How much homework do you do with your Y3 child?

[UndertheCedartree]

I've been in hospital and not able to support my 7 yr old DD (Y3) with homework as much as I would like. She is making good progress at school and very happy and settled but is a bit behind with spelling and handwiting as far as I can tell.

I'm hoping to be discharged soon and am working on routines for when I'm home and would like to include some time to support DD with her learning. The homework policy at school is that every 2 weeks they get some homework tasks but they are non-compulsory so I can be pretty flexible. I was thinking of aiming to do a Bug Club book, My Maths task, Times tables rockstars (all online programmes set as tasks on homework sheet), a workbook page for handwriting, learning Yr3 spelling list and then any extra tasks she'd like to do from the homework sheet. With reading at this age do parents still hear them read then write in the reading record or do children usually read to themselves and write in reading record themselves? Does this sound ok or too much? Or not enough? Interested in opinions.

@Divebar - that does sound very stressful. I'm glad my DD homework is optional so we can be flexible.

@Phineyj - her dad and a friend. Her Dad is reluctant to do homework with her as he lacks confidence - he learnt to read in a different language and has dyslexia. He could still do it with her if he tried, but I can't force him. I wouldn't ask my friend to do homework with her - she's done enough.

My yr 3 child does Times Table Rockstars and reading every day, and has weekly spellings. They get tested on the spellings and they have a reading target of 5 times a week which must be written in their reading record. So that's what we do. Nothing too stressful or long winded thankfully.

Mine probably reads 3/4 times a week for 20min independently. (Shes read around 400 pages so far since xmas).
Mathletics 3-4 activites set by school a week.
Spellings 10/week. Only takes about 5min a week though.
Times tables have recently spent about 2h this week doing Sqeebles. And now can immediately do
2,10,11 (up to 99),
And work out
5,3,4 and 9 (some of it) So just 6,7,8 and 12 left. The progress has been really quick. Just hope we can nail those harder ones (though obviously she can do the 1,2,3,4,5,9,10,11 etc of the harder tables so it's just when multiplying by each other.
Thankfully we dont get the rubbish open ended homeworks.
I would say focus on any weaknesses with maths/TT/reading first.

DD aged 8, year 3 - we practise spellings every week day morning... she has ten a week but only go over the ones she gets wrong, do mixed times tables as we walk to school, so usually about five or six random ones, l don't listen to her read very much any more as they read constantly at school and she is on the highest books for her class so l k ow she is ok with that, and she does her own homework...one task a week but l help if she asks. Hope tht helps x

Reading daily - only 5-10 minutes, spellings 4 days a week before the test, one weekly task eg maths/creative which takes between 15 minutes to an hour.
Timetables, hardly ever

If she’s otherwise doing well but needs a bit of attention on handwriting and spelling I wouldn’t do any of the online stuff. I’d read with her (however she prefers it, either her out loud to you or just setting time aside and both reading to yourselves together in the same room - make it cosy and a bit of a daily “treat”) and then talk with her about what you’ve both read and help her write either her own story or a report on what she’s read. If there are particular words or letter combinations she’s struggling with spelling wise I might do a game out of learning them each day - chant the spelling to each other and then see if you can write them down left handed or with your toes neater than she can do them left handed. Any other work I’d only do if she wanted to. Stress is no good for you if you’re recovering so don’t feel like you have to But if she likes the craft tasks could you set up a little craft area, or a plastic craft tub that makes it easy for her to have a go and you (or her dad - maybe this is something he’d be confident at?) just supervise from a distance and help out when she asks?

Homework at that age really turned one of my kids off school and research into it doesn’t seem to support it as a particularly useful way to raise attainment unless it’s targeted at weak spots. So I’ve tended to do as little as possible. We do, however, hugely encourage reading and we talk about all sorts of educational things - from philosophy, science and maths to geography, history and politics - always lead by someone’s interest or what’s popped up around us. So we spend a lot of time on educational stuff, but very little on homework. They’ve been doing well academically so it’s felt like a good approach for us but not all children are the same.

Thank you for the replies. Seems it varies quite a lot. I'd never force my DD to do homework but she usually enjoys doing it with me. I just want her to reach her potential - which I know is more than just homework. She does gymnastics, piano, choir and Brownies too. Once I'm discharged I'm looking forward to reading to her, playing with her, going to museums and the park and rollerskating!

@BoomBoomsCousin - she really enjoys the bug club and timestables rockstars so I think we'll do that. I don't think I have the headspace to think up questions for comprehension so I think I'd rather her do that on Bug club and I might get a spelling workbook for the same reason. But yes it makes sense to concentrate on where she is struggling. Getting her dad to help her with the creative projects sounds a good plan - he might even enjoy it!

If she enjoys it then it’s well worth doing.

I don’t think up questions for comprehension when I ask mine about what they’re reading, I just get them to tell me what they like or don’t like and take an interest, but that comes to me easily so I don’t find it hard work (there are plenty of other things I struggle with instead!). Spelling tends to be improved by reading and writing more than “doing spellings” (unless there are particular combinations/words she struggles with), which is why I suggested that. She might enjoy a spellings workbook anyway, but it sounds like what she really needs is practice writing. If she finds it hard then she probably needs something that makes writing seem fun so that she keeps on doing it for longer. Doing the crafty projects could well help her with fine motor control, though, which will help with handwriting too (though she still needs to actually write!).

Thanks @BoomBooms - I'm probably making it harder in my head than it needs to be! I agree about reading and writing being good for spelling rather than lists. I think she has a Usborne 'write your own book' on her shelf and a wordsearch one which might be good. And yes good idea about improving the fine motors in general. She actually really likes writing. She's got a couple of 'secret' diaries that she enjoys writing in.

My y3 has tons. Daily Reading and spellings, TT rock star and 12 online maths and English quizzes each week.. plus an extra homework task (aiming for one or two per term)

She can do it but i still need to listen to her read, test her spellings and sit with her for some of the online stuff too.

I listen to DS read every night.

On the weekends we have a regularly-scheduled fight about his spelling list, after which I cajole him into writing a few sentences.

Once in a blue moon I persuade him to do some mathletics.

That’s it and the teacher seems fine with it.

My DC's Dad has just told me he thinks our computer is broken! So we're going to struggle with the online work now which is ok for DD but I also have a 12yr old DS who really needs the computer!