to say to my kid" if you can't do your homework then take it back in UNDONE"

[AugustusGloop]

rather than me trying to explain it?
Because that is what I ( very rarely) do.

Primary.

Yes I know constancereader. I think it is very sad that parents can't be imaginative or interested enough to teach their kids themselves. It's a very enjoyable part of being a parent.

I truly believe that homework is a waste of time for primary children. It just causes family tension! I met a mother the other day who told me that her four year old child got half an hour of homework a day. HALF AN HOUR! He is a baby. When I expressed my horror she said she thought it taught him useful life skills.

I would like to see optional homework for primary school children.

I have a dd that loves homework and will often do extra, I am happy to help her with it. At the moment we are putting togther a projet on Florence Nightingale, she has interviewed my sister who is a nurse, read books, researched on the internet and the library, she has been into my school and spoken to the history department and this weekend we are making a lamp!

< envious sigh> that sounds fantastic Twinset
my yr 4 ds gets a lot of homework, mind you he could do it a lot quicker if he actually sat down and concentrated. It does cause tension but I enjoy doing it with him. They didn't get any at all at infant level (other than reading) and for a while I was concerned, but in retrospect it was absolutely the best thing.

Ingles she is a typical teacher's dd I suspect!

At my dd's secondary school, they are allowed to ask for help at home, but are expected to put a note on the work explaining what sort of help they've had. This is sometimes reflected in the mark they get.

I don't believe in homework in Primary school except reading.

DS2 is 5 and gets spellings, sentences and reading every week.
I think it is too much, and do not like spending our 'family ' time doin g it.
i teach my children in other ways we visit museums, watch documentaries and discuss things, we read together.
I ahte seeing him in tears trying to do his spellings and often send in work uncompleted.
Whe he gets to high school it will be another story but at the moment he is only little.

I agree just reading should be compulsory at primary school.

No 5 year old should have homework. Refuse to do it.

I say to DS we wont do it, your teacher wont tell you off I will send a letter telling her why you haven't done it.
But he does it because he doesn't want to get told off by his teacher.

In junior school any homework not completed at home is done during break

Starlight - do you wite their homewotk out in fake kiddy writing?

Children should be responsible for their homework as much as possible, so if it's not understood or they are refusing to do it then this is perfectly reasonable.

Then they can resolve the issue at school with their teacher, by having it explained, or by doing it in their own time.

regardless of whether parents or teachers think hwk is a good idea, it is currently compulsary - most teachers try to set stuff that is interesting/fun/open ended, but sometimes it is inevitable that it will be "harder work" in order to assess who understands what.

You know what else. If teachers got together to try to do away with hwk in primary schools, parents would not be saying "hooray for them, common sense prevails and less stress at home". No, they would say "thats cos the lazy sods can't be bothered to mark it!" Oh yes they would!

At our school when the annual questionnaire goes out and then we get a report on the results, it is the one issue on which there is a 50:50 split - half say too much homework, half say not enough, and hardly any inbetweeners

I am at the parents who don't feel it is part of their responsibility to educate their children. Surely it is a parents job to ensure that a child has a happy and successful life. Now many will disagree that money, career and happiness are closely linked and that if people are unfulfilled they are more likely to suffer from ill health, such as mental illness, stress, obesity (related to mental health issues) etc. So from my perspective those undermining teachers efforts by telling children they do not have to conform to school rules, are in effect teaching children that they can do as they please and don't have to do anything they don't like doing . This is certainly not behaviour that will get them very far in the workplace later in life.....unfortunately if you don't do as you are required to complete tasks you get sacked!! No pay, no money, no house, food, holidays, car, homeless........if you see where I am going with this.

yep, totally agree dilly

The other issue with undermining teachers at home, by telling children they don't have to do homework, is that the child then loses respect for the teacher and thinks 'I don't need to work hard because mum or dad won't discipline me over it'.

another thing, when I taught secondary we were trying to drill into them the importance of attendance and punctuality. they would moan and say "yeah yeah, whats a few minutes" (now it would be either "whatever" or "face, bovvered?" LOL)

till I pointed out that if my husband were their employer, they would get disciplined for constantly being late etc and might even be sacked AND that school would be called on to give an accurate reference to any prospective employers, including info on attendance! I saw one of the checkout girls in tesco getting it in the neck for being 5 mins late back from her break the other day.

we don't do our kids any favours by not preparing them for the real world and that means sticking to rules and doing things we don't find easy, it all pays off in the end.

Totally agree Dilly.

right again dilly

how do people expect their DC to make the leap from primary to secondary if they have not been in the habit of enforcing homework/school/what teachers say as being important

Not helped at homework = falling behind in class = loss of motivation due to lack of understanding = poor grades at school = no further education = potentially (unless they go into building apprenticeships or similar) low paid employment requiring few qualifications = less money =poorer housing = worse health = shorter life expectancy. All facts if you research the links in sociology, psychology and health promotion.

Can those parents who feel it isn't their job to help with homework please explain how this is the case?

re "choose to use the time outside of school to give them a more balanced, individualised education"

if only the parents who moaned about homework WERE busy doing nature trails, museum visits, doing craft or cooking, watching wildlife doc with their DC etc

but MOST of them AREN'T, they are just too lazy/have their priorites wrong. When some say "family time" it means "we all traipse round tesco/B&Q/McDs all weekend"