AIBU to think fitting homework in is so hard?

[purpletick]

I feel like I’m failing ds, and he’s only in reception so I know things will get worse but I can’t see how to fit it in.

Mornings are so busy and frantic. It’s the best time but we often don’t have time. Plus his sister (2) often comes in and disturbs us.

When he gets home from school he isn’t in the mood (understandable) but before bed feels like setting us up to fail as he’s so tired.

It’s just listening to him read, and learning tricky words. That’s it, and I’m struggling!

(Please don’t tell me just to read to him: I do, quite extensively but I’m not sure it makes a lot of difference in terms of his own reading!)

theconversation.com/primary-school-children-get-little-academic-benefit-from-homework-181652

We used to do it at bedtime: 5 minutes of him reading to me / DH; then adult read to child. (Different books obvs.)

I do agree that little and often works better for most small children.

Mornings definitely worked best for this house. DS would come and get into bed with me and we'd read his book together then I'd read him something else before the others were up for the day. Or we'd do it at breakfast when the younger DD was distracted by eating.

Sometimes reading the book wasn't the best way though. Can make 'snap' cards with the main/tricky words and turn it into a game, or put them around the house and if you find them you read them. Integrate reading into every day activities. 5 minute mum has some great ideas.

Now it's DD's turn and pretty much the only way to do it is to have the book ready at the table to read it once we've finished eating. DS goes and keeps himself busy for a bit or sometimes is the one who listens and helps DD, but we're not as diligent as we were the first time around 🫣

I wouldn’t class reading as homework it’s just practice but is necessary. Over summer hols I carried on with her reading daily (used reading chest subscription) and her reading absolutely took off.

Once a week isn’t enough. It needs to be every day.

I've never seen reading as homework, more an enjoyable, essential life skill (and non negotiable home activity at primary age). Possibly because I'm a Year 1 teacher, love reading myself and had two boys who enjoyed reading when younger and didn't struggle with it thankfully. My two definitely needed time to chill out when they got home from school, and mornings were always rushed as none of us are keen on getting up so it was part of our bedtime routine. DS would read to us and then we would read to them. Luckily DH was usually home for bedtime so we could divide and conquer (we read to them nightly from being babies....DS2 was maybe nearer 18months before he'd sit still enough to listen... so when they started school we just added their school books in before story).
Little and often really does benefit them and despite what others have said here, most schools dont have the staff for children to be reading 1:1 on a daily basis, so practice at home is invaluable.

op can't you do 5 minutes as part of bed routine? it doesn't need to be a whole book. just a few pages a night

I have an older primary school child, so homework is ramping up.

The long-term solution which seems to be working best for us, especially now that DC is meant to be completing homework semi-independently, is doing homework immediately after school. So either straight through the door and sat down at the kitchen table, while I'm tidying or making dinner, or even in the car after school or waiting for DC's swimming lesson, or (now that the weather is nicer) in the park across the road on a picnic blanket. I prefer getting the homework done out of the house if possible so it doesn't 'taint' our relaxing time at home, but otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, 'home time' doesn't start until homework is completed. I find it much more pain-free for both DC and me to treat homework as an extension of the school day, rather than to start relaxing and have to pick it up again. So it's done before anything else and then packed into the school bag, which is put at the front door for the next day.

I'm hoping that getting DC into the habit of doing homework before anything else after school, and then 'switching off', will significantly reduce stress levels when secondary starts.

Reading is different - the school don't send home regular reading books anymore, but I listen to DC read for a few minutes every evening, and then read a chapter of whatever he's reading to him while he's going to sleep.