To just want a worksheet homework

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

I’m so over the creative homework’s, it’s homework for adults. My 6yr olds homework this week was to create a song about the fire on London! No way can she do that- it’s like pulling teeth- so I spent my evening after work thinking of words to rhyme with fire.
The week before was to design a book cover.

Can we not just go back to some lines of spelling, a worksheet of sums…please.
Anyone else have this/ feel like this?

Tbh I'd be happy with no homework at primary... but yeah I think those open-ended ones suit some kids but for us it just meant a LOT of parental involvement and stress for very little point.

Wait until you are spending the evening trying to help them work out the energy transformed due to frictional forces!

Now is the time to start to teach her how to do her homework independently, to generate her own ideas and to submit HER best work, not yours.

Open ended homework like this is much better than a worksheet to be fair, it's a lot more inclusive for a start.

The homework you've described doesn't sound like it really needs your input, your child is presumably in year 2 and should be able to complete it independently to the best of their ability, they don't need you to do it for them.

Design a book cover sounds pretty much like 'draw a picture and write the title of the book on it'm which should be okay. Agree that making up a song sounds a bit more daunting to a six-year-old (though my 2-year-old would simply replace all the lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with 'fire fire fire fire' and job done).

Just don't do it. Do the reading and spellings- and maths if they send any. Bin the other bullshit off.

I am a primary school teacher.

What do teachers really think here? It’s obvious if it’s written by the child or the parent. Do they think the parents are lazy? But what is the point of homework if it’s done primarily by the parents? Genuinely interested in other teachers opinions.

As a teacher I think it's a wasted opportunity for a child to use what they've been learning in the classroom.

There's absolutely no reason a 6 year old couldn't think of words that rhymed with fire or other words to make a poem it didn't even need to rhyme to be honest.

There's absolutely no reason a 6 year old couldn't think of words that rhymed with fire or other words to make a poem it didn't even need to rhyme to be honest well then mine must be incredibly thick because she couldn’t think of her own poem. I personally think it’s a big ask.

She can use this.. there was a fire in London and it was hot. Repeat for 2 mins. Job done

I think there was an idea that creative homeworks are fun. My dc hated them, especially ds. He especially hated any that went into art/craft. Draw a book cover was not something he enjoyed at all. He'd cope with writing blurb for a book, although that wasn't his favourite but it was better than drawing!

I think the worst was when they decided that maths homeworks would be open-ended creative types like "Write about the number two".
Eventually (actually I think it was week #2) I pointed out that some of the joys of maths are that you were right or wrong, and that you could see exactly what you had to do and know how much more you had to do, and I would be writing 20 sums (as much as possible round the theme) in the homework book for ds to do and he would do those.
The teachers didn't object, ds was much happier-and he learnt far more than "talking about circles".

I think one of the problems was that the teachers were all more English based, so they tried to make maths homework better by making it more like the English homework. They hadn't realised that some of the children would have been happier if they'd made the English homework more like the maths homework.

Of course she could have. She's done poetry in school before so could use that knowledge. If in doubt she could have done an acrostic poem with the word fire.

Yes! But for me it's because each child has 4 different sets of login details for different apps they get set work on and I also need to login to something to work out what it is they're supposed to be doing. I wish they just had a sheet in their book bag once a week.

A year two child probably knows more about writing different sorts of poems than the average parent. Her teacher will be aware of each child's' capabilities, they aren't expecting a nuanced piece.

The Great Fire of London

Fire!
People running.
Houses burning.
Bring the buckets.
The river is dry.

Teacher here.

I once worked in a school where each teacher had to provide NINE different options for their class each week, covering different subject areas. The children could choose as many to complete as they wanted.

Thinking up the activities was hell.
Marking it was hell. Especially when it was clear the parents had done it.

I loved it when kids didn’t do it as it meant less marking.

HUGE waste of time. Thankfully it turned most parents off homework so effectively that we scrapped it completely the following year!

I love this! Can I add a new line?

There was a fire in London and it was hot
It burned for days, it burned a lot.

YANBU, last week my DS was instructed to make a viking longship and was given the week to do it alongside reading and various app games. Weekday evenings are short enough as it is, DS loves crafting but he wants to do his own thing using his own imagination in his spare time.

We had this at my DC’s primary school but it was optional. We did a few over the years but it was usually the same kids (and parents 🤔?) who did it - they then got to show (off) their work to the class.

9??? You have my sympathies- sounds awful!

We had this at our DC's primary school.
If they couldn't manage it by themselves (and within the 45 minutes I allocated for homework each evening) it just didn't get done.
The school did say it was optional though, But only after I said how much stress it was causing at home.

Primary teacher here. Just don't do it! Homework has very little benefit and is a pain for all involved. Worksheets are a pain because they won't suit all the needs of the class.
If you want to do something then do reading and spellings and some maths games online to build up number fluency. But mainly reading!

I’d love dc to be able to submit online (which they do) and not need to print it out too. I hate the sodding printer. Also trying to stretch one Chromebook’s life out between two of them until Christmas when we’ll get them new laptops. mine are secondary but primary it should be:
learn spellings
learn times tables
read a book
tell a family member about three things from your day

anything else is pointless imo.

@JoinInBetty
She can use this.. there was a fire in London and it was hot. Repeat for 2 mins. Job done

@thinkfast
I love this! Can I add a new line?

There was a fire in London and it was hot
It burned for days, it burned a lot.

I'll continue (feel free to use for your kids homework)

There was a fire in London and it was hot
It burned for days, it burned a lot.
We needed help to put it out
Bring some water! we had to shout

I'm also on the side of just not doing it. My kids have had some ridiculous ones, my favourite ridiculous request was for us to build a model of a castle with a moat and drawbridge. Just no.

The 'fun' homework was the absolute fucking worst.

As for holiday projects...

YABU. It's your choice to do it for her. The most I'd do is ask them to sing something at me and I'd write it down, they aren't asking for a masterpiece, pretty sure it's just supposed to be a fun way to see what information they can recall about their lessons!