...... to be fed up with the amount of homework my 7YO gets?

[fedupfrida]

My Year 3 child gets what i think is a LOT of homework and it's starting to cause more and more family stress, especially at weekends.

It doesn't help that she hates doing homework and would rather be playing (which 7YO wouldn't?) but here's a list for a normal week;

Times tables,
2 or 3 pages from a Maths workbook,
10 spellings
2 (yes 2) book reviews per week,
Literacy/Science homework (usually a piece of writing, reading comp etc)
Reading every night.

How much does your Y3 child get and am i BU to be fed up of the sheer amount of time it takes and eats into our precious family time at weekends?

You tell a six year old missing his playtime that since he didn’t do his homework after he did well to get into school at all it’s not a punishment, penggwn

Punishing children for events outside of their control just instills a dislike of and distrust towards school and teachers. That has the exact opposite effect than the one we want - for vulnerable children to enjoy coming to school and feel enthusiastic about their learning. It also encourages truancy. It has no positives. A six year old won’t see the error of his ways but he will feel unhappy, stressed and anxious.

Sounds a laugh a minute in Pengggwn world.

Please tell me you’re part time, then!

I think thankfully most people would see your method of punishment draconian and harsh and have little if nay learning benefit.

That sounds like a lot of homework, if it's making her upset and anxious, tell her to do what she can, and ask to see the teacher.

Do you want to attempt to answer my question? How would you do it?

I wouldn’t, not being a teacher. I would expect my child’s teachers to know the evidence base on the effectiveness of the methods they choose to deploy, which is why I asked.

A quick google showed numerous methods of teaching spelling being advocated by many, but many of those will be trying to sell something. I’m interested in knowing what works and why, given that none of us have learned to spell all the words we know by rote.

Why the aggression?

Playing and having a break during tjr day are absolutely vital for a childs well-being and mental health. They arebr some added extra on top of spelling.

Please do skme reading about how children learn through play. Physical movement actually stimulates neuron growth. Children NEED physical breaks and playtime in order to be able to do the learning we are pushing on them.

Taking a break away from a six year old is utterly counterproductive if you want them to thrive and be a happy learner

Playing and having a break during tjr day are absolutely vital for a childs well-being and mental health. They arebr some added extra on top of spelling.

Please do skme reading about how children learn through play. Physical movement actually stimulates neuron growth. Children NEED physical breaks and playtime in order to be able to do the learning we are pushing on them.

Taking a break away from a six year old is utterly counterproductive if you want them to thrive and be a happy learner

No wonder children in the UK are some of the unhappiest in all the developed countries. In most european countries 6 year olds arent even doing formal learning yet - and they have better outcomes than us.

Wow - I’m glad my DC’s are past this age. Other than reading mine didn’t do any primary homework. After a day at school and then after school club, the rest of the evening was taken up with sports clubs,, food, TV and bed. Luckily their school never restricted any of their break times because they didn’t do any homework - I would have objected immediately if this had happened.

Wow how patronising are you? My son loves school and I love his school too. But yes I consider a lot of the curriculum for 6 yr olds over the top and at odds with what is in tje best interests of the child .

Luckily our school would never take a break away from a young growing child so i know they do the best they can to give children a balance of learning and play/ exercise

Im hardly alone in thinking our education system is too harsh - its a widespread view thst the UK early years system has too much formal learning in it. As I said most other european countries have very differenr systems.

I don't believe it is a privilege and a joy to sit down doing spellings for hours when you are six !!

People on this thread all seem to agree that learning is a privilege and a joy. A lot of us are however, concerned that love of learning is compromised with excessive, uninspiring homework.

The point is, that creating a system based on punishments and sanctions for very young children is counterproductive, and to be honest even at secondary level I don’t think detentions are particularly effective. Certainly, I cannot imagine any teacher I know of young, young children punishing them for not doing something they couldn’t really hope to do independently.

OP- not to be irritating having not RTFT, but my Year 2 daughter gets exactly the same amount of homework as your DD. I think it’s excessive, we struggle to complete it. I have mentioned it gently to her teacher- DD has dyspraxia and finds sitting in a chair and writing exhausting- the reply was to write in her homework record that we have completed what we can and how long it took. So, I am basically writing in every day the activities we have completed, and why we haven’t completed some. It has become my homework not hers. On a few occasions DD has come home in tears as she has been kept in at break for not completing work, or the work has been returned, along with the fresh batch of homework to give us “a chance to re-do it over the weekend.”
I am at a loss. All of the other parents have voiced concerns, but the reply is that this is what the new curriculum demands. I see it as ticking boxes, to prove that work either has or has not been completed to justify results. I did say to the teacher that losing break times would be counter-productive for DD, she needs the physical activity time at break, otherwise she is staring into space in the afternoon.
My next step is speak to her Occupational therapist when I next see her, and explain that the homework demands are detrimental to her physical and mental wellbeing.
I think a word with the Head my be useful, apologies if you have already done this. I wanted to reply before I had chance to read the whole thread.

Ya think?