to be slightly gobsmacked that my reception-year DD has HOMEWORK?!

[AnnieLobeseder]

That's it really. She's just started reception, turned 4 just over a month ago and this weekend I opened her school bag and found she's come home with 3 worksheets of letters to practice and colour in.

It wasn't loads of work but homework? In Reception? Is this normal?

We have homework as the OP said a sheet with a letter on, a diagram on a movement to help the child remember it, a picture to colour in and a few words with the said letter in to look at.

My DD loves it and likes to recognised the letter in the words and say the phonics to us. She asks to do homework and is proud of it. We do about 10 minutes each day depending on what sort of mood she's in (plus reading) and colour the picture in and discuss words with each letter in. She's really happy as she can now spell out the words car, mat, pat, bat etc from the few letters she's learnt and can see where it is all aiming for.

The homework doesn't have to be handed in but just sent back to school every few weeks so the teacher can see that they have been practicing. They also have a little letter book which gets updated each monday.

I know next year (12 months now) they will have to do spellings and re-arrange small sentences for their homework and be able to write the spellings down. So I'm glad that we're doing this now and I can help DD with it.

Although we do sometimes not do homework each day but just try to say some of the letters and remember it before we read a book.

Oh we also had show and tell a few weeks ago. DD had to take something from when a baby in a say something about it. She took in a toy penguin and said that she cuddled it in bed. End of show and tell. Quite nice that they can do it though.

Goodness, reading some of these posts I see that DD1 is actually getting off quite lightly with her homework!

You say some children who have just started reception are reading already? Really? But then I guess that some of DD's classmates in pre-school had started reading, but they were the older ones in the group. DD1 turned 4 at the end of Aug so is the youngest in her year and a little behind with her reading and writing. Doesn't bother me cos I know she'll catch up when she's ready.

My dgs brings a book home from preschool every week with a request that it is read to him.He loves producing his book bag and showing me his book.Last week he started learning to trace letters of his name.He is just 3.

DD1, reception, has homework too. A letter a night - phoenetic sound to revise, plus they write out a whole page of the letter free hand, not tracing. Twice a week she is given a list of eight to ten new words to practice - needs to be able to blend the sounds and say the whole word, with the aim eventually (although supposedly they're not pushing this) of reading it by sight. We have a book to comment in how she's done, we see the school's comments too. The words go into a box and we practice them, plus she revises the tricky words they learned in nursery last year (non phoenetic words). They are already up to five letter words. Once a week she gets a book from the library we read to her. We just got a whole sheet of other things we need to encourage DD to do,such as count backwards from 20 to 0, eat with a fork and knife, be able to change independently at gym, etc etc. Many many things on it.

DD does go to a private school and children in our nanny share who are also in reception don't have this much homework. However, the school teacher is saying things like: they really should be using the mouse on the computer better. What? At four? They've got their whole lives to sit in front of a bloody computer screen. So, there are still expectations going on at this age, from what I can tell, across all types of schools at this age.

From what I understand DDs school is LESS demanding than it has been previously.

Sorry the children in the share who go to a state school.

Annie
My DD is one of the oldest in the year, at nearly five. I really feel for the little ones who just turned four. My DD2 will be one of the youngest ones and I am wondering how she'll cope.

Hando I'd be a tad worried if there was no homework for the first 3 years - it's a good way of seeing if there are any problems early on I think. Maybe get some work books for DC to do at home with you?

I think homework for infants is utterly mad. I'm with Hando's head teacher. The children are working all day at school, give 'em a break when they get home, let them run about and HAVE FUN they're only little. Plenty of time for homework in Upper Primary, secondary and university.

I read with my kids, play number games and letter games but the eldest is 4 and at Kindy (we're in Australia where they start reception at 5) and I feel there is no need to thrash the poor little love with ugh worksheets.

I am a teacher btw.

Busybutterfly, if there are problems with a child's learning ability any decent teacher should be able to spot it in the classroom without adding to the workload.

DS has just turned 3 and was given homework from nursery to do a family tree. Fair enough it's just a bit of drawing and sticking but I've refused to do it with him. He won't gain anything from it!

DS is in Y1 now, forgot about the new term which started beginning of Sept .

This is an incredibly effective way of teaching children from the youngest age possible that homework is optional and they don't need to do it.

With a boy who wants to play out all the time less enthusiastic child it has the wholly expected result of inducing complete recalcitrance.

praps I should add here

I think mums should be left to do their own informal fun learning with their children outside school as Claudia describes.