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Homework Sheets

9 replies

FuntoLearn · 18/05/2012 12:00

My DC starts in Year 4 at local State School in September.
I know they do not give much in the way of homework - and Its possibly just one item a week.
Does anyone have tips for setting homework independently (ie as a parent).

I would like to be able to give DC up to 30 mins homework each night that she can complete and I can check - Maths / literacy / science / KS2 stuff.

Hope you can help?
Many thanks.

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Francesco · 18/05/2012 12:08

My DS is 2 so I have no experience but... I wouldn't give homework, I'd leave it to the school. You could read with your child, do puzzle books, colouring in, drawing etc... instead.

redskyatnight · 18/05/2012 12:14

There is no point in giving her homework that doesn't match up to what is being covered in school.

I would concentrate on reading and discussing what you have read, supporting topic work (e.g. DS was studying Romans, so we went to see some Roman remains), and consolidating maths facts e.g. times tables and associated division facts.

If you wanted to do more you can always try "stretching" your child in other ways e.g. play chess, learn a musical instrument etc.

treas · 18/05/2012 12:45

Rather than giving formal homework get you dc to bake a cake following recipes and cut it into equal pieces - measuring and fractions.

Plan a meal and work out how much veg etc. they will need per person and then get them to but the ingredients and bring home change from a tenner.

Count up pocket money and work out how much more is needed to buy whatever the object of their desire is etc.

This way the children are learning without feeling pressure and bored, consolidating learning from school and understanding why they need to learn what the do at school.

BlueChampagne · 18/05/2012 12:58

Read round the subjects together, using books from the library, internet searches? Encourage her to write - letters on paper, stories, poems. Apps like mathbingo?
Second treas too.

PastSellByDate · 18/05/2012 12:59

Hi FuntoLearn:

I think Francesco and redskyatnight offer responses which work if you are happy with what the school is doing.

If, however, you aren't happy - say times tables are taught strictly 2, 5, 10 in Y2 and no further, 3, 6, 4 in Y3 and no further and 7, 8, 9 in Y4 (forget about ever learning 11 or 12) - and you personally have an issue with this you may wish to do more.

some useful websites which can be used as redskyatnight suggests to extend learning at home might include:

BBC Learning: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ select KS2 tab on orange box on left (middle webpage) and then select area of curriculum.

Coxhoe school: www.schooljotter.com/showpage.php?id=50220 - useful web links for Y4 & their curriculum links www.schooljotter.com/showpage.php?id=35494

Crickweb: select KS2 tab and then scroll down to area of curriculum - here: www.crickweb.co.uk/

Woodlands Primary: primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/index.html - also when you click through to a curriculum topic - look out for menus at left or list of zones along the top - these will lead on to other resources.

I agree with redskyatnight strongly that supporting reading, possibly including a regular trip to the library, will bring great rewards. The more they read the better.

If you feel maths is just not being taught in any sort of building block ways and you are aware of real gaps in knowledge you could look into on-line sites such as Mathletics, Maths Whizz or Mathsfactor. I've been involved in some pretty heated debates with teachers here on MN about this - but if you are in a school which is totally unconcerned about learning multiplication (and division just isn't covered) as my DDs are, it is a workable solution for busy parents.

If you are in a catchment for grammar schools you may also want to look into preparation for the eleven plus. There are a number of people who publish work books (banded by age) to use for practice and one or two companies also publish a parents' guide (which is a good starting point) about the 11+. I've started dabbling in these books with DD1 (Y4) and have to admit the fact that she didn't know what plural, verb, noun, pronoun or possessive pronoun was, was kind of startling. In actuality she new roughly, but obviously either was taught another term (i.e. action words for verbs) or they've yet to cover it in detail.

With writing, sneak it in. Have them write in their reading diary about a book (if they don't have regular writing practice). Have them send postcards whenever you go anywhere. Thank you cards for birthday/ Christmas presents, etc... We've found both DDs really can't bear writing for more than 10 minutes, and really do need that regular practice.

I'm not sure 30 minutes or so of work a day is outrageous in Y4 and it is what is recommended (well was, things are changing apparently) for Y5/ Y6 (www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/SchoolLife/DG_179508). In our case it has meant that DD1, who was below average end KS1, has improved beyond recognition over the last 2 years of doing this kind of supplementary work regularly. I also don't think it's interfered too much with her 'being a kid time'.

FuntoLearn · 18/05/2012 13:21

Thank you all for your responses so far. All have been very useful.
But I must say PASTSELLBYDATE - What a brilliant response and so helpful. Thank you :) :) :)

OP posts:
anthonytrollopesrevenge · 18/05/2012 15:28

I'm with Pastsellbydate. 30 mins a day isn't excessive in my opinion for yr 4. And you can teach different things to school, provided you don't range too widely, if you revisit them regularly. I get my DS who is in yr 4 to do Maths (school has continued to give him times tables, which he could do by Chrismas yr 3, so I give him more interesting and difficult things to do), eglish comprehensions (school does not do these, but they have taught him to actually concentrate on the text and find out the answers from it, plus grammer as I make him write actual sentences, the school does not) and for fun, general knowlegde quizzes from a book we bought, he enjoys looking up the answers. He's now been moved to the top Literacy table, it may be a coincidence but I don't think so.

Beanbagz · 18/05/2012 16:04

As someone with a Y5 DD who gets homework every night, i personally wouldn't be setting it if the school didn't send it home. It makes a mess of all the fun things that i like to do with my DCs.

I second treas's suggestion to do more practical things at home. Making cakes, planning meals and doing crafts are all more exciting that homework. How about making a scrapbook or photo album? Putting together a family tree? Handmake an atlas so that your DC can find out intersting facts about different countries?

All the things i would be able to do more of if it weren't for homework Sad

blackeyedsusan · 18/05/2012 19:00

generally i would say that half an hour's homework per day is too much...however, it depends on your child and on the school too. ( i have a dd who is thrilled by activity books Confused )

what are the areas of weakness identified by the latest report? look at those and try to find some games and activities on the websites mentioned.

are they interseted in writing or doing a project on something of interest... you can teach a lot of skills this way... it could involve measuring, data collection and graphs of various sorts, writing non fiction reports with contents/index/glossary alphabetical order (not just the first letter but all the letters in the word)

i found an interesting site on lap books which may appeal to your dc.

or how about making a box about a topic so there could be photos, a booklet that they have made and stuff they have collected.

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