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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To just want a worksheet homework

120 replies

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 26/09/2023 16:38

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?

OP posts:

ATerrorofLeftovers · 27/09/2023 20:28

Wait till you spend the better part of a weekend painstakingly making and painting a replica Tudor house, while the child who’s meant to be doing it colours in all of one window and three beams, only for said house to end up in the playground being set fire to, in a cod recreation of the Great Fire of London….. 😢

Ap42 · 27/09/2023 20:39

We do reading and spellings. I don't entertain the other crap my daughter is sent home with unless she desperately wants to do something... normally the crafty stuff. There's plenty of time for homework in the upper years. I would bin it off and just do the important stuff

PaperLanterns · 27/09/2023 21:04

Ah we just put this out for the try-hards as optional homework on top of the reading, times tables and spellings (that most parents seem to see as optional anyway)

Hatty123 · 27/09/2023 21:07

In 1666 in a baker’s shop,
Pudding Lane saw a fire that they couldn’t stop,
The wind did blow and the flames did spread,
Before they knew it there were many dead…

From Fish Hill to the famous Thames River side,
People ran from their homes and tried to hide,
Taking wine, cheese and gems in carts they fled,
The angry fire turned London orange and red.

herethereandeverywhere · 27/09/2023 21:37

I hate 'creative' based homeworks - less so the poem type, more the 'design a poster/spider diagram/ newspaper/ recreate the scene from X'. SO many primary/ year 7 homeworks are like this and not all kids are the handy/creative types.
So however good their research or idea is, because it isn't presented like a work of art they don't get a look in. It's so demoralising for them and it is teaching form over substance. Either that or they spend 95% of the time making their bubble writing heading perfect then run out of steam for the actual content 🤯

Mummytotheboy · 27/09/2023 22:16

When I was at primary school in the early 90s we didn't have homework. We had 10 spellings to learn which we got on the Friday for the test the following Friday and I only remember these in the last few years of school. Occasionally you had to take times tables but that was mostly done in school

Stompythedinosaur · 27/09/2023 22:40

I think you shouldn't do your kid's homework for them, what's the point in that?

It doesn't matter how bad her song is, let her make it up herself!

Hellodarknessmyoldpal · 27/09/2023 22:42

2reefsin30knots · 26/09/2023 16:49

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.

Yes exactly! I do reading with DD and ignore the grids.

cutegorilla · 27/09/2023 22:43

Give0fecks · 26/09/2023 16:58

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.

Mostly the point is to placate the parents that demand homework. There's also an idea that it's a way to encourage parents to engage in doing something meaningful with their children to level the playingfield but tbh the parents that do it are the ones that engage well with their children anyway. It just ends up being another thing the disadvantaged kids miss out on. The parents that don't won't get involved with the homework either.

IME lots of teachers hate these homeworks too but are bound by the school homework policy to set it.

EggTheParrot · 28/09/2023 00:45

Londons burning Londons burning...

Just get her to sing that and play dumb

IndysMamaRex · 28/09/2023 12:01

Yep I’m the same. I don’t mind reading homework or something small like but if maths or writing practice but I HATE forcing my son to do drawings etc cos he’s just not into it. Pass him some Lego & he’ll build you a whole world but force him to draw a poster etc is like pulling teeth & don’t see how it’s actually helpful to child OR the overworked teachers

EaudeJavel · 28/09/2023 12:17

YAB massively U

I have never understood why parents felt the need to compete with the Joneses and had to do the homework themselves. What's the actual point of that?

It's shit for the children who actually do the homework themselves, and are made to feel bad because an adult work is better than theirs. It doesn't matter what the teacher marks or not, kids are not blind.

Bad enough to enter a weird competition against a bunch of 6 years old, but moaning about it? No one made you.

Temporaryname158 · 28/09/2023 12:23

You are too invested. Let her fail if she literally can’t think of a word rhyming with fire. Let her teacher see she can’t do it. It might mean your daughter gets some more support rather than you doing it for her. That’s not helping at all.

also studies show homework in primary schools doesn’t improve educational outcomes

EaudeJavel · 28/09/2023 12:31

also studies show homework in primary schools doesn’t improve educational outcomes

bet studies results would be different if you could separate homework done by children vs homework done by their parents

FinallyHere · 28/09/2023 13:53

homework for adults.

If you are doing the homework, what are DC learning from it. How does the teacher know how your DC is getting on? Have they understood or do they need help.

It's really unfair. Just stop. Let them have a fry themselves, answer their questions as best you can. If they get stuck, help them to work out why they are stuck, what they need to understand to continue.

Have them ask the teacher that.

Meanwhile, stop prioritising your looking good over your DC's learning.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, it's really, really important they learn these skills.

Gmary20 · 28/09/2023 17:22

Im a teacher, taught year 2 and I completely agree with you. The most ridiculous thing from my point of view as a teacher is when marking you have to give targeted 'feedback' on the homework for them to make amendments. It's a farce as often the kids don't even understand the conments (they're 6!!!), so the teacher or TA ends up doing it for every child which wastes time and they learn nothing from it. It's all enforced by bead teachers and is for OFSTED, I don't believe it actually benifits the children at all. A prime example of box ticking and the endless admin that teachers say ruin the job and make it untenable. It's things like this that lead me to leaving teaching.

Gmary20 · 28/09/2023 17:31

Teachers hate it too, we have to spend hours creating all these bullshit excerasizes that the kids don't learn anything from, and then hours marking them giving detailed feedback that the kids don't read, all so the books look pretty when OFSTED come to visit so the head can feel good about getting an outstanding rating, when imho all that means is the teachers in the school are being overworked for useless shit like this.

CecilyP · 28/09/2023 17:44

Pollydarling · 27/09/2023 17:04

Teachers don't want your work though. Ask her to try her best and write down what she produces. That's it. It might look shit to you but it's all a yr1/2 teacher expects and the homework is done. Get some pots and pans out as drums and let her go for it. Film it and send via email.

But surely that would be OP’s work!

IamMummyhearmeROAR · 28/09/2023 19:34

Homework has no impact at the primary stages. John Hattie's years of research and hundreds of meta analyses proved this . Parents say they want it because they think that's what teachers want to hear. But nobody wants to do it when it comes down to it.

Mibby16 · 01/10/2023 19:31

We've just had 'make an About Me book, using photos'. Which is clearly parent-homework cos there aren't many 4 year olds who can access a printer to print their own photos (and take them/ pay for the ink) , or order online prints!

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