Spellings - how easy/ hard should they be?

[mychatnickname]

Ds has spellings home from school to learn. They don't get tested thankfully. They get about 8 to 10 a week. Only 1 has been 'new' for ds each time. The others he can spell very easily without any trouble already either using phonics or from memory. The phonics based ones are e.g. chop. He could do that this time last year. I can't see the point as it's not even slightly easy stuff that would be at the level that would reinforce recent learning at least.

Does it matter (yr 1)? Part of me thinks who cares, he is in year 1 but the other thinks well if he is getting homework it should be roughly appropriate for where he's at and also does this mean the teacher isn't very aware of what he can do (highly possible given other people's experiences of her and other evidence sadly)?

It doesn't matter at all what spellings they get given in Y1.

Most homework has no point. If your child is not struggling, than be thankful.

I would only make a fuss if the spellings were too hard.

So what's the point of doing it? I don't want to give him the idea that homework isn't important and he doesn't need to do it, as it's not a good message for later on.

It's also about confidence. He doesn't find them difficult at the moment, but they will very gradually get more difficult. When they do he will remember that he has had spellings that he could do before and so approach the more difficult ones with a more positive attitude.

Well, that's the theory anyway

My boy adores spellings! He actually wrote a note to his teacher asking for more interesting ones and he was really happy to oblige. Now instead of the usual year 3 words we have vicious, relieved and labyrith etc. My son is in spelling heaven!!

But he had similar words last year before Christmas and he is used to a little homework so sorry I don't buy that. Many of them are the same words he did last year.

I'd say fair enough about consolidating something fairly recent but this was ages ago.

Do the words get harder from 1 to 10?
My DS also Y1's spellings this week started off with " #1 hot" and ended in "#10 wednesday".....Each child gets the same list of spellings but are required to do either 5 7 or 10 depending on their level. They do get tested. But the words are definately a lot harder than last year.
IMO DS's school focus on homework too much. And gets frustrating when they learn words like hAIR and squARE in the same week. But if anything it has improved DS's reading 10 fold. The difficult words work for him but may not for others not reading or spelling at the same level..
You could always give him some words of your own if you really wanted to.

Sugar - no they don't seem to get harder. I like that idea and think that would work.

Yes maybe I could just do a few occasionally of our own but then that means he is doing double homework which seems horrid given he's so little!

I'd have a quiet word with the teacher. Maybe she hasn't realised the words have been repeated. They do make mistakes sometimes. Might there also be another reason you have overlooked? The world of primary school teaching seems to me to be a bit of a private club where the parents aren't allowed to know the rules - although that's another conversation !

Spelling homework should be differentiated within a class. That said, perhaps he's at he stage where he can spell them when he's concentrating but nit when he's writing a story or a sentence with the word in it.
Going in and talking to the teacher is the only way to get the answers you want.

Last week we had "Benjamin, Fantastic, Lunchbox, Sandpit, Dentist, Brazil," and Icant remember the rest, they get ten a week and they have to write them out three times each then get tested on them. I thought they were too hard, and really long words to fit into tiny spaces in the spelling book. DS has only been in school a term and a half!!! This week's were much much easier, so I wonder if half the class struggled with the hard ones. They did two tests of the hard ones, ds got ten out of ten the first time and seven the second....

But god spellings are boring arent they?

Yes it's possible he doesn't spell them as well in class although his concentration in any environment is very good and has been praised by the teachers. I think they just are not differentiating them though. They all seem to have the same ones in the class.

Not sure whether to mention it to her though as maybe I should pick my battles rather than having another conversation which will make her think I'm a pushy parent who seems to think her kid is too clever for whatever