homework time

[mamateur]

We've had DN living with us since September. He gets very little homework, maybe a couple of pieces of week. We've discussed this with the school and they admit there's a problem but are 'working on' getting teachers to set homework according to the timetable stuck pointlessly in his planner.

I've said to DN this evening that from now on we will have homework time for an hour every evening and if he doesn't have any homework he can either read a book (still at the kitchen table) or research something on the computer that we can talk about etc. He's not happy but hey.

I'm v. new to parenting (DS is only 1) but I wondered -

what does everyone else do for homework time?

How old is he?

Sorry, he just turned 13, in year 8.

I think it is a great idea - you might be surprised at the amount of homework he suddenly gets when he knows he has to spend an hour doing some education-related activity! There are loads of specialised revision/skills books out there for KS3 and you can just work through a couple of core ones (eg Maths, English, Science) or pair up a subject he is good at with a subject he needs extra work in (half hour each). It will be an invaluable skill to teach him (being able to work outside of school).

I would say try to keep it very positive, vary the tasks (there are some great game based websites that are educational, for example) and give him some choices (about the work he attempts) - maybe with a reward system attached. And if he has 'real' homework from school, don't 'hover' - let him get on with it.

Balia many thanks. He missed the last 3 months of Y7 (before he came to us) so is quite behind but completely unwilling to ask for help. What I wanted to do was take away the worry of getting it done. I do hope you're right and a bit more homework will magically appear!

Do you have any links for resources?

Well, this site is nice www.channel4learning.com

or good old bbc bitesize
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/

and this www.lettsandlonsdale.com/products/786/ks3-essentials-year-7-english-workbook/

is the kind of thing I mean as a workbook - but you might want to browse in your local bookshop or let him chose them himself as they can be quite dry.

Thanks I'll look at those sites - he's behind in pretty much everything. We have maths, languages and english covered as we both have those plus teaching experience. I would just like fun stuff to ease him into it and build his self esteem.