What's your reception child like after school ?

[dumdumdummer]

My DS is in year R, he bounces out of school with a smile, but about half back on the very short walk home he starts the whinging. This whinging lasts the rest of the day, nothing is right, but can I get him to sleep any earlier no. He lies in bed talking even if I ignore him.

The school gives us a weekly reading book, books on the computer, maths activities on an app, weekly tricky words to learn and the phonics of the week to revise. Plus they ask to practice letter and number formation at home. I feel stressed about all this homework and he's totally non compliant. Plus I have a toddler who makes it even harder.

I worry as my DS one of the youngest in his school year and I don't want him to be disadvantaged. I'm a late summer born too and I really struggled at school, and my parents didn't help or do homework with us.

I switch between he's only 4 and he's tired, we can't do homework to I can't let him get behind. I see other children in his class with reading books with words in for example. My DS is still on the picture only ones, so I feel like I need to do more, but it's so hard to get him to do anything. Teachers I have so much respect for you !

That’s a lot of homework! Neither of mine get any homework (7 and 9). They were both knackered at the end of the day in Reception - no way I could have got them to do anything!

He's 4! In many parts of the world, including my little corner of it, kids aren't required to be at school till 6. And the certainly don't have homework. At 4 his job is to PLAY and your job is to introduce him to new experiences and help him navigate human interaction. That's it!
The UK system is balmy to many of us. So much straitjacketing of children.

We have a reading book, worksheets, tricky words and a piece of homework on a Friday.
My April born daughter is pretty whiny when I get her from school but usually comes round and sits at the table while I’m cooking dinner and practices her writing then. Not every night though!

Whinging can be solved with immediate food.

Oh I think that’s a lot of work to do for a 4 year old. Some will be ready and willing to do all that but so many won’t be. My DD is in reception, she gets 1 book a week and a set of tricky words which get tested weekly and changed if they’ve learnt them.

Mine is one of the older girls so is coping okay so far, she’s always tired and hungry, to begin with she was really emotional but seems to be doing okay at the minute. In the last week or so I would say she’s ready for me to do more than the school is currently giving, she’s reading everything around her so I think I need to maximise on that.

My DS was the youngest in his class and was similar to yours. Stayed on picture books for a while, took longer to learn his tricky words. I think there can be a huge gap between the older and younger group but it levelled out for my DS in year 1 more. I certainly wouldn’t force anything as it can put them off and then that’s a whole other battle.

@Guineapigbridge

Whinging can be solved with immediate food.

This. Take a snack and post it into him before starting the walk home.

Does he have a snack when he comes out of school? If I forget DD’s bloody hell I’m in for it.

That does seem a lot of homework, can some of it be done at the weekend? We also do our reading in the morning, we do no more than 10mins, sometimes one book can take us two days to read.

My son is 4 in a month so in nursery year. He can sound out a few familiar 3 letter words (cat, dog, mum) etc. I find he is interested in this sort of thing/initiates it when he isnt tired. Mornings are best.

I'm trying to encourage him to strengthen his hands a bit more to manage a better pen grip, so I give him a picture from his favourite tv program to colour in after breakfast each morning and this seems to work well.

Can you maybe try doing some of the bits before school instead of after? Reading the book in bed together before you come downstairs, testing tricky words after breakfast?

I would ask the teacher which bits are most important to focus on and just try to do those well.

My 5yo is currently going through a very whinging stage, it’s exhausting. I just hope he will grow out of it soon. He always wants to be first for everything compared to his brother and will whinge if he’s not. I do feel that starting school can make them really tired. He’s actually in year 1 but of course didn’t have much of a reception year and so it’s all quite new to him. Luckily we are now at a school that doesn’t give us any real homework, one book weekly, but I remember when my 8 year old was in reception he, summer baby, struggled to read too. We rarely did the homework (different schools then) as he hated it and it was so traumatic getting him to try. I don’t think he really got into the swing of reading until this year, year 4. I remember being quite stressed when comparing him to a lot of other kids but he got there eventually. I guess my advice is try not to worry they usually all get there eventually.

I give a snack when he gets home which is some fruit plus a small individual wrapped cake / malt loaf / couple of biscuits. I do see lots of parents give snacks as they collect them.

We sometimes do tricky word at breakfast, but I have

.. I have a toddler, well one year old to wrangle too. It seems none of us are morning people. Which is probably why I can't get them to bed early. I did dinner much earlier tonight, but DS asleep at same time after lying awake for the extra hour.

That’s a lot of homework! Mine are Yr1 and Yr2 and homework is reading (they send home books but are very vocal that all reading counts - magazines, signs etc. They do ask recommend daily reading), and 1 page of maths book a week.

It seems masses of homework. It's a normal school.
@Freetodowhatiwant thanks does make me feel better. And solidarity on the whinging front. Let's hope for a quick phase.

Sounds like he’s tired. No point trying to force home work when he’s over tired. I’d focus on the reading together if I were you and then just help with phonics through games/play that you would normally do.

I think being summer born makes a huge difference. It’s not long since he was 3!! They do too much too young in my opinion.

So my kids starting whinging as soon as they walk in the door!!
I usually shove them in front the TV with a snack for one choice (30mons). Then after that seem a bit happier and we can do other things.

We cant manage homework after school that often. I sometimes test spelling when we are eating or driving, just a quick fire verbal thing as I dont get much resistance. We do a bit more at weekends. I find some stuff easier to read than others so if there is resistance to reading books, try a tacky character magazine or road signs or instructions for a new game or ask a relative to send a postcard. Also letter formation, we always found more motivation if it was something like a list of names for a party, rude words, christmas present list, birthday cards etc. Our child was very uninterested in maths until we found a card game they liked where they had to add points at the end to see who won. You don't need to do the schools official homework (although with tricky words I dont think there is an easy way to do them other than just learn them, although there are some free apps that make it slightly more fun) but try and find a way to do some other learning that he actually enjoys, at a time that he is receptive to it. If he is too tired then he is too tired.

My 5 yo bounces out of school and usually has lots of energy left to burn. That being said, she has a snack when she gets home and usually watches some TV straight away to unwind. Some days she’s really keen to do reading, practise tricky words or do her maths book, but if she doesn’t want to I don’t push it.

When mine were that age they both fell asleep on the journey home from school! Then were grumpy until tea time. No way would I be doing homework after that through the week. I'd try some at a weekend but even then if it caused a big issue I chose to enhance their learning in other enjoyable ways.
My niece was also the same and birthday 29th Aug. So a day later and would have been in the next school year instead. It does make a difference but they all catch up. I would do what you can but if it's causing such stress then stop. And tell school why.

DS is Y1 now but summer born and still knackered after school. We do tricky words (stuck on the front door so he tells me one before we go out every time - or all of them if he's in the mood) reading at bedtime, if he's not tired and wants to, or the weekend and anything other than this only gets done if we have time and he's not knackered. Reception year we only did tricky words and phonics as he was knackered and he's doing fine this year!

My DD is normally super hyper after reception. In the first term she would fall asleep eating her dinner but this term she seems to have gotten used to the full day and even when she's in bed on time it's a mission getting her to stop and go to sleep. She will be 5 in march so quite a bit older than your DC.
On the weekend I don't wake her up and last Saturday she slept until 10 but I make sure she's in bedat the usual school night time so I think this helps

I have an august born 4 year old and a just turned 1 year old. My eldest is soo moany after school he drives me potty, but very much like you say he bounces out of school and can't wait to go in the mornings. He has a snack in the car on the way home. He has a reading book I try to do before bed but only if he's into it and they have a maths programme on the computer to do at the weekends but other than that I wouldn't be able to get him to do much more. He does love writing and reading and maths so if he asks I do do it with him but I certainly wouldn't push it if he didn't want to. It's hard when they are the youngest but try not to worry, they all go at their own pace no matter when they were born.

She only gets 2 tasks on the seesaw app on Friday as homework, reading book is one picture book and one with simple words every week and she has a different phonics reading book which covers the sounds and words they are working on for that week. One small list of tricky words for this half term so very little compared to your DC.

My DS is in reception, nearly 5, and he's tricky after school. I find him temperamental and prickly at the start of the walk home and he can be really attitudey/disobedient, I guess maybe because leaving school is his first opportunity to misbehave after being "good" all day?

He always has a snack as soon as we get in, and always has 30-45 mins of TV to unwind. He's usually ok ish after this, but we don't do any homework except maybe going over his reading book once. Lately though we've been having tears and drama at tea time, he's very tired I think!

Homework wise that sounds loads. My DS gets one piece of homework every fortnight, but it's simple, fun stuff - collecting leaves to make a collage etc, plus one reading book a week.

We do phonics at bedtime. We have the jolly phonics books (seven in a set) and each night we read one book before bedtime story, one book takes about five minutes and there is a structure on each page that allows the child to trace the letter - therefore practicing letter formation.

My dd napped after school at that age, I would wake her by 5 and do a little work until I needed to do tea, her older sister loved workbooks for fun and didn't nap, so homework was a breeze and had to get extra workbooks (internet wasn't as good then)