Year one / primary homework

[AIMD]

My 6 year old, year one, son has come home with his first home work (aside from the usual reading).

He has a week to practice spelling for a test at the end of next week, draw a picture using natural material and write about his picture. This is as well as reading at least 4 times a week for their reading reward system.

This feel excessive to me and I personally don’t agree with home work like this for young children. The problem is I know my son, who is a people pleaser and anxious soul, will stress about getting everything done and worry if he doesn’t get all the answers in his test correct.

I was pondering contacting the teacher to make her aware that I am not planning to place undue pressure on my son for him to complete home work (though I know he will do it anyway because he’s be worried about not doing it).

I wonder how other people have address this issue where your personal beliefs about education are not in line with the schools practices.

Unfortunately they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Some parents would be horrified he wasn’t also given some maths work. Try to make it fun for him. A natural picture sounds fun, I nice walk to collect materials and then time together making the picture. Sounds like a fantastic weekend activity all the family could get involved in.

@Tiltheend

Unfortunately they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Some parents would be horrified he wasn’t also given some maths work. Try to make it fun for him. A natural picture sounds fun, I nice walk to collect materials and then time together making the picture. Sounds like a fantastic weekend activity all the family could get involved in.

Ok I understand that and I am certainly not intending to be critical of the school or teacher as I know that it is general practice across the education system here.

I’m sure the picture will be a nice activity, the thing Is my son already spends hours drawing, making and doing crafts anyway. Similarly my son counts and reads a lot Generally. So worry forcing it is going to take away his love of something that he does naturally anyway and turn it into ‘work’.

I absolutely agree with you that it is too much for them too young. I have issues with the education system and schools as a whole but that’s a completely different conversation.

I used to look after my niece after school and sometimes on a weekend and we would pace it out so it was crammed in all at once and I was able to make more of an activity out of it than it become over bearing and stressful for her. I had to put aside my views because Ultimately it is part of schooling even at their young age, it’s to prepare them for what is required in the following years. I realised if she wasn’t going to be consistent with the homework (Because i didn’t want to force her) that it would create further problems for her in class, so it was the approach we had that changed in order to make her happy doing it and not cause stress in school.

From what you’ve said your child will be willing to do the work, you just don’t want to have him under stress or worrying. You get to decide how the homework executed, I set times to do it and followed my nieces lead so that it didn’t feel forced. It was a sense of its homework time but you get to decide how you complete it. At his age it doesn’t take very long to do. You will also realise when learning at home with spellings, maths etc. They get so proud when they get it right, it does make it more enjoyable and it can be fun.

I do completely understand where you’re coming from I got to the conclusion that I didn’t want to put my niece in a position at school to be questioned as to why she hadn’t done homework, I felt that would’ve been too much for her compared to doing the work that was required. I would speak to the teacher and see that standpoint on homework as you may feel better about it walking away from the conversation.

Unfortunately they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Some parents would be horrified he wasn’t also given some maths work

It's trivial to be able to provide for such a group "here's some optional ideas you can use to consolidate on what we've been learning..." So I don't agree that they're damned either way.

Primary homework is not general practice, lots of schools don't do it, or only provide optional ideas, you should certainly challenge the actual teacher on expectations, they may not have any expectation that it's done and wouldn't be asking the child anyway why it wasn't done.

@sirfredfredgeorge

Unfortunately they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Some parents would be horrified he wasn’t also given some maths work

It's trivial to be able to provide for such a group "here's some optional ideas you can use to consolidate on what we've been learning..." So I don't agree that they're damned either way.

Primary homework is not general practice, lots of schools don't do it, or only provide optional ideas, you should certainly challenge the actual teacher on expectations, they may not have any expectation that it's done and wouldn't be asking the child anyway why it wasn't done.

That’s interesting to hear lots of schools don’t do home work at primary age.

Unfortunately the letter with the first week of homework made it clear it was expected to be done and handed in every Thursday before next weeks homework is given on Friday.

My son is already stressing about it and ranting (he loves a rant) about why he has to write The same words over and over again (he was given a table where he re writes each of the spelling words 5 times, then write it in a sentence etc.

As much as research shows homework at such a young age has very little benefit some schools still insist on it. I just felt, it’s not the teachers fault she has been told to set weekly homework.

Perhaps you could challenge the school on their homework policy and ask them to make it clear it is optional as to not put undue pressure on children.

Spread it out so it isn’t all done in one clump.
“Go write two words before lunch, I wonder if you can do them before I plate up?”

Giving you a week seems to reflect a well thought out system to be honest - families can decide individually whether homework is best done on weekends or if it is better to make it a weekday thing. As long as the spelling list is short it doesn't seem excessive to me. If his spelling is great explain to him that it shouldn't take long to do, if spelling is going to need practice, what they are asking is a good way to learn them.

We get weekly spellings and daily reading in yr1.
Reading is the most important I think - focus on that!

If you aren't comfortable with it then i'd only do it when it fits into your weekend comfortably and your child wants to do it.

I agree that you could risk their existing love of learning by pushing these tasks, and i had the same chat with my sons teacher.

My DC has always been well ahead so i saw no need to push hard on these tasks. We always read/watch/talk about educational things together naturally. If he fell behind or needed extra support and a push i would of course be back on it.

I think the school, which has its fair share of parents who demand homework, think i am a bit quirky and boho. But my approach works for us and my son scored 20 points above the year average on all his mock sat tests just now in yr 6. You know your child best and what works for them. You may feel differently in later years.

@shehadsomuchpotential

If you aren't comfortable with it then i'd only do it when it fits into your weekend comfortably and your child wants to do it.

I agree that you could risk their existing love of learning by pushing these tasks, and i had the same chat with my sons teacher.

My DC has always been well ahead so i saw no need to push hard on these tasks. We always read/watch/talk about educational things together naturally. If he fell behind or needed extra support and a push i would of course be back on it.

I think the school, which has its fair share of parents who demand homework, think i am a bit quirky and boho. But my approach works for us and my son scored 20 points above the year average on all his mock sat tests just now in yr 6. You know your child best and what works for them. You may feel differently in later years.

Thanks for that comment. My son is above average in most areas and similar to you we read and talk about things a lot.

Ideally I’d like to just have a quick chat with his teacher to gage what the deal is with homework being completed. Covid he made that impossible though.

@IHateCoronavirus

Spread it out so it isn’t all done in one clump. “Go write two words before lunch, I wonder if you can do them before I plate up?”

Unfortunately this is exactly the sort of thing I don’t really want to have to do. After school he often engages himself in some craft or imaginative play at home, as well as doing swimming and tae kwondo weekly. I don’t feel like I should need to be pushing the pressure on to do what is essentially memorising by worksheet when he is doing ok in his progress without it. I don’t want to add a task into his ‘free’ time just because it’s been set as home work.

I know it’s just a standard part of the way education is done...maybe I just need to get used to it.