Do I intervene on too easy homework

[thirdfiddle]

I don't know if DD is gifted per se but she's bright and has been an obsessive reader since before preschool. Now starting year 3, has always found school really easy.

My question relates to homework. School is very light on homework in the first place which I like. Their English homework in year 3 is just spellings. It's highly unlikely there's going to be anything to actually learn all year, DD already knew them when DS had them three years ago.

But it's not just learning them. In order to do so they're supposed to do various exercises involving writing them out lots of times. So effectively her homework is writing out some easy words lots of times. I know everyone has to do easy work sometimes but whole year sounds a bit engagement-sapping to me. But I don't want to be a nuisance and I don't think homework is particularly important in primary.

Would you
a) just have her do it anyway
b) tell her not to do it and write a note
c) ask the teacher if she can have harder words or alternative work
d) make up different homework at home e.g. writing a story with the words in and hope that's deemed acceptable
Or something else?

Initially dd was happy to do it (the boring pointless spellings etc). But when she started getting bored I did not force her to do it. I didn't want to give her the message homework is boring but you have to do it even if there is no point in doing it. Rather keep her busy with other stuff (you mentioned music theory).
We got to the stage the TA would do some extra maths with her but actually taught her wrong things (maths). We changed schools not long after....

I have another dc who is equally bright but who in primary school remained happy doing the pointless things so she could in the meanwhile dream about other things.

So basically be led by your dd, don't make her unhappy, there are plenty of other more interesting things for her to spend time on and learn ( and I don't agree with those who say that if you leave it up to a child to do what they want they will just watch tv the whole day)

The homework sounds pretty dull for all involved though. Spellings nearly always are. Less ahead children may have the slight stimulation of learning how to spell "friend" or whatever, but they will have to work far, far longer to chug tediously through writing out sentences than your DD. I doubt her experience of this homework will be any more negative than theirs overall. If she positively asks for more engaging spellings, download a spelling app such as squeebles and just have it there as an option for her to choose if/when she's on a tablet.

I'd certainly find it hard to insist hopelesschildren(surethey'renot). With DS it was "well yes it's dull but it's good to practise spelling things right". I can't really justify it to DD except pure appeal to authority.

I think the idea of using the spellings creatively in a story/poem etc would be a great idea

If you're going to do something different with the homework, do it as an extra, not an instead of, and certainly don't send the extra activity back to the teacher. You'd be completely undermining her/him and you'd be 'that parent' for the rest of your daughter's time there. That would be really counter productive (and arrogant on your part)

Quite divided opinions here! I do appreciate all the different perspectives. Not 100% what we're going to do, I'm kind of waiting to see how DD reacts and hoping against hope that the homeworks have improved since DS was y3.

I'd echo pp's idea about finding synonyms and antonyms for the words, then put them into sentences or a story. Being curious about words and language is s great thing to encourage.

It's a shame your dd is not being challenged at school. You're right to keep pushing to try to improve things.

As a teacher its great to hear a parent looking at ways to challenge your child! I would ask the teacher for ideas of how you can make it more challenging.Hopefully they will happily give her a harder task each week but at least even if they leave it up to you know what direction to take it. I think it's important you get something in place.Simply not doing it with a note will open her up to being targeted by other children and take away the habit of completing homework that they are slowly building up.

To those saying the homework sounds dull, I think it does appeal to some children. My dd is in y3 and has 10 spellings to learn a week. They are hard for her and it takes 3 short sessions a week to learn them and get most correct. She enjoys the ritual, and if we have time we put them into sentences. Again this is a good level of challenge and it seems useful. My dd is at the lower end academically, so maybe these exercises are good for this type of child? Either way I would do something different for your dd.

I think going in demanding differentiated homework would be more "that parent" than just quietly interpreting it in a way that works for my child. Not that I give a flying damn about being "that parent" if it's only about doing my best to keep my child engaged with their teacher and with learning. From what I've seen of teacher I really don't think she'd interpret it like that though.

In primary, we were fortunate that dd had mostly good teachers who stretched the more able students. Only one in Y5 would send the more able ones to the library once they had finished all the assigned work because he lacked imagination and wasn't a very good teacher. Other teachers would ask the more able ones to mentor the less able ones, therefore demonstrating understanding. They also would task the more able ones to find out more about a subject, and come up with a poster or artwork to explain it to the rest of the class. Homework was in three levels, and the able ones were expected to tackle Level 3, which was the most challenging.

In secondary, the pupils are streamed and DD is in set 2 of 5 in English science and maths so she's doing ok. She finds the set homework challenging but her teachers say she's actually good enough in some areas to be in Set 1, it's just she might find the workload intolerable at the moment. There is always a push at the school to go up a set, it's a very encouraging school. Although the core subjects are important, dd goes to a free art club at lunchtimes as therapy, to relax her mind. She writes and draws a lot at home, and she always has three books on the go. She spends a lot of time in the school, and public libraries.

We go to a lot of museums, art galleries historical places so we support her learning in that way. We don't put too much pressure on her, at home, she does her homework then goes out with a friend or stays in to watch TV or play computer games. We simply say, Do Your Best, not your friend's best, but Your Best, and that's it.

If you think school isn't stretching her, talk to the teacher. I find that sometimes teaching is aimed at the average, leaving the best and worst performing kids at a disadvantage. If you want to support your child's learning, you have to make a bit of a fuss sometimes. Say to the teacher, could you give dd a bit of extra work to deepen understanding? Could you set her a research topic? Could you set her a book review? Just ten extra minutes a night, it doesn't have to be much. I wish you and your dd well.

definately intervene. it makes for an easy life for the teacher. perhaps it is a short term thing where they are trying to counter balance the collective - but too easy homework is totally unfair on the child. i am a teacher myself now, but in primary, aged 6, i was fooled into beleiving i was clever with too easy maths, and it was the beginning of mistrust of the teachers.... i felt cheated and somewhat made a fool of. it is a very serious issue, to be taken seriously, well done for noticing....

e). Something else.

My kids were often given totally banal homework. If I thought it was pointless I would complete it in my own best forged handwriting giving us time to delve into far more useful - but neglected - subjects like atomic theory.

Funny this thread should pop up from September. Update - turned out this year's teacher was and is brilliant and we didn't have to say anything. She didn't expect DD to do easy spellings, the exercises for the rest of the class looked like they were better designed too, and when she remembered to send DD with spellings at all they were from the y5-6 lists. She actually learned some new vocabulary.

In some ways it's a small difference - and I have no reason to think the in class differences are any bigger. DD doesn't like fuss, she gets embarrassed. But teacher matter of factly recognising that some things were not learning for DD and making that little adjustment has made huge difference to her engagement levels. Much less flippant and dismissive about school/homework and as a result more likely to challenge herself too.

that it's such a brilliant school year we're missing for lockdown.