Not done homework tonight - fed up with it. Advice on what to tell teacher tomorrow?

[KhyberPass]

Fed up with it taking over family time and causing tension. DS (nearly nine) is doing brilliantly in school, gives his work 110% (in school), and does his key lessons with the year above and the year above that. So it's not like I'm letting him down when he's struggling; he's doing great.

He likes some homework - the fun, interactive, online stuff - but some of his literacy work takes ages and doesn't always seem of much educational value compared to, say, chilling in front of a really good documentary before bed or playing a strategy game or having a good old chat with family.

And because of my work/DS's clubs, we have one afternoon/evening a week to do it - today. Except this is also our afternoon to chill out, visit friends, have a friend over, do something fun together.

So today I've just thought sod it; I'm not going to nag him to do it and have the ensuing tension sour the rest of the day. He's enjoying some needed downtime.

But I know his teacher makes kids who haven't done homework stay in at playtime and do it then - which seems unnecessarily, unjustifiably punitive to me.

I now feel like I've got to go in and explain why it's not done (we wanted to feel like our downtime was our own for a week), grovel, and ask her not to keep DS in. Groan. Any advice on how to handle this?

what homework is it?

Fed up with it taking over family time and causing tension

Tell her that.

Eh? Send a note saying that you decided, as the parent, not to do it. It's not compulsory.

I think you're in a losing battle really! But my initial thought was, make 100% sure the teacher knows it was your idea, not the fault of the child.

Fwiw, same situation here - only one day it can be done. Goodness only knows what we will do next year when the volume drastically increases.

Can you suggest he does it over the half term instead?

I agree, downtime, enjoying family time is also important, you need a balance.

Why do you only have one day to do it ,why not do ten minutes on other days so there is less to do in one go . TBH if your son is working up to 2 yrs ahead I can't see that the homework would take very long .

Why is the only one night it can be done?

I don't belief in primary cool homework- but I also think if it's set, it ought to be done. And I really don't think it's a good Ida to cherry pick an only o the good bits. How long was it supposed to take? I think guidelines ay 20 minutes a day at this age.