and erode important (and all to rare) family time.

Just say no! What are the teachers going to do, put you in detention?

adrianna22 · 20/05/2015 16:21

DS get's a new set of homework every week. Envy

popalot · 20/05/2015 16:25

homework should be consolidating numeracy, literacy or spellings based on work they have done in class. Projects should be a one off. I'd just do the bare minimum! Or let dd do it and see what the teacher says....

Moominmarvellous · 20/05/2015 17:28

I'm also in the don't do it camp.

I go over it with DD and if she can do it mostly independently, she does it the homework if she can't, we don't as it defeats the object IMO.

We always revise the spellings and do the reading but not always the other stuff.