...... 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?

At the risk of sounding overly nitpicky, a primary aged child would in all probability not have the option of staying before or after school to use the computers, etc.

Which would mean giving up their breaks and lunch times to complete homework. I don’t see that as a positive.

I can assure you there are many things I cannot do, at home or otherwise.

YANBU - our Y3’ have a homework sheet for the whole term which has 12-15 pieces on it but are all optional to do. It all has a ‘theme’ somtheyncan choose to read, write, explore, draw, Cook, do something musical build or make, or do an outdoors project etc. We probably do
1-3 of those things a week when DC chooses. At end of term the kids bring in and show some of the things they’ve done. The school is ‘outstanding’ BTW and our DC doing fine in all
Subjects... can’t see the point of homework at this age. They have so much to learn as it is... they need time to play and imagine and explore the world.

It's not just kids with special needs though. No primary aged child should be going from after school club to homework to bed. What happened to playing outside and getting physical exercise? Using your imagination to make up games etc? Kids these days know more about pre fronted adverbials than getting along with others but which is more likely to be of use to them in life?
Half the homework given now is to be done on IPads as well. I can think of very few children who need more screen time.

I hate, hate, hate homework in primary schools. I imagine most teachers found primary school fairly easy and sailed through the work so don't really understand how much of a chore school is for some children.

I have 2 foster children. When they came to me they'd missed most of the previous year at school and were miles behind. They've narrowed the gap somewhat but it is a struggle for them every day. I then hate the fact that they have to struggle again when they're at home.

So we've stopped struggling. We read their reading books but that's it. Book reviews and spelling lists go in the bin. We were spending ages learning spellings only for them to only get about half right anyway (because they're too hard for them but that's another issue) so now we just don't bother. I'd rather they relaxed and destressed at home. So far nothing's been said by school and I keep being told they're making 'good progress' so it can't be harming them particularly.

My kids go to a very academic school (not in UK) and have always completed homework tasks, but they’re less than what’s expected of your child.

For my just finished new entrant that’s been a reader a night and maybe 10 maths questions with 5 night’s to do the latter.

For my year 4 student there’s a fortnightly work sheet with spelling, an interesting maths question to problem solve and a reading log. If filled in the night before it was due it wouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes. Every 3 weeks or so there’d be online maths which would take about 10 minutes. She’s doing maths pull out 3-4 years ahead so if set by her enrichment teacher this maths would take longer, but she didn’t mind.

My year 5 student had a weekly work sheet with spelling, maths (times tables and a few questions), reading log and maybe a question relating to something they were studying in history or geography, requiring a bit of research and about a paragraph of text.

None of this ever took a long time and there were never tears.

*five nights, not night’s.

My average intelligence 13 year old dd never had spellings to bring home from school and yet her spelling is great. Good enough to represent the school recently in fact. How did that happen? By using the time she wasn't having to learn words by rote to encourage a love of reading and writing just for fun and for its own sake. There are many different ways to skin a cat. Making a distressed, sobbing 7 year old complete reams of work sheets even night is probably way less effective than curling up with a book they've chosen from the library or letting her make a poster or whatever she wants.

So what's your suggestion then? Like it or not we live in a society where both parents often have to work and after school clubs are needed. You need to cater to the children in front of you not those in some kind of ideal society in your imagination.
I repeat no primary child should be going from after school club to homework to bed. And doing away with after school care is unfortunately not possible for many families.

Well if you class learning as purely academics then homework should take priority. But if you value learning social skills, executive functions and good mental health (all better indicators of success in later life than academic achievement at primary) then children having time to play, preferably outside is a much better way for them to be spending their time than filling in worksheets.
And way to go removing the playtime from young children who need yet don't have parental support to complete homework. I hope that makes you feel good!

At our school, homeworks in KS1 is not compulsory.
It is in ks2, but it's manageable amount. They also have homework clubs where teachers are there to help at lunch time. I don't see it as bad thing, I feel grateful that teachers are using their own time to help children who need it. And most of the time, those who doesn't have parental support are the ones who really need the support. Lunch time homework clubs have been going on for years, so it must be popular.

If parents think the amount is too excessive, they need to raise their concern with school. Comparing how much homework they have at different schools really doesn't help much with the problem.

Why not take it up with the parent then since they are the ones at fault?

Well that's nice for vulnerable children who are least likely to complete homework and most in need of playtime. Well done!

Looking out for the well-being or vulnerable kids with unsupportive parents isn’t patronising.
Are you SURE you’re a teacher? Most are teaching around this time...

Most primary teachers I know are pretty well read on the benefits of play that’s all —and they’re also at work—

You aren’t holding parents responsible, you are holding the children responsible. Which may be appropriate at secondary but with children as young as 4 I think it is unfair for them to face consequences for their parents not enforcing homework.