How long to do this hw?

[Ouluckyduck]

Rationing - children are given food amounts for one person, then have to calculate the amount the whole family would get and plan 20 meals (four a day for five days), adding unrationed food items like fruit and veg. How long do you think this would take to do for an average nine year old?

[Ouluckyduck]

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[Ouluckyduck]

So what I'm saying is - aibu to think this will take quite a while to do, more than 30 mins, and will require parentsl input, or am I overthinking it?

[mrz]

It depends how much work has been done in school to how easily the children will manage to complete the task

[Aleloudou]

I'd expect it to take a couple of hours, 20 meals is a ridiculous amount to plan for! I really don't like hw at primary school, they should cover it all in class!

[Ouluckyduck]

I mean surely this was a challenge for the average wartime housewife, so how come a nine year old is supposed to do it in 30 mins??

[Aleloudou]

30mins! I'd take it in to the teacher and tell her it's not suitable hw!!

[picturesinthefirelight]

That would take my 11 year old a few days. A nine year old could probably do the maths but but would get overwhelmed.

It's the sort of task I would have really enjoyed doing at the age if about 10 or 11 though as I like organising things like that.

[ZZZenAgain]

calculating the amount the family is entitled to would be straight-forward but planning 20 meals seems OTT to me and not really very interesting work for a 9 year old. I think parents have to help, perhaps suggesting that most meals are vegetable based, then asking what vegetable dishes the dc know and so on. Just left to themselves, I think 9 year olds would struggle to do this unless they have covered something very similar in class already.

[TheOriginalNutcracker]

My 9yr old would fall apart if asked to do that. He would need a huge amount of help from me and it would take him hours.

[ZZZenAgain]

when dd was learning about WWII, I remember we went on the BBC primary history website and learned quite a bit about food during the war and the general rationing situation on there. That was accessible for 9 year olds IIRC and I think it covers what you need to know and dd enjoyed working with the website. Don't remember it all that well now but it wouldn't give you the answer to your dc's specific homework task

[CecilyP]

It would be a hard task to do for anyone with very little cooking experience (so probably most 9 year olds) as they would not know how much of of the raw ingredients per person it would be realistic to put in each meal.

[Woozley]

I don't know as a 9 year old, it would take me several hours as a 37 year old and a confident cook. I wouldn't have known any meals or what goes in them as a nine year old as I used to have things like Vesta curry & Angel Delight for my tea!

[Ouluckyduck]

Still undecided whether to go in and say anything... Trouble is I bet all the other families do it and then look like the only wimps!

[CecilyP]

The thing is, for a 9 year old, they are not necessarily expecting it to be right. It is probably more maths than cullinary expertise, so, although a real family of 4 might be miffed at sharing an ounce of meat bulked up with potato and carrots - even in wartime, for the purpose of this exercise it is probably fine.