Are your Y3s doing homework independently/without asking?

[gabsid]

My DS is almost 8 now, in Y3 and would never dream of doing a single piece of home/school work by himself. He has been told by me and his teachers that homework is his responsibility but he still seems to think that its my job to make sure he has done his school work. And its a pain because I have to make him read, do spellings, times tables and any other bits. On top of that he tries to hide and avoid any work, e.g. leaving reading book at school, handing in homework before its finished etc. Arghhhh!!!

On top of that, a new maths teacher accused DS of getting someone else to do his homework because the writing didn't seem consistant to her and threatened him with the HT. I spoke to the teacher on the phone and explained that this was very unlikely as HW doesn't concern DS at all and that he wouldn't bother, but that I would be concerned if he did that in school. I saw the sheets and could confirm that he did it himself but on different days which may explain the slightly different hand writing.

Do you have to force your Y3 DC to do any work or are they doing it fairly independently? How and when did you step back a bit?

I am planning to give DS a bit more time and in Y4 I think I will just let him face the consequences of not having done it, after a discussion with the teacher - to make sure she knows and that there really are consequences.

summerrain your probably right, either DS2 will be a horror about HW or one of the older ones will decide to stop being cooperative.

Generally, I find they like to keep us on our toes. At present angelic DD2 has actually managed to get detention, which is absolutely unheard of. That's over HW which was very unclear and she didn't ask because she hates German and the teacher isn't great.

Yes, let them face the consequences.

If DS (Y4) doesn't do his homework, he will get a detention. I'm not sure if that's what motivates him, but he is very good about getting in from work and getting on with it.

I have to remind him to learn spellings, though.

He has to ask us if he can go on his iPad after school, so it could be that he is keen to do that, and that acts as a carrot.

Or maybe he's just fairly motivated, anyway.

You must be joking, DS1 is in y8 and I still have to remind him to do homework. DS2-y4 has to be incentivised (rewarded/banned from doing anything else).

DDy6 does it all completely off her own back, and has done for YEARS, sometimes asks me to check it for her. DS-reception is very similar to Dd (as long as it's writing, hates math; yes I have a small boy who loves the act of writing, that's the weirdest one yet!).

Thinking about it some more, I have realised that DS2 (Y6) and DS3 (Y4) are self-motivated when it comes to homework. If left up to them, they'll both do the homework on the day it's given.

DS1 (Y8) used to need more reminding, but has taken on the responsibility for it himself since starting secondary school. Still needs reminding to revise for tests though.

DD (Y4) is the hardest to get going. She processes quite slowly and is often exhausted after school. She would rather rest or play first and then leave the homework until last thing before bedtime.

He does his weekday homework without prompting (or at least with just a casual reminder). The weekend homework tends to take some prodding, though. He definitely does better when the homework is due the day after it's set than when he theoretically has several days to do it in.

My Y3 DS (8 already) does all of his homework independently. Approx. half an hour per day. I generally just check it over after he's finished and test him on his spelling the night before his test.

He does however need a little persuading to read and we try to do that together daily.

Thanks, there are a few more ideas I could try, e.g. doing it earlier. I can see that they are all different. What I noticed though is that now in junior school teachers seem to address DS about his homework and make him responsible - a hideous idea in our case.

Last week I found a crumpled up maths sheet at the bottom of his bag and asked him whether that was HW. His answer: 'don't know'! He leaves his reading book at school so that he doesn't have to do it, and last week he handed in his spelling book after doing only half the HW - anything to get out of it. His HW diary is pretty empty.

I have already spoken to his class teacher and made her aware and that I need to know about HW otherwise it will not get done.

Even more annoying that his new maths teacher assumed someone is doing HW for him and threatened him with the HT. That idea wouldn't enter DS's mind and it upset him that he was accused of threatened about something he hadn't done, he seemed quite helpless. If the teacher had spoken to DS's class teacher the situation could have handled differently. But maybe at some point DS will need a wake up call?

Ds year 4. He does homework at school because I was fed up with battles. They even have homework club on Fridays.

I reckon ds's wake up call will come at secondary school when homework matters.

Ds is y3 and has always been a hw refuser. Can't really blame him - homework for primary school sucks IMO. Anyway, since the school sets it, we support it. We have a routine that he knows about and more or less follows. But if I don't say 'right homework!' as soon as they get in, he's off upstairs like a rat up a drainpipe. I fear it's the way life will be until - well - he's left home probably! Although he did tell me he was going to work hard at his a levels so he could leave home ASAP.