What to do about dd's homework this weekend - opinions needed!

[seeker]

We have a silly weekend going on. It was dd's school fete yesterday and dd volunteered to help. She was there from 10 in the morning til 5, working her socks off. She then had a party in the evening. This morning she has a trampolining competition, and this afternoon is a very long planned trip to the zoo with several other families we don't see very often.

DD planned to come home on Friday and get straight on with her work and get it all done. BUT the bus broke down, she didn't get home til 7, and so she only got about half done.

Whhat do we do about the rest? I realize I could have said no to the party, but it was with her old friends from Primary school and she misses them badly. She has to do the competition - she's part of a team. And the zoo - there's a baby elephant - she CAN"T niss that!!!

She will do her learning work at the competition - but she has two written pieces to do as well. I don't want her to go to bed late tonight - she'll be shattered as it is. So. Do I a) get her to do it and go to bed late? b) write a note asking her to be given an extension c) do some of it for her or d) say she can't go to the zoo.

I SOOOOOOOO hate homework. And I do think that if the school wanted help at the fete that should have given a homework amnesty to the volunteers! She's in year 8, by the way.

I'm also surprised that people think homework is more important than everything else for a 12 year old. Personally, I'd like to see a longer teaching day and no homework at all - at least at primary school and up to the end of KS3. But I guess the teachers' unions would be jumping up and down about that one. Then again, mybe they wouldn't because the teachers wouldn't have to mark it and they'd end up with more time overall.

The kids are at school Monday to Friday - they shouldn't have to spend weekends doing homework in my opinion. Or they should do it at weekends and have evenings off. Many adults have a 9-5 job, yet kids do 9-3 then hours and hours at night as they get older and they're still expected to do lots of other things like music, sport etc. And then teachers complian about them being tired because they go to bed too late - well yes, so did I when I had two or three hours homework a night and was singing in the choir, doing D of E etc.

Time management is an important skill but so are social skills and you get them through doing things like helping at school fayres etc, not by doing homework. Missing (or being a bit late) with homework on one occasion is NOT going to affect the child' overall achievement unless it's exam coursework, which isn't the case in year 8. It absolutely must not become a habit though!

Giving lunchtime detentions for something the parent has caused is unacceptable - you should never punish the child for the actions fo the parent. Deal with the parent if you don't agree with their attitude. The kid is the easy target.

Thank goodness my son is still in year one :-)

And for all your teachers have you read "Toxic Childhood" - and if so, will you please take some notice of it?

We didn't cover ourselves in glory - one individual Bronze and a team Bronze and Silver for the U17 girls......Oh well, better luck next time.

We're back again in two weeks for the Regionals, so busy learning the new routines...