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Education

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Original poster

What do you think of PARENTS DO THEIR CHILDREN'S HOMEWORK???

92 replies

Eaney · 13/12/2005 20:00

My ds(6YRS)has a homework project do make a 3d model. This is not DS's forte. Indeed it's not mine and as you would expect his model is a little (ahem) rough. Anyway you should see the models apparently done by the children. Call me a cynic but if 6yr old can produce what I have seen then they will be winning the next Turner Prize.

Perhaps if I was a little more artistic I may have helped DS and maybe this is sour grapes. What do you think?

OP posts:

roisin · 13/12/2005 22:22

A Spanish Galleon? Crikey, I thought we had it bad

Easy · 13/12/2005 22:25

oh no. Ther is NO WAY I'm going to cope with that sort of thing in years to come.

I can't draw, sew, flower arrange or any sort of craft without it looking like something the cat dragged in!!

Ds's cutting and sticking is better than mine

TurkeyGang · 13/12/2005 22:27

Life sized perhaps? I have a mental image of a huge ship hoving into view with a fully equipped and costumed crew.

God, am now dreading junior school.

Kathlean · 13/12/2005 22:32

Nightynight, I am just going with the term very lazy at the moment (-:

SueW · 13/12/2005 22:32

ROFL

DH was up til 4am on the last night finishing off to his satisfaction!!

He and DD had done most of it together though, right from pulling off drawings from internet (well she and I did that and I made a half-cocked attempt at modelling) then DH took over and they started make a scale model - he taught her all about how to measure drawing and then how to scale that up, make a pattern etc

FInished product was about 15inches from bow to stern (??? correct terms?) and similar high.

One model apparently had ladders and different deck levels and gold bits painted on!!

Leave it to competitive dads....

BTW I didn't get away scot-free - I had to produce a Tudor costume in the same timescale.

mumfor1sttime · 13/12/2005 22:41

My Dad used to do my art homework when I was in high school. He once got 9 out of 10 which he was so chuffed about!

Caligyulea · 14/12/2005 09:34

I'm a bit peeved that the school sees its task to set child/ adult bonding homework. Deeply patronising, imo, if that's what's really behind all this make a volcano out of bits of rubbish homework. I can think of better ways of bonding with my child than for us both to sit down and tackle a task for which neither of us have either the aptitude or enthusiasm.

I'd like to go back to the days when doing your child's homework was considered cheating. I'm still baffled as to why it isn't.

Original poster

Eaney · 14/12/2005 10:49

Well there was another lovely example this morning of parental model making. I started to get a bit concerned that DS would be a bit peeved when he compared his tiny severely flawed sculpture to the others so I asked him what he thought of X's model.

'Very good' he said 'better than mine'. He seemed fine about it. A little later as he was painting his model I offered to help a bit. 'No' he said in a loud voice 'I have to do it myself', Seizing the opportunity I asked him if he thought X had done her model all on her own. 'OH no,her Mum did three quarters of it'. When asked how he knew he said that he could see which part had been done by a child.

OP posts:

MARINAtivityPlay · 14/12/2005 10:55

Anyone else remembering the Simpsons episode where Principal Skinner awards special prizes to the children who were very clearly not helped by their parents
My help is confined to nagging to get it done, occasionally retrieving essential pencil from behind sofa, and brainstorming with ds to get him started if necessary. I have sent him in with some royal howlers intact as I think it has got to be his work and his mistakes.
I do feel proud of his budding research/information handling skills though being a librarian and all that. Although there will come a time when I say "let's think about where we might look to find that information" once too often and get beaten senseless with a light sabre...

MARINAtivityPlay · 14/12/2005 10:56

model-making a big no-no though. God knows what a Marina Towers joint galleon would look like

Harktheheraldcabewillsing · 14/12/2005 12:39

Think you all might be right about the 'rod for back' theory!!! My dd loves school now but still leaves projects 'til the last minute - she's 14 now and once again I was up last night finishing her Geography homework!

There are benefits and rewards for 'over-helping' a very reluctant child though, my dd hated school from a bad teacher/pupil relationship in year 1 to yet another change of school last year (year 8)!

Throughout this time she's been disheartened to the point of very nearly switching off to formal education altogether - the teenage sceptic! If I hadn't pulled all the stops out at times to really help her she wouldn't have been receptive to the positive experience she's enjoying at school now. She revels in the merit reward scheme and is enjoying the fact that she's received the most Merits in her class this year... all for work in school I might add

She's by no means a top stream pupil, but at least now she's doing the best she can - even if it does mean I still get some of her homework to finish!

zippimistletoes · 14/12/2005 12:50

i had to give ds (17) some help with his business task based on a small business he used my own business and I couldn't answer some of the sections!

FauveGoldRings · 14/12/2005 13:16

Ooh Marina, I like your "Let's think about where we might look for such information" - dh and I just run madly round the house pulling out books that might have vaguely relevant information, then piling them up in front of the boy. Needless to say, he usually then opts for the Internet.

I'd be interested to hear what parents of older children do about getting their children to check written work - I'm currently trying to get ds to check his own work, but he's very resistant. So I tried saying, 'have a look at the second paragraph, there's a word missing', but he gets very impatient; so sometimes - very occasionally - I do go through and ring the areas where there are mistakes. Then I leave him to correct them himself, if he decides to do so. He's not being assessed at the moment, and I hope it'll make him realise the value of checking - otherwise he assumes his work's perfect!

I think actually doing the work for them is a big mistake. But I know a lot of people wouldn't go as far as I do.

PeachyPlumFairy · 14/12/2005 13:21

What's the point of doing their homework? I'll help them reason out how to approach it and it can take a lot to persuade ds1 that he is indeed up to the intricacies of yr1 spelling, but thy do it; I have my GCSE's thanks (and the rest).

I also annotate pictures for the teachers so they understand what ds2 (not artistically gifted) has chosen to draw to accompany whatever letter he has been writing (Reception year), and I note any problems I can see (such as ds1 reversing d and b all the time, or being convinced he will be yelled at for writing a mistake).

I'll work with the teachers and the kids, not for.

SueW · 14/12/2005 13:26

I taught DD how to google as soon as she first needed to find out info on something in Reception. She's used it very successfully every since A lot of the time though e.g. yesterday she wanted to know what it meant if she got this grade for her assessed writing and I'm a bit clueless about that stuff (can never remember whether a is highest or lowest on sats stuff) so she said

'I'll look at Woodlands mum. They have everything on there.'

And they do. Great starting block for primary age children exploring the internet.

homemama · 14/12/2005 14:24

Be careful with googling though!

A friend of mine who also teaches was trying to combine tudor history with ICT. One of her class had typed 'Henry and his wives' (or something similar) and it came up with a swinger's website! Despite school internet access supposedly being ringfenced!

She said she couldn't help but have a sneaky look after school! I couldn't find it when I tried!

SueW · 14/12/2005 15:28

Do you know, I very, very rarely end up with anything untoward on google. Altho I was looking for something at school recently and the first hit on google for the parameters I used was an STD clinic. Same parameters at home got me something completely different!

maisiemog · 14/12/2005 19:18

This is a hilarious thread. I love the concrete pyramid example. I wonder if that child rented one of those mixers and a compressor.
I was just talking to a mate of mine who is a primary school teacher and she was saying that she can't stand to see work that was been carried-out, largely by parents.
She thinks it's a complete waste of time and is virtually anti-education. We were debating whether she should take marks off for cheating. Hee hee!
When she was on placement it was always a lot worse in middle-class areas.

Original poster

Eaney · 14/12/2005 19:45

Well his snowman is finished now and is looking a bit better. I told him the dreadful crack on the back is now officially the snowman's bum crack. Handy where it cracked.

OP posts:

MaryP0p1 · 14/12/2005 19:46

I'd love to be able to. She goes to school in Italy and its all foreign to me (haha)

Tortington · 14/12/2005 20:34

i always thought that teachers liked a few things

that thier homework was done
that there was parental interaction as some things simply cant be done when your 6 on your own
that they made the effort

thecattleareALOHing · 14/12/2005 20:35

Why do teachers tell parents not to do their kids homework and then set homeowork that it is impossible for children to do alone? Doesn't make any sense to me.

LIZS · 15/12/2005 11:40

In fairness to the school we were told it would be require parental input. ds has motor skill issues anyway so to expect him to do much of the planning and cutting out would not be realistic. We had 2 weeks for it , one in term time, one half term (when we were away) then 2 days afterwards. Some even completed it the first weekend !

Caligyulea · 15/12/2005 11:42

But why have the parental input in the first place? Why isn't homework for the child, why is it for parents?

cat64 · 15/12/2005 12:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

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