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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to not want to do my son's homework?

60 replies

Themayorofshitterton · 12/02/2017 16:56

DS is in Year 5. They're doing Victorians. For his half term homework he has chosen two subjects, factories and Queen Victoria. All very well, except teacher has decreed that they can't just hand in something written with pictures. It has to be different. Wtaf?! What is DS meant to do? Build a scale model of a Victorian factory from toothpicks? Mould a bust of Queen Vic from cookie dough? He is only interested in football and gaming, but does well in maths and literacy at school. What do they want from him??? DP and I have zero creative skills but we're going to have to think of - and make - something with him which none of us will enjoy as we'll be crap at it. I just want to tell teach to shove it but suspect that won't do DS any favours.... Help!

It has to be handed in next Friday so there won't be time to wait until after half term to talk to his teacher, we are going to have to get started in the hols. When I'm mostly working. Argh.

OP posts:

underneaththeash · 12/02/2017 17:32

I hate homework like this.

I had an enormous castle made of of boxes sitting in my kitchen for 3 weeks, went in last Tuesday and THEN they wanted me to take it home again on Friday. We forgot it.

youarenotkiddingme · 12/02/2017 17:33

factory bought Victoria sponge that's genius!

Love the idea of a podcast. Or is there a free museum near you? Could he make a film - walk around the display and you film him talking about it.

2ducks2ducklings · 12/02/2017 17:35

I get my 8 year old son to make a model out of lego. He is amazing at lego and he enjoys it so it's normally the only thing I can get him to do.
I hate, hate, hate bloody topic homework with a passion. I'll do maths, spelling and reading, but I can't explain how my heart drops when I see 'topic work' written in the diary

bumsexatthebingo · 12/02/2017 17:36

I agree with the pp who said let your son decide. Part of the idea of the homework will.be to encourage him to think creatively and you are denying him that opportunity of you present him with your shortlist if fantastic ideas. Even if it isn't a great idea by adult standards or fantastically executed he will have gained something by planning and completing it himself.

knittingwithnettles · 12/02/2017 17:40

What about a selection of "factory" products ie textiles made in Victorian times? (needs research obvs)
And Victoria - you could do a family tree showing how she ended up on the throne. Or a lots of different Victoria "stamps" showing her head at different stages of her life.

BertrandRussell · 12/02/2017 17:41

My ds always used to write a story or a poem for homework like this.

My dd used to bake something.

EweAreHere · 12/02/2017 17:43

I wouldn't make mine do it at all.

Why don't holidays mean holidays for children? I don't do work over the holidays. Why should my children?

pigsDOfly · 12/02/2017 17:45

How I hated this sort of homework when my DCs were young.

I was useless at coming up with ideas and one of my DCs would never have produced anything without some sort of input from either me or her older DS; she wasn't lazy or naughty, just not very able at this age.

Children at the school would bring in the most amazing projects, projects clearly done by their parents but that would nonetheless be marked by the teacher as if she really thought the work was the child's own.

Ridiculous and pointless.

Original poster

Themayorofshitterton · 12/02/2017 17:45

If I leave him to it, he will cry, sit in front of a computer for hours starting at it blankly and come up with nothing. If I give him suggestions and let him get on with it, he will come up with something. When the homework is pointless it's about getting it done. Is my philosophy. I don't do it for him and don't correct his mistakes. But he hasn't got a forum full of ideas, as I do. So I'm supporting him by giving him ideas. Then locking him in a room and refusing to feed him until he's done it 😉

OP posts:

roundtable · 12/02/2017 17:47

I actually really like your idea about videoing in the queen Vic pub!

bump6 · 12/02/2017 17:48

Make a game with a spinner..
print pictures of Victorian era things.
Ask questions on different spaces. Have spaces where you move backwards & forwards.

Original poster

Themayorofshitterton · 12/02/2017 17:49

And if he had told me about the homework when it was set rather than two weeks later he wouldn't have had to do any of it in half term. So that's a lesson learned right there.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am now going to make tea.

OP posts:

DeterminedToChange · 12/02/2017 17:50

What about a poster that would be put up in a Victorian factory with the rules and regulations on? He could do some research. There must have been rules about safety, fines, etc.

Original poster

Themayorofshitterton · 12/02/2017 17:50

That is a great idea!

OP posts:

F1GI · 12/02/2017 17:53

I'd definitely help him do a poster. I hate this type of homework for this age group. I thought homework was supposed to be something you did to make sure you understood that day's lesson. eg you learn the 3xtable in a lesson and then do a sheet of mixed up 3xtable questions, maybe with some wordy ones to extend. The whole point being that if there was anything on the sheet you didn't understand, you could ask your mum or whoever and then your knowledge/understanding gaps would be filled in. Rather than random undefined shite like the OP describes.

QueenofLouisiana · 12/02/2017 17:54

Photo montage of factories/ queen Victoria. Add a bit of text as captions. PicCollage on iPad is fab and easy to use.

bumsexatthebingo · 12/02/2017 17:55

Would he really sit and cry if he had to do his own homework?
In that case why not help him come up with his own ideas while talking to him if he struggles. Ask him what kind of thing he would enjoy doing then ask him how he could relate it to the topics. I'm sure he would be capable with a bit of support.

Niskayuna · 12/02/2017 17:57

Yeah, just... don't.

My parents probably never knew I even had homework. It wouldn't have occurred to me to even ask them about it.

He can do it. All of it. If he doesn't his teachers can therefore see the gaps in his knowledge or whatever.

Parents who do homework for their kids screw everything up. A bunch of projects made by 45 year old hands makes the honest kids look bad, and it also means the teachers keep setting the standards higher and higher, apparently unaware it's not the kids whipping out the drills and screws, or firing up the sewing machine to make replica Tudor gowns.

Niskayuna · 12/02/2017 17:57

Oh, and if my son sits and cries when I tell him to do his own homework, I gently tell him that's TOTALLY OK!! because I'll just let his teacher know he's clearly having struggles, and lo and behold, he does the damn work. Because it's all for show.

FireInTheHead · 12/02/2017 18:04

OP isn't going to do the homework she just wants ideas to give dc the inspiration to do something himself, suggesting ideas isn't actually doing it for him. As already pointed out here not everyone is good at coming up with creative ideas for work like this. Really it would have been a far better brief for the teacher to give some ideas as to what she would consider different or had the kids come up with some in class rather than the vague assignment she did give.

Maverickismywingman · 12/02/2017 18:04

Inventions from the Victorian age that we use today?
Telephones, electricity.

Or perhaps a timeline with what the queen was doing and what was happening in the rest of the world?

5moreminutes · 12/02/2017 18:05

Niskay but if you grew up in the UK and went to a state school you probably didn't have homework at junior school, did you?

Ordinary primary schools didn't used to send home homework except for a reading book and spellings/ tables to learn 30+ years ago, so parents of current year 5s probably didn't have homework til what is now called year 7 but used to be The First Year :o

Though I agree parents had absolutely no involvement and that was asit should be, the insanity that is random pointless busywork homework for primary school children wasn't the norm when current parents of 10 year olds were children.

Original poster

Themayorofshitterton · 12/02/2017 18:21

Yeah, not actually doing it. Just want to get it out of the way so we can do something fun together. Seeing as all the evidence shows that homework for primary school children makes no difference to their learning whatsoever I don't see why I should insist he come up with ideas when I can't even do that myself. It's a box to tick. And I'm now looking forward to discussing ideas with him, because I've been suggested so many, which is much nicer than trying to get him to give a shit about something so achingly pointless.

OP posts:

bumsexatthebingo · 12/02/2017 18:25

You don't have to do it at all. But since you are why not help him come up with his own ideas if that's something he struggles with so he actually gets something out of it? Either that or just leave it (probably what I would do).

MalibuSeafood · 12/02/2017 18:25

I'm pretty sure the Horrible History books (Vile Victorians?) had a section on Victoria visiting various places. Maybe a newspaper article about her visiting a factory?

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