And the latest hare-brained homework project is...

[Honourspren]

Outing, hence NC (though I like this new one, might keep it 😁).

For a class of 7-year-olds, homework this half-term:

Design and create a game that uses magnetic force. You will have a chance to try out your games and evaluate them as a class.

I am thoroughly annoyed, on several counts:

• The game uses magnets, which school obviously cannot supply. We therefore either have to fork out to supply our own or guess the school magnets' strength and dimensions. Kids whose parents neither own magnets they can spare, nor have the money to buy their own will automatically disadvantaged.
• There is almost no way to design a game without also supplying other materials. At the very least, cardboard - even if you go for a maze-type game, the paper won't be strong enough not to rip once you try out the game, and again, without knowing what magnets the school actually has, you cannot design a suitable map. This means planning for standard magnets, so enough cardboard for at least A3/A2 size is needed. For a racing game or fishing game (both suggested) you need to build 3D walls to stop the magnets from interacting with each other. You need a supply of paperclips for other games.
• Which means parents (let's face it, mums) will need to get involved. Find the time to plan and build together, even if 7-year-olds can decorate alone.

Now, my child is very fortunate. I know how magnets work well enough to help come up with a realistic plan (many 7-year-old plans are far too complicated and designing a working game is well beyond the mental capabilities of many young children, who will want to see theirs work come evaluation day). I can supply materials because I collect craft materials, I can supply magnets because I had the money to buy some. I can sit down with my child for a day and make a game, because I am fortunate enough to be off work.

Many children won't have that. Any of it.

We've done many craft-based activities that school asked us to do, but all of them so far were possible to do with little help. This one, however, is not.

AIBU to say that teachers should think carefully before assigning such projects to children over half-term?

OP you are taking this WAY too seriously. The concept is fine. They’re 7. If it doesn’t work they’ll be able to evaluate oh the magnets were stronger than I expected, next time I will do x instead. It’s not your homework, you don’t need to make it so.

One of the things I find almost unbearable about Mumsnet is the number of people who simply cannot conceive of people who live life differently to them.

People who can't imagine that other people can be poor and have no spare income.

People who can't imagine that other people can be wealthy and have limitless spare income.

People who can't imagine that other people's partners or families are toxic and can't be trusted.

People who can't imagine that other people's partners or families are kind and generous and would never do anything to hurt them

But this post is perhaps the daftest I have ever heard.

Can I really imagine that there are people without fridge magnets?

Yes. Yes, I can.

I presume they all took their pieces of meat back into school but tbh we didn’t do the homework 🤢 so I have no idea

Who can’t afford magnets? You can buy a big pack on Amazon for less then five pounds.

I would view this as unsuitable though because I don’t think children should be playing with magnets. From my experience they do seem to have a habit of swallowing them then needing sometimes very invasive treatment for removal.

@Cloudysky81 You realise there are many people in this country living hand to mouth? People to whom £4.99 (the cheapest I saw in a quick search) plus whatever Amazon charges to non-subscribers for P&P may mean a few days' worth of meals, or being able to replace a piece of clothing or two with something from the charity shop or go without?

TBF it isn't something I ever thought I'd see held up as a basic living standard, and found it quite funny. 😀 (no meanness intended)

I was reading your list and nodding along but when I got to "People who can't imagine that other people's partners or families are kind and generous and would never do anything to hurt them" I stopped in my tracks because I can imagine all sorts of things easily enough, and that should be easy.
But I realized that while it's something I hold up as the ultimate 'winning in life,' and I can dream it or believe others saying they have it, I actually find it quite hard to actually imagine how it really looks. It feels like peering through fog at something floaty and vague.

As a child I'm afraid I was the one that would have stolen the magnets to solve the problem of being caught between school and parent. 😶

Consequently I moved heaven and earth to ensure my children would never be in a position were they couldn't hold their heads high with these things, even if it meant something else had to give.

Someone suggested families facing financial issues could always have a 'word with the teacher.' While well intentioned, it makes the assumption that poorer parents have no shame or entitlement to dignity.

I try to imagine what it must be like to think telling the teacher I was on the bones of my ass was a good idea for me and mine, and find I can't.

I would never have imagined being a scientist might complicate a school science project, until shown. It gave food for thought.

So maybe all our differences in what we take for granted or don't, are part of what makes talking to each other here rewarding to us and helps expose us to different things we might struggle to otherwise imagine, even if we expose odd parts of ourselves in the process?

Can I really imagine that there are people without fridge magnets?

Well, given that a lot of people have built-in fridges with a cupboard door on the outside, I'd be surprised if you couldn't imagine it. I could try having fridge magnets, but unfortunately they don't stick to cupboard doors.

Just wait until your 10 yo is asked to design and build a musical instrument with pitch and tone.

I used to keep mine off on the day rubbish like this was happening. I had way too much going on in other areas to be able to do crap like this. Same with costume days etc. Just wasn't happening, as it didn't fit in with our lifestyle, external demands and mental bandwidth.

And no, their education didn't suffer and they've both gone on to have successful young adult lives with higher education etc.

This has changed recently in Ireland.

Having children costs money and is fairly expensive. If someone isn't in a position to afford £4.99 for a school project, are they really in a position to be having children.

I've had to spend thousands each month for nursery fees, which I accepted, but made sure I was able to before we started a family.

A better question would be should we really be designing a society that disenfranchises millions from one of the basic drivers of life?

But regardless of the answer to your question or mine, people do have children in situations where they can’t afford extras and others have children at a stage where they can afford the extras but circumstances change. So we have children living in families where a fiver spent on magnets will be a fiver not spent on something more necessary.

I would have thought most people have a magnet at home somewhere? Mostly on the fridge?

I've had to spend thousands each month for nursery fees, which I accepted, but made sure I was able to before we started a family.

You obviously had a crystal ball then. A lot can change in people's personal circumstances and in the cost of living between deciding to start a family and your child leaving home and funding themselves.

Society tends to look down upon widows (or the just found themselves unemployed because the company's gone bust) who execute their offspring for the sake of a packet of magnets, I believe.

It says design and create. It doesn't say that you actually need to build it or did I miss that?

@DoorPath no we have always paid a very nominal rental fee. Government gave free books last few years also.

My experience is schools consider household capacity. For example our school ensures all children have the same bits n bobs by giving vouchers very discreetly to families.

They collect on app for art resources from those that can. Trips always have a few places available as well. Generally small schools i.e. each year would have 2 classes of c. 24 and one special support c. 6-8.

I find our education system a lot more individually focused as opposed to my experience in England

I read the “create” to mean build it, given they’ve already said design which, to me, would be the alternative meaning of create in this context.

Easy. Iron fillings and create. Maze on cardboard that they can pull along with a magnet underneath

Iron filings are dangerous in the hands of children.

@Tardidegraded Yes, it was design and create with a view to playing those games, ready for evaluation, when the children return. It also means that anyone who doesn't do their homework misses out again at that stage, and quite publicly.

Either way, our game is done and the child is proud of it. They couldn't have done it independently, especially considering many of the practical aspects, but I certainly didn't over-do it once the base structure stood and the result is still very much the work of a 7-year-old.

you don’t need to dole out magnets like some lady bountiful at the school gates or on the local whatsapp group. just make a donation to the classroom teacher, and he or she can give them out to the poverty-stricken ones. you’re a renowned scientist. really, is that really so hard to figure out? anyway, who are you to speak on behalf of poor people? who elected you their voice piece? are all the poverty stricken ones mute? can’t they speak for themselves? shouldn’t they be allowed to give voice to their own experiences and tell their own stories? also stop with these stereotypes and trying to paint all poor people in a bad light. is drug and alcohol abuse only rife amongst the poor? do rich and well-off people never abuse drugs and alcohol?

yes, we realise that oh-enlightened-pompous-one. im a low-income parent with three kids. i know how to budget and save and can afford some £4.99 magnets for my kids if i want. stop making us all out to be drunken, drug-abusing, feckless spendthrifts. your middle-class prejudiced views don’t resonate with my own lived experience.

Well this is homework for Mums, not kids.

@joesmith How pleasant. Anyway, schools are not allowed to let children take magnets home. If it's school equipment, half of it will never come back and even if it isn't, it's a massive H&S issue for which the schools would then be responsible. Some 7-y-os still stick everything into their mouths and it only takes one to swallow a magnet for all hell to break loose.

And I have no idea what class I am, so neither do you 😂but I know my area and the people in it. No, not everyone is on the bones of their arse, but many are in what is still a cost of living crisis. And I know how rife drugs are; they are quite openly dealt on my road.

You are clearly projecting some sort of insecurities here. I'm glad you can afford a fiver for magnets. I'm saying many of our parents can't. As I said, I know people who don't own a fridge. And while I know there are plenty of other ways to get hold of a magnet if absolutely needed, no one in their right mind is taking apart toys, cupboards or other things for the sake of a school project.

@joesmith ha, yes stop speaking, poor person. OP is taking about 'her' parents. Not you.

She is kindly outraged on behalf of those with no voice (and all those clueless 7 year olds who stick magnets in their mouths)

You have entirely too much of a voice and are clearly no better than you ought to be.