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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to spend time at weekend doing this sodding homework?

158 replies

eleflump · 29/11/2015 18:36

I know I probably am BU...

DS is in Year 7, and has to do a project on castles. He has to do research on various types of castle - do labelled drawings, write about them, all ok.

Except the last task - to make a model of a concentric castle. Which needs to take at least two hours.

I work full-time, DH works full-time, and next weekend I am also working Sunday, which leaves me Saturday to do everything I need to do. And Christmas is coming.

I was crap at art projects at school, thirty-odd years later, it hasn't got much better. DS is crap at art projects and won't have a clue without me trying to help him.

I am going to need to go and buy all the stuff to make the bloody model...which will take up more time.

I thought I had left all this behind at primary school!!!!

Oh - another thought...how the bloody hell is he going to get it to school on the bus?????

Why don't they do this stuff at school where they have the time, the resources, and (presumably) people who know how to do it?!!!

OP posts:
Mrscog · 29/11/2015 18:37

If send a letter in outlining your objections and just enjoy the weekend.

bumbleymummy · 29/11/2015 18:38

YANBU

BlackeyedSusan · 29/11/2015 18:41

toilet rolls and cereal boxes and leave him to it. scrunch up some newspaper for a hill cliff or whatever the bloody things sttand on...

but yes yanbu. fucking homework that take sup all family time.

AnnaMarlowe · 29/11/2015 18:44

I feel your pain.

Although at Year 7 m, which is what 11yo? He should really be able to do most of it himself...

Remember it doesn't need to be big. It just needs to represent a concentric castle. Cut the walls out of cardboard as a long flat piece, decorate them with appropriate brick and window patterns and then arrange in a square pattern.

It needs to be detailed not big.

Mistigri · 29/11/2015 18:45

This would infuriate me - it's not even as if it has any particular educational value for a 12 year old, it's just make-work. Here they'd just get whatever my child could make from the contents of the garage.

My DS who is nearly 13 has had ridiculous amounts of literature homework this term - including two very time-consuming homework tasks based on quite difficult texts that they had not previously studied in class (the last one took him 6 hours plus to complete). I am going to have a word at parents' evening next week, because I think it's excessive - but in the teacher's defence, at least there is a genuinely educational benefit to it.

scrappydappydoo · 29/11/2015 18:45

No no no I was looking forward to secondary and not having to do this kind of thing...
So practical help:
could you do it inside the lid of a large shoebox so you put the box over it as a cover and make it easy to transport?
Could he build it from Lego? Or sugar cubes?
How explicit are the instructions - could he build one in Minecraft?

gandalf456 · 29/11/2015 18:46

That would annoy me and I'm the same. Me not helping means she has a massive meltdown and me doing it wrong does the same. I also work Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday

BathshebaDarkstone · 29/11/2015 18:50

YANBU. Also homework which involves researching on the web when all I have is a smartphone and they only just took out the credit to renew my Big Value Bundle this morning, so it cost nearly all my credit and I had to top up again.

TheScottishPlay · 29/11/2015 18:50

We are currently researching Mussolini for a talk DS (11) has to do.
We have been at it for 2 hours. Our family is at breaking point.

FuckyNell · 29/11/2015 18:54

My dh and ds are searching for a missing - in a quadratic equation. I think.

exLtEveDallas · 29/11/2015 18:54

I made a castle cake for my (then) year 7 neighbour. She was very happy and I got an A!

Narp · 29/11/2015 18:56

It is their homework. Leave them to it. Any other way is madness.

The sooner you back off the better it will be for all concerned. I have been there with two sons

Original poster
eleflump · 29/11/2015 18:57

Thanks for the sympathy!!!

I really thought as DS2 has just started Year 7 that we had waved goodbye to learning logs and the two days notice to come dressed as a Roman/martian/frog etc.

As DS2 has just commented - 'they tell us that we're not in Year 6 anymore, but are giving us Year 6 homework!!!'

OP posts:
Original poster
eleflump · 29/11/2015 18:59

Aaargh LteEve - DS has just informed me that we can indeed make it out of cake if we so desire!

Alas, I am no more Mary Berry than I am Mr Maker, and so I think cardboard and loo rolls will have to be the order of the day...

OP posts:
nocoolnamesleft · 29/11/2015 18:59

Ooh, that sounds great fun. Reminds me of the year I made my niece a pop up birthday card in the shape of a castle, with several layers of walls, a working drawbridge and portcullis, and a princess in the highest tower.

Sorry, not helping. I guess you either love doing this sort of thing, or you don't.

BollocksToThat1 · 29/11/2015 19:01

As long as the written work is done then forget the castle. What s waste of time.

Write a letter but bet half the class don't bother either

Weekends are family time.

Radio13 · 29/11/2015 19:02

TheScottishPlay that really made me laugh.

YANBU! Sounds awful.

Narp · 29/11/2015 19:06

Bollocks

I agree. If Ops son has the screamingabdabs about crafty stuff, he needs to ensure he can show that he knows what the features of a medievel castle are. If school objects to that, then talk to them.

I

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 29/11/2015 19:06

Leave him to it. You're making a rod for your own back if you don't, he'll have projects like this throughout secondary, at least until year 9. Make an authentic old diary, make a physics thingy...

I really enjoyed mine, but I did them myself, my parents wouldn't have helped. I made mine from gingerbread and tiny model figures.

MatildaTheCat · 29/11/2015 19:09

Would Lego count?

We all hated this crap with a passion, too.

FinallyHere · 29/11/2015 19:12

Another vote for leaving them to do it themselves. The end product may not teach so much, but the process of thinking 'help, what do i do' and working out which of the possible ideas is the one to go for and then actually making something is what there is to learn. Too easy, and its pants, but too difficult and you may not get very far. They will be looking for ideas, as much as realisation and delivery

Its fun, its learning, if you leave them to it and don't get up tight 'what do we need to deliver'

You can encourage, by saying what were you thinking of doing, or that sounds good etc. enjoy.

AuntieStella · 29/11/2015 19:14

Someone mentioned Minecraft - I think that's the way to go for a building.

And yes, it sounds more like a primary school half-term project than a secondary school homework.

(Though we have baked a year 7 'make a model of a ...' homework. Basic cake, amazing marzipan structured icing)

SirChenjin · 29/11/2015 19:14

YANBU

Making viking boats/castles/models of a volcana is not homework - it is project work that should be done at school, not at the weekends when it cuts massively into valuable family time. Even if they can just get on with it themselves, children normally have sports or family stuff they have to do. Chuck in working parents and it becomes something that has to be endured rather than a valuable learning experience (or whatever it's supposed to be)

SirChenjin · 29/11/2015 19:14

volcano

littledrummergirl · 29/11/2015 19:17

Why are you getting involved? It is his homework, it should succeed or fail on his own efforts.

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