To ask my Year 4 to do homework?

[Judyjudyjudyjudyjudy]

Do your children have the independent skills to decide when they need to do their homework or do you have to tell them when to do it? I think a child should manage this independently - ie when they will do it (not if they need help!) but prepared to be told IABU!

Minimum weekly maths and spellings (which we read out) but also TT rock stars and a termly project (which we support with books etc)

I think managing yourself is an important skill but am I being age appropriate?
YABU to expect them to do it independently before deadline
YANBU - they shld do manage their time to do it before deadline without nagging!

Mine started that in Y5. He hated after school club so we agreed that he could walk home at 3:15 providing that he dealt with his homework when he got home. It was brilliant. No more school pick-up or need for me to be homework monitor, and more responsibility for him which he loved.

I would expect them to still need support with this at that age.

Ex teacher here- 31 years. Some children still need to.be told in Y11😂

I expect to have to manage it for them until end of primary (currently year 3)

Y4 is too young to self manage their time like that. I think that’s more a secondary age skill.

That reads as if you need support with homework till aged 31years old! To be fair I'm older than that and my work to do list to pretty out of control, maybe I should get my dad to supervise.

I think at that age parents should be responsible for saying ‘fhis is when we do homework’- and making sure the child has a suitable space and quiet environment to sit and do it, with a parent around to help if needed, but for the child to get on with it during that window of time. (Which should not be long at all for this age-!) I think just saying ‘get it done at some point this week’ is too vague, and most children at this age couldn’t manage that. (My year 4 child couldn’t at any rate- she’s bright and motivated, but would still prioritise doing some crafts or Lego or playing outside- over homework).

definitely still need a lot of help planning at that age. I would expect them to be able to get on with much of it once they were settled though.

I think a termly project would be particularly hard as they won't have the skills to break it sown into chunks and work out what they need to do in 6 weeks time etc. It won't be an immediate priority at this stage of the term, and are unlikely to be mature enough to work out when to start it in order to finish in time. To be fair my uni aged kids found that difficult!

I think the main issue at that age is that they have so little control over their time - they can't choose when they leave for school, or when they get home. They don't decide what is happening at the weekend, or say actually I'll stay home rather than going to the shops to to my spellings.

There is a line between managing your child and nagging.

One of my children will do their homework but that’s because they know I expect it to be completed before Sunday if they want to do any of the activities they would rather spend the day on. I put the expectation and timeframe in place but they do the homework without me then continuing to raise it. However, if I didn’t have the expectation and the outcome at the end, I doubt it would be done.

No child of that age is likely to choose to do homework - or be organised enough to find the best time. Needs parental involvement until they are IMO. For DS with ASD I was still organising him during his A-levels!

I would expect them to need help but if there is a daily schedule then that helps. Mine come in, have a snack and a drink, and finish their homework. They're at the dining table. I'm either at the table or cooking nearby so can keep an eye. This is the routine, so the time for doing it is fixed. We also have a loose schedule based on what the school sends so DS2 knows what he is doing on which day.

You need to keep tabs on it, and maybe support them in doing it. The supporting bit depends on the child. But expecting an 8/9 year old to independently decide to do their homework is pretty ambitious.

At any age really you scaffold if they still need it. I would be helping them plan and stick to a schedule much older than that.

I was a boarder from age 10. We were responsible for our own homework in that we didn't have a parent to nag us, but we had a lot of structure to help us do it - homework time scheduled into our day etc.

One of the mistakes I make over and over, as a parent of non-boarders, is expecting far too much of my children. Help them if they need it. I don't know why you wouldn't.

I tell mine to do a job each day, but he chooses what he does when.

From my experience is that it is more important to build in time into the week when homework has to be done by. But off course you need to help where and when necessary and encourage independent learning. So when your child gets to high school they already has the understanding and the ability to do their homework and revision for exams.

I have a friend who didn't see the importance to their children to do homework when at primary school. The children when at high school really struggled to do homework once there as they had been brought up to believe school work was done at school and not at home. Both had to go to homework clubs to do homework and then when they went on to do Gcse's and A levels didn't achieve what was predicted.

I don't think children that age should even be doing homework apart from reading and maybe research for their topic work.
And I wouldn't expect them to be able to manage it themselves either.
@Clutterbugsmum that is just anecdotal evidence I could argue exactly the opposite
My children didn't do any homework until year 7. They managed fine at school . They both got a raft of As and A star at GCSE and A level and both now have good degrees.

I mean it really depends on the child, my 9 year old DD has taken responsibility for her own homework for the past few years she is very on the ball and just comes home and does it straight away while I am finishing off work. My 13 year old DS still needs prompting from us a lot of the time but is slowly getting better, he most definitely should be responsible for it all himself but I am still going to remind him because I want the homework to get done.

They're still little kids all through primary school. Get them to love learning. Make sure they read. Read with them. Support them if they need help with particular subjects. But expect them to manage their own time? Nah. They've got plenty of time for that yet.

(There's no evidence to suggest a link between homework at primary school and later academic attainment btw. They don't need it. I didn't enforce it with mine, and my parents didn't enforce it with me: we're a straight A family and I have 3 degrees, so....)

Othef than reading with a parent I wouldn't expect a 4 year old to do homework at all.

Just leave small dc alone to be kids.

Your expectations are hugely unrealistic.

Homework is a battle in our house. Some of the stuff sent home needs a lot of parental input - sourcing and buying stuff too. Homework set on a Friday for a Monday is a PITA too.

YEAR 4, (so 9 ish) not 4 year old.

@Judyjudyjudyjudyjudy

year 4 you really need to establish a routine time for homework. So in year 5/6 they know when to get it done. Kids have very little control over what they do (visit family. Go shopping etc) it's unrealistic to expect them to plan when they'll do their homework.

I was still checking when they were much older that it had been done.

Sorry yes I knew you were talking about an 8 or 9 year old. .I meant to say year 4 and my response still stands

Mine have left school now, but were very different in their ability to do this. One I had to badger up until the end of Y11 to do school work, he only got on with it himself from the sixth form. The other got on with it from about Y8. The reluctant one did better at GCSE though, so who knows which approach is better 🤷‍♂️