Help - 7 year old and homework

[CielBleuEtNuages]

My DS (7.5) does not like homework. I can sympathise. But he has roughly 45 minutes a day to do and I am fed up of him getting angry and stomping off, or refusing to do it. Every. Single. Day.

I always sit with him to do it (often it involves me testing him, or listening to him read then asking questions, or timing (!) him whilst doing mental arithmetic).

I have been patient. I have been encouraging. I have threatened to remove screentime and followed through. I have said I've had enough and that he can explain to his teacher why his homework isn't done. Nothing works. He still gets very angry and agressive about doing it. (when I say I give up he then starts crying and screaming saying he wants to do it, but doesn't want to do it).

He always ends up doing it, I'm just fed up of the arguments and time-wasting.

He has a 2.5 hour break between the end of school and when I ask him to do his homework, in which time he plays in the park, has a shower and has his dinner. If he's quick about doing his homework he also has time to play before going to bed. but often he takes up such a lot of time that he finishes the homework then goes to bed.

Any ideas for avoiding the arguments? Changing schools is not really an option, all of them have a lot of homework here (not UK). And I can see the value in every piece of homework they give him.

My 5 year old is in the same boat. His homework each night takes around 30-45 minutes. We cannot leave a break between school and hw, otherwise he also screams, tantrums, etc. So our routine is in the door, snack/sandwich selection, glass of milk then take it all to the table to sit down and just get it done. It's a pain in the arse but it's the only way I can get him to do it each and every bloody night. And they also assign him weekend homework, so Fridays are even longer for hw time 😓

Pinkvoid she wrote 45 minutes per day - 2.5 hours is the break he's having between the end of school and doing homework.

I agree it's too much on top of an 8 hour school day - my kids have had an hour's homework since the first year of school but we're in Germany not France, so school finishes by lunchtime - by 11:20am some days in fact. Class time is input and homework is practicing skills, so it's mostly very necessary (with a few exceptions...)

However whether it's too much or not is unlikely to be anything the OP can do much about.

I know if my kids didn't do their homework they'd be repeating years or at primary not getting the teacher recommendation for the type of secondary they want. Just not doing homework might have no consequences in UK primaries but that advice doesn't travel well.

I'd split the homework into MUST be done today, Preferably done today ,can we skip it (reading/times tables ..just say you did it) and can we leave it for the weekend?

It's a lot if pressure and work( I fully sympathise as I grew up in a similar system ) so I'd mix it up by trying to add some fun,cut him some slack,possibly bribery(I'll never win a parent of the year award) with non negotiable,this needs to be done now.

I wouldn’t push my 7 year old to do 45 mins of homework a day. My 13 year old doesn’t have that much

Just write a note every time to his teacher saying you didn’t have time because he was tired, had other activities, was playing ....

Sorry just read the thread properly.

We had a similar problem with DS. Regularly ended up with lots of tears (from both of us). Struggled to write at length. Slow processing. Although very good verbally. He was officially diagnosed with dyslexia at 7 years old. Might this be a possibility with your DS?

Maybe try to get ahead of the curriculum so that it is easier doing the tables/spelling/grammar/conjugations so maybe in holidays.