Shall I make her do it again?

[Hiyoulot]

Yesterday my youngest (7) brought some extension homework home where she had to list twenty adjectives. She's bright but getting her to do homework is a struggle. I was delighted when she sat down of her own accord to do the homework but got up a minute later saying she'd finshed. She's written 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8...etc up to 20! I know it is technically correct but it does look a bit bare on the A4 sheet she was given! Should I try and persuade her to do something more descriptive?!

No. Life is too short to make her do it again.

no. She's only 7. The teacher will tell her if that is not what she expected from the DD.

Hmm they also get 10 spellings every week and they have to put each word into a sentence. My daughter makes up the shortest sentences using as many of the words as possible (with a glint in her eye!). I'm just thinking this 1...20 may be too much for the teacher to ignore!

I'm not sure that it's even technically correct, is it? Shouldn't they have been first, second, third, forth, fifth and so on up to twentieth, if they were adjectives?

learnandsay - I wasn't sure but apparently numbers can be adjectives! Seven days in a week, for example.

No it can be one dog two cats three elephants because they modify the noun

The only thing that is wron(ish) is she should write them out as words, one, two, three etc. It looks wrong in a written piece to have the figures 1,2,3 etc.
My Ds is constantly getting reminded to use words not figures in his writing.

Mrz probably knows the "rule" as to how big the number has to be before you are allowed to write it as a number.

what a boring piece of homework.

I wouldn't class numbers as adjectives unless they are actually describing how many of a noun. She hasn't done this?
I will go against the grain and say that at seven years old she should be capable of doing this homework properly and providing twently adjectives (even if they are as simple as: big, small, large, bright ...) fairly easily.

I told her she should write them out as words one to twenty or preferably, do a list of twenty more interesting adjectives. Her older sister then tried getting in on the act to annoy her further. I read youngest daughter's homework after she'd finished. The adjectives she'd used included irritating, boring, horrible.....Oh dear! Least homework is done til next week!

Hiyoulout:

I agree with choccyp1g - she should learn to write the numbers out. I'm not completely up to date (it's been a while since DD1 was in Y2) but it used to be that knowing how to spell numbers was one of the learning outcomes for the national curriculum KS1 SATs.

I agree with many that there's no point making her do it again - but perhaps the trick is to look through what the homework is with her and set paramaters with her before she starts. So next time around see her start the homework and satisfy yourself that she's not 'taking a shortcut'. I'm afraid you may have to be a bit of a referee on this - but (sorry teacher's out there) use the teacher as the 'bad guy' and say now I'm sure Mrs or Mr X didn't intend it to be that easy.

Now my DD2 (who's 6 & in Y1) also goes for using as many spelling words in a sentence as possible - but it's leading to some very creative writing. DD2 wrote this amazing sentence: The WHITE WITCHES WATCHED the WHEEL turn WITH WONDER as the WHALE swam by. She seriously came up with this on her own. And she's really into double meaning of words now, because she's so determined to try and use all her spelling words (or as many as she can) in one sentence. So there's actually a lot of grammar going on - A few weeks ago we had 'coast' - noun: the point where the land meets the sea/ ocean but as a verb: to use existing momentum or gravity to carry or move an object (or yourself) in a particular direction. DD2 spent a lot of time working out whether the use 'coast' as a noun or verb.

DD1 faithfully did one word per sentence, but the sentences were very short - X is my friend - friend being the spelling word. She's always gone for brief sentences - and frankly it means that when she has a writing task she often struggles to use 'exciting' words and more complicated sentences, with clauses/ metaphors/ similes/ etc...

When DD1 has had this kind of list homework (i.e. find 20 adverbs, adjectives, etc...) we've always used our reading to help find ideas. She tends to write down the adjective (for example) as it is used in the sentence and the page number from the book(s) she's currently reading.

Hiyoulot

You have a 'wick' one there - I love her soloution. I'd tlk to her about whether her teacher will be unhappy with the work and then let her live with the consequences if she doesn't redo it.

What did you decide to do?

We are told that a homework should take up to 20 minutes. I'd have asked her to continue to find some of a different type was well for at least another 10 minutes.

I chatted to the teacher today. She said she likes reading her one-sentence- with-all-the-spellings-in as it usually (like pastthesellbydate's child) leads to something more creative. I told her about the 1,2,3,4, and she laughed saying that she had told them numbers were adjectives. I told her I had made her write out some more interesting adjectives though and we have agreed she has the potential to 'go astray' if not kept an eye on. My daughter is extremely bright and knows just what she'd doing - problem is to keep her on the straight and narrow!

It sounds like you have a nice teacher and a very smart child. If it had been my 7yo, I'd have laughed and let it go as a one-off if I was confident the teacher would see the funny side. But kept a close eye on the next few pieces of homework to make sure she was doing them "properly".

I hope the teacher appreciated her eventual list .

DS never had written homework, but their spellings used to get tested in context, as it were, so when I was testing him at home I would make up sentences to wind him up - as in "how do you spell 'world', as in "DS is the grumpiest boy in the entire world?""

So funny stealthsquiggle. That made me giggle.