How much homework should a year 3 (7 year old) get?

[AmelieMay]

Just wanted to run this past other Mums with children in different schools. My daughter attends a small village school and we have been very plased with it so far. We were very used to having some homework in reception, year 1 and year 2 but now it seems to be taking us hours each week and I'm not sure if this is normal.

Since moving into year 3 (7 years old) my daughter is given homework each monday which mostly needs to be handed in on friday. This week it consists of spellings (months of the year plus fragile, reformation and guidance), writing about Henry V111 (complete with drawings), reading, playing two on line computer games in order to help memorise the times tables and watching the Channel 4 iplayer - 50 min Time Team programme about the Spanish Armada.

My daugher seems to enjoy doing the homework but I worry about the amount of time it takes and wonder if it is normal to be given so much? She is up at 7.30am and in bed for 7pm - so she doesn't have endless evening hours available. She also does netball, dance and swimming after school - non of which she wants to stop.

Any information and advice much appreciated. Thanks

My DCs primary school took the decision to stop homework a few years ago. My youngest in year 3 still gets reading books, usually spelling, and there is often a suggested activity in maths, and occasionally they get other suggested ideas. But actually I am very bad about making sure her homework is done. If she tells me about it or is annoying the others when they are doing theirs, then I nag her, otherwise we often leave it.

However reading through your list, it sounds as if a lot of it is suggested activities eg. The Time Team program and the use of computer games for times tables (we certainly wouldn't do either unless my DD nagged me).

Reading we usually do for 10 min at bed time, spellings take 2 or 3 minutes a day (or they are too hard). The only real bit is Henry VIII, which honestly if we were only given a week for I would complain as a working Mum I need at least one weekend to supervise that kind of activity (DDs school normally give at least 2 weeks).
I would talk to the teacher about how long they expect homework to take each night, and if they really expect you to do all of it.

dd, has 14 spellings to learn for mon, tues homework given out, in on thurs, so far just a worksheet takes her about 20 mins to do.
She does'nt bring home reading anymore but does read with us and on her own in bed.
She is in a small villiage school as well, does'nt sound as much as your dc has to do though

Dd2 has spellings which she has to write into sentences. This can take quite a long time to do, usually up to an hour. Then she has one other task, which is either maths or a writing task.

She also has to copy out a page of her handwriting book every evening, but this is not general homework, rather targeted work because her handwriting is so bad. Funnily enough, in her handwriting book it is beautiful, but in her exercise books it is all over the place.

Dd1 who is in Y6 gets less homework .

Ds1 has reading every night,12 spellings a week and either a numeracy or a literacy worksheet once a week (they alternate weekly between the 2). Spellings and worksheet come home on a friday and need to be handed in the following friday.

Soory forgot. Worksheet normally only takes 10 minutes to complete.

Meant sorry

DD1 is also in Yr3 and she gets weekly spelling tests(10)and weekly x tables tests (currently 5x). She has to read a minimum of 3 times per week and she has homework each week and a project during the holidays.

BUT....they do the same x table tests for 2 weeks to make sure they have been remembered and they don't have HW set the first and last 2 weeks of each half term which I think is a nonsense.

I personally would like my DD1 to get more HW (am I awful??) as I think it gets them into a good routine. What I find is that the HW she does get takes a longgggg time to complete. I would rather have it at least weekly but smaller amounts as her concentration still isn't that great. Hope this helps

My DDs school took a decision to cut down on homework - and lots of parents complained!!
She has a project every other week and online maths homework every other week (they alternate). Reading which she does every night, but its not compulsory. They have plenty of optiional activities they can do online if they want more work (or should I say parents want them to do more work).

Mine have left primary school, but the only regular homework they got, right through KS2, was spellings - they still managed to keep on top of homework at secondary school though.

I'm shocked at how much seems to be the norm now (but I think it would be a good idea to introduce a bit more in Y6).

Last year DD had homework most nights - either some literacy, numeracy, spellings, tables or some other writing. It would take between 10-20 minutes on average per homework. She was also expected to read daily wherever possible - for 15/20 minutes a night.

My 7 yr old gets one work-sheet of maths per night (usually takes 10 mins after working out how to do it)

No homework Wednesday nights

And then perhaps three evenings a week she will get some sort of writing exercise;
copying out or learning three spellings (5 or 10 mins max)

And then there will be one extra (fun) thing related to the work they have done that week such as colouring or drawing.

They do lots of small tests in school time though and the school day is generally quite "rigorous".

Tbh I would find being given work for the week ahead a bit of a pain, as 7 year olds (well my 7 yr old anyway!) aren't yet very good at forward planning, so I would have to do that for her and I think hwk is easier to handle (for them and us!) on a nightly basis.

My dd also has virtually the same schedule as yours; the same number of extra-curricular activities and same bed-time - and there isn't a lot of time left over ....when I mentioned this to her teacher she said "if the hwk is taking more than 10 mins per subject then do what you can in the time and stop"

I think the writing about Henry VIII VERY advanced for 7 year olds (but we live in mainland Europe where dc only start to read and write formally from 6 yrs so different system!)

Kittens, Lexie and Ponders - yes, I think it is a very difficult thing for the school to get right. I was recently at dd's parents evening where half the parents were complaining that there was too much hwk, and half the parents were saything there's too little!

er, that should have read 'saying' (I obviously didn't do enough spelling hwk!!)

My yr 3 DS gets 15 spellings a week, they are HARD! words I struggle with occasionally-'inconvenient' for example. They also have a half termly practical project. We are given a book with their targets in and suggestions of stuff to do at home if we want to. This year DS has been doing an hour or 2 of sums, writing etc weekly, that he has been asking me to set for him (swot!).

They also have reading, DS never seems to remember to change his books. But he reads in bed for 30mins every eve anyway. When he does bring books home they tend to be non fiction, so DP gets him to read them to him, then they look up the relevant thing on the internet together (storms on youtube, engines and stuff).

Thanks Girls,

Forgot to mention that my daughter likes to read her library books daily - she is a real book worm.

It seems there is a real variety in schools expectations and I wonder what national recommendations are?

My daughter is happy to do all the set work but I feel we must to do all the homework just to keep up. She is bright but her class is also very academic - and all the childrens work is one or two years in ahead of the norm .Her class has no special needs at all. I party wonder if the teachers are really just trying to run ahead with this bright year group?

Was just wondering the same thing for my dd. Im in tears (in frustration) at the amount of homework she has tonight. They say it should take 40 mins a night (they get homework at the weekends too) but I know looking at the books itll take about 2 hours for her. Two literacy pieces, a maths sheet, handwriting practice, 10 mins reading, plus spellings and sums. Would take me an hour to do them, never mind a 7 year old!

Wish it was a bit more interesting - watching a documentary on the time team etc would be waaay more fun that what dds going through as I type!