Homework at primary - how much? Too much?

[GrumpyGit]

Dd is in yr2 and gets what seems to be an average amount of homework compared with my friends kids - i.e. each week she gets spellings/other English homework, a reading book, some maths. I thought it was quite a lot at the beginning of term, but as she's usually happy to do it and everyone says it's a normal amount these days I've not thought much about it since.

Last week we had one of those nightmare weeks where everyone (other than dd) was ill, both dh & I, plus the 2 ds were up in the night (you might've seen my other thread about the vomit) - anyway, just a week of surviving and the English homework got overlooked.

The note the teacher has written in the homework book irritated me a bit and got me thinking again - when I was a kid I first got homework aged 11 just before starting secondary - is it just me or do other people think there seems to be an unreasonably large amount of homework for kids to do at a very young age these days? And is it actually helpful to them in the long term?

PS I deliberately didn't post this in aibu btw!

it is how it feels.

Sorry WowOoo to have not replied - dh dropped the laptop last week and so I had no MN til today! (was dreadful, and v boring in the evenings :( ).
I didn't write a note to the teacher as I'd totally forgotten about the homework; I was merely surviving the week (which was not a good one). Dd got v little attention as everyone else in the house was ill, and largely looked after herself that week but didn't think about her homework either. I thought about writing a note after we'd received the one from her teacher, but I was annoyed and didn't want to overreact so posted on here instead .

Ealingkate - I read a previous book by Alfie Kohn, think it was called Unconditional Love which was very interesting. I might get hold of a copy of The Homework Myth... and send it to dd's teacher anonymously after I've read it!

DS1, yr2, gets homework every night. 2 nights of maths (1 page each night), 1 comprehension exercise, 1 sentence writing from spellings, and 1 story writing exercise. Additionally he has reading every night (free reading, so how ever much he wants to read of the particular book he has chosen). He finishes all his work (except the reading) in 15 minutes (30 min for the writing) and it isn't a stressor. He sees homework as something expected and normal at this point.

Do I see the point in it? Yes, this year because he is sitting 7 plus exams and the work is practice for it. Last year he had a third the amount of homework, and I viewed it as a good practice for this year. Without the gentle introduction to homework in year 1, this year would have been much more problematic.

DD2 age 8 Y4
Its endless and just going through the motions with half the work set.. Although we chose the school because it does have a high academic standard I can see its slowly killing DDs love of certain subjects.
Approx 1h 30 mins homework ( on a good day)!
Daily French rote sentences and vocab 20 mins for following day. Test every Tuesday.
Daily Maths either via mathletics or Edu City 20mins to be submitted online.
Reading 20 mins per day to change book weekly
English Spelling 10 words for Friday Test
English Creative writing piece set Tuesday for Friday
English educity submitted online 3 topics given Tuesday for completion Friday.
Science, Monday and Friday 15 mins.
Maths printed worksheet Tuesday for Thursday.

dd year 3 age 7

Spellings every week
Maths sheet twice a week
English stuff twice a week handwriting
then learn and write about what ever topic there doing

And then reading but luckily she loves that and reads well so its not the guided stuff

THK, that does sound like quite a bit of homework, and an hour and a half is more homework than the very academic prep schools in London say they give in Year 4. your poor daughter! How many hours are given in year 5 or 6?

Homework is not mandatory in this country - even the government begrudgingly says that. Write a letter to the teacher/head outlining your belief in the harm of homework, state that you will not prevent your child doing homework and will actively assist if they WANT to do it, but that you will not punish if they dont do it, and you expect that as the schools duty of care does not cover the evenings and weekends that you do not expect them to punish either. Each year I need to reiterate this, but if more parents who don't believe in homework factually stated their position and regained control, then perhaps things actually might change - teacher unions and many teachers disagree with homework but are afraid of the vocal set of parents who push for more - we should be willing to do the same.

omg detention for not doing hw in primary if my DC ever couldnt do their hw i used to write them a note in their school diary but never had complaints as they would only not do it if really unwell but im not sure what benefit they get from hw at this age except practice for whats to come which in secondary gathers momentum (a lot) lol