Help me work out what DD's homework is please!

[muminthecity]

She came home last week with it but I've only looked at it properly today. All she has been given is an A4 booklet with the title "Flyers" on the front. The first page has 'contents' written at the top and the back page has 'glossary' on it. All other pages are blank. DD claims to have no idea what she is supposed to do. I'm guessing she is supposed to make a booklet about things that fly? Is the word 'flyers' even used to describe things that fly?! We haven't been given any guidance on it at all. Could 'flyers' mean anything else? Help!

at 'badger warder'.

I don't like lots of homework for smalls. DD is in reception and I'm grateful that her reading and writing is good and we don't have be too strict about practising every night. Sounds like the school and/or teacher is a bit over zealous, IMO, muminthecity

I'm glad the mystery is solved. Flyers is a ridiculous title though!

Hi muminthecity:

My solution to this conundrum would be:

1. check class website for homework instructions

failing that

2. ring friend in that class who's also in the same group for writing

failing that

Play dumb - assume that your DC has been asked to write about all the different types of flyers there are.

Maybe start with the definition. There are 8 here: www.thefreedictionary.com/flyer - you could have quite a bit of fun with all that.

The first flyer (and a little blurb) about the first pilots.
Favourite flyer: maybe favourite early pilot and why
I'm a flyer: maybe a picture of your DC on an airplane (if you have one) or a ticket stub.
Flyer - advertisements - and perhaps some examples
Giant Flyers - Billboards perhaps
Flyer: birds
Flyer: fish
Flyer: mammals
Ancient Flyers: Pterodactyls

You could probably have a lot of fun (including your DC) and I'm sure the point is to get them writing a bit, learning the skills for building an index and possibly a glossary and working on laying out text and images would all be good stuff anyway.

HTH

Am I the only one who would just pop it back untouched in the book bag and carry on eating Easter eggs?

Greeata:

I think if you're perfectly happy your children could do it without any help or guidance, grammatically correct and spelled beautifully then yes, I'm with you, sit back and relax.

Or if you're happy for your children to never to homework - for whatever reasons - that's fine.

However....

My children aren't in that boat. They have very little written work (no homework whatsoever from school since the week before we broke up for Easter) and DDs are exhausted after writing 1 sentence on a postcard because quite obviously they never do that much at school.

I'm afraid in my case, I'd welcome this kind of homework (even though no clear instructions were sent home) - just because it would get that process of learning to write/ thinking about writing going for my DDs.

I hate projects, as you always end up doing it yourself helping, and they seem to take forever, and being done on the last day.

My DSs new school gives him a booklet containing maths sheets, comprehension, and so on. It's great, because, I can sit him down and just say do that page, and you are finished. So much easier.

She is very good and will be able to do it if I make her, I just resent the amount of time it is going to take away from our time off together. Although she is in Y1, her teacher told me at the last parents evening that she is working more at a Year 3 level, so they are going to start giving her Y3 work to do in school. Because of that, I think her teacher will expect a proper independently written booklet, and would be disappointed with just a few sentences and pictures.

Also, this will not end here, this is just the beginning of the new project. All homework projects end with us having to do a ridiculously time consuming craft project at the end. We have so far had to make a musical instrument, a puppet theatre, and a toy. No doubt in a few weeks we will be asked to produce a scale model of a boeing 747.

i would expect a picture and caption per page or double page. (having looked at the work dd did in school) possibly a couple of sentences per page.

the glossary is going to be the hardest to do. (bitter experience) try to think of suitable words early in the endeavour. it is easier to write a sentence about a ord in the glossarry than make up a glossary from some of the simple sentences children write for these things..

I absolutely hate making models - he will never do it the way I want!

I'm just wondering...maybe they had a guided reading session with a book called "Flyers". I did this with some children a couple of weeks ago. It was all about a boy who got the wrong end of the stick when his teacher asked him to sort out "flyers" for his school fete!! He sent emails on the school computer to the aerodrome, a bird of prey sanctuary and a butterfly 'farm' asking them to attend his school fete with displays...however, the teacher had meant him to design flyers for the fete so that people would turn up. When the mistake was realised on the date of the fete, and there were not many visitors, he got the man with a bi-plane to go up into the air trailing a sign behind him advertising the fete!!
Maybe this was the follow-up activity to go with it?

"Objects that fly" would have been a better title. Otherwise, brochures, political pamphlets, insects, birds, pilots and people who do hang-gliding would be eligible to go into the homework too. FWIW, a friend who has a 7 year old daughter at an elite girls' school also had the same problem - not only mysteriously titled homework but also [bushock] misspelled. (It was a five letter word. Quite a common one. Should not be difficult to spell! It was also slang/vernacular!)

This would be my solution:
Contents: Aeroplanes, Hot air balloons, Kites
p.1 Picture of an aeroplane. Caption: This is an aeroplane.
p.2 Picture of a hot air balloon. Caption: This is a hot air balloon.
p.3 Picture of a kite. Caption: This is a kite.
Glossary: Aeroplane - something that flies; Hot air balloon - something that flies; Kite - something that flies.
[bugrin] [bugrin] [bugrin]

Homework in Year 1 is child-abuse as far as I'm concerned! (and parent-abuse too!)
In the Steiner schools they don't give homework before the age of 12 (I think); they say it interferes with the child's dreaming.

I think these anti-homework points are all valid, but it strikes me that you are talking from a position of secure knowledge that your children are doing well.

They can read at or above their age level
They're doing maths at or above their age level
They can write a paragraph or note to a friend/ relative which is spelled correctly, grammatically correct and coherent.

In all sincerity - that just isn't our situation at the school we're at. Sure they can watch a video for 2 hours, they can do all the hand motions to 'Our god is a great big god' - but not a one of them can write a full side of A4 without a serious meltdown, and certainly not on their own.

Thus, I see these assignments as my opportunity to sneak some learning into their 'education'.

I also fear that I enjoy this time with my kids. I like seeing them work something out and being there when that light-bulb goes on. I like watching them get really interested in a topic. I like seeing their pride in completing a poster (for ballet class, not school by the way) or a little assignment (so rarely sent home - just the once the week OFSTED came, which of course was no coincidence I'm sure).

I do extra because I'm very clear 'the professionals' so obviously aren't.

But please do understand posters, I do respect your stance - I just strongly suspect that things are going along as you would expect them to be. I think your position would be different if perhaps your child wasn't able to read yet (and it's early Y2, which was my case for DD1), or your child can't subtract even 1 from 10 and it's Easter Y2, which was my case DD1) or your child has been given the same book for 'at home reading' for 5 weeks (DD2 Y1) and your ready to shread Big Panda, Little Panda.

As I said, I think welcoming homework very much depends on your situation: the quality of the school, your child's needs and your desire to foster learning.

I would argue bestemor that the actual 'child abuse' is having a school that is content for a child to not be able to read/ write or subtract in late Y2 at age 7 after 8 terms in formal education and doesn't see that as a problem. No intervention, repeatedly telling me and my DH they'll learn that next year, and when we started to do our homework about what other Y2 children were doing in the LEA we were told we're too demanding or 'no other parent has complained' (which was subsequently proven false by the way), asking us to just accept our DD1 'isn't just that bright', etc..., etc... is absolutely grossly unprofessional behavior and a total travesty of their statutory obligation to educate the next generation.

But of course if government policy is only to use the state sector to prepare the next generation of 'serving sector' employees or dole recipients then of course they're doing a fabulous job!

I am in Year 1 and the first topic we are covering is non fiction texts and will be exploring contents, glossary, titles, captions, facts and so I would assume this would be work regarding a simple non fiction texts on things that fly - it could be insects/objects/inventions/birds? The school may have delivered the non fiction unit previously and so this would be an extension of their understanding. I would not expect my class to make a booklet before they have had any previous teachings on it. We will be looking at the difference between fact and fiction and using a contents page the first week and so my homework will be asking the children to find out facts about World War 1 (because we are looking at life 100 years ago so this will be our focus for creating our own non fiction text at the end of the unit.) Hope this helps!