Another homework rant (sorry thread)!

[shebird]

To start this is not an anti homework rant. I am all for homework it's the content that often bothers me. My DS in Y3 gets spellings, tables, reading and then another weekly/ two week task. The task often involves 'being creative' i.e model building or making something or internet research, meaning that it needs my input. I was hoping that this year DS could work more independently when doing homework but so far this has been impossible.
Is all this 'creative' and research homework the norm these days or is it just our school? Any teachers out there?

Model building often involves learning to measure and possibly working to scale, these are important skills. Internet research often involves selecting information, structuring the answer, etc. Again important skills.

It does indeed seem to be the norm these days! My ds gets this kind of homework, and the school i teach in gives it out too. I much prefer giving it out than receiving it as a parent lol!

All sounds familiar..like you I have no objection at all to homework but research for a Y3 means research for Mum or Dad.
As for making things, we usually get plenty of notice but that too can be time consuming! Last night my Dd's homework ( Y 3) involved writing out and learning 10 spelllings and then looking up the meaning of the spellings in a dictionary and writing out the defintions...that took 45 minutes of hard work!!
That is a lot of work for a child who has just turned seven.

Yep sounds very similar to ours too

@dikkertjedap
I understand there are some benefits to model making and using the internet. I would personally prefer more emphasis on writing or maybe some maths problems as surely these are the most important skills at this age. It would also give parents a better idea of what progress they were making in these core things. Spending ages cutting up cardboard can only have limited benefits and ends up in recycling in my house!

I wondered if it had to do with DCs working at different levels and teachers trying to give homework tasks that were universal?