Would your Y2 DC be able to do these?

[Noomininoo]

DD1 has just started receiving homework for the first time (only had weekly reading bbooks in YR & Y1). The problem is that she seems to need quite a bit of help with it. I don't know if this is because she's not used to doing such formal worksheet type homework or whether the homework is pitched at too hard a level for her. I don't even know if they are supposed to be doing the homework by themselves or whether the parents are supposed to work through it with the DC to reinforce what they do at school.

We've always been told she's doing very well but unfortunately, where we live there is no formal assessment until the end of Y2 so we've no idea how well (or badly) she's doing in relation to her peers. I've got a parents evening in a couple of weeks where I plan to ask the teacher all these questions but in the meantime, I was wondering if you other Y2 parents could let me know if you think your DC could manage these questions by themselves.

HOMEWORK 1
Proof read these sentences using correct spellings & grammar:

1. Dolfins and wales live in the see

1. I saw some sheap with there lams on the hillsid

1. their are three yung Berds in the nest in the tree

1. at the zoo we sor jirafes elefants penguins and aardvarks

1. Could i have a drinck askt meg

There are others as well (10 in total) but I won't list them all. Would your DC get all the spelling errors? Do they know about capitalisation, commas, the difference between 'there', 'their' & 'they're' etc...

HOMEWORK 2
A book review which asked her things like 'how did the characters make you feel?', 'would you recommend this book & why?'. Would your DC be able to articulate these without guidance from you?

HOMEWORK 3
Look up these words in a dictionary & write it's page number next to it 'stable', 'chess', 'plate', 'kettle' etc. Do your DC have a firm enough grasp of alphabetical order to do this unaided?

Any advice gratefully received...

Homework 1 - she would have a good go but not sure that she would get them all right. I'm going to give her them tomorrow to check.

Homework 2 - she would have no problem and wouldn't need any help, maybe would ask about the odd spelling or two but probably not.

Homework 3 - I'm not sure but I'll check tomorrow. She has some knowledge of alphabetical order but I'm not sure how much.

I only help if DD3 asks me to but only if she's willing to accept the help without turning it into a big drama so hardly ever I'm a big believer in DC doing their own homework so that the teacher can see what they can a can't do.

I'll report back tomorrow OP

Homework 1: Mine would have got most, but not all

Homework 2: Depends on expectations, but they would have been able to write a few simple sentences for each item articulating how they felt. It's actually very focused on the child's experience of the book, which is good.

Homework 3: Yes, that would not have been a problem. They were asked to write words in alphabetical order in Yr2.

However, I can see how this change would come as a shock after virtually no homework, and I'd have preferred a more gradual introduction.

dd2, November birthday, Y2:

She would be able to do Homeworks 2 and 3. But she is a chatterbox articulate, and has a very good grasp of her alphabet via song.

Homework 1 she could do some of, but there are words in there she would spell phonetically - and she hasn't learned about quotation marks yet. The capitals, full stops and probably commas she could tackle - though I'd bet on a few mistakes.

But I agree - after no homework, it must feel like being chucked in the Atlantic Ocean without floaties!

The wording of the HMK is quite formal. Proof read?

At my DCs school it is not Homework but Home Learning

DS Y2 March born, he is quite good at spelling etc
I will test him as well after school

HMK, no matter what you call it, is a contentious subject here -I hate it- 3 DC, 1 hour of HMK each a week, reading every night + music practice - aargh !!!

Ds1 - now year 3 - still needs a fair bit of help to get organized to do homework (fetch the things he needs), plus gentle reminders to stay on task. In Y2 he certainly needed guidance on how to organise his work on the page and occasionally with content.

He would have not have been able to do Homework 1 properly at the beginning Y2, probably by the end of the year.

Homework 2 - he would have needed to talk over what to put in a book review and his ideas, otherwise would have just stared at a blank page for half an hour. But again, once he'd done a few would have been bored fine.

Homework 3 - yes, no probs if you could keep him on task rather than just reading the dictionary.

But really I think it's generally expected that adults support homework quite a lot in Y2 - it's all so new. If ds1 was really struggling with the content I'd have written a note to his teacher but this never happened, though I did occasionally need to recap things with him.

Seems quite hard for start of Year 2 to me. DD3 has just brought home very similar homework - and she's in Year 3.

DS would need a lot of help to understand and then do all 3 tbh. Maybe make a note for the teacher about how much help was needed.

I was a TA for ten years, mostly with Yr2, and the more able children would have managed most of that. 'Proof read' is presumably the term they have been learning about, and writing 'book reviews' and similar tasks are regularly used in Yr2. I agree, however they are only recently out of Yr1, so only the most able might cope with it.

A resource I am constantly recommending is the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary which lists words in order of initial SOUND, not just the letter as in a 'normal' dictionary. It would be invaluable in checking words in your first exercise, and also has hints and tips on spelling, as well as Nouns having their plural, and Verbs the various tenses. Also 'confusions' like 'their, there' etc. At under £7 from Amazon, it could be the best £7 worth you ever buy! You can see sample pages from it HERE:

No, my ds wouldn't.

1 he'd have a go but would need lots of guidance.
2 yes I think so - would probably need to explain " recommend"
3 show him once or twice how thn I think so... maybe.

Ferguson, I've put that in my Amazon wish list.

Just read the others. I agree he'd never get asked to "proofread" and this is a higher level than he'd usually get.

My yr2 DS hasn't had any homework like this so far. I'd actually be quite interested to see how he got on with the proof reading bit so i'm might try him on a couple!
The book review, i think he'd be able to do and also the dictionary part as we've already discussed alphabetical order but he would need a little help at first. I'm presuming though that this homework leads on from what they've already been learning in school so your DD should have some knowledge already.

Dd is August born. Doubt she would have understood the first sentence without asking for help.

March-born, 'more able pupil' in Y2.

1. He'd have a good go and would probably quite enjoy it, at least foro the first few. He was delighted when he found a typo in one of his reading scheme books last term. He knows what 'proofread' means because I'm a proofreader but he would probably use this as justification for trying to get me to do it for him!

1. He would be able to produce a few sentences but they probably wouldn't contain any great insight.

1. I'm not sure but I've never seen him use a dictionary so I think he'd struggle without guidance.

How long has she been given to do this work? It seems a lot to be set all in one go for Y2.

I'm pretty sure DS in Y2 would be able to do 1. - He was reading a school book recently and pointed out that the words For Sail should be For Sale and the word Soled should be Sold (this was a sign drawn on a picture in the book so a deliberate spelling mistake) we try and spell out words all the time, he's never had any type of spelling homework from school as yet and he pointed this out to me without prompting so I was quite chuffed that he'd spotted the mistakes. I might try him with your examples to see how he gets on.

1. I'm sure he'd be able to do this, he's quite articulate and this shows with his written work. Again it's not something we've done at home.

1. This one I'm not sure about, never used a dictionary so might just give it a go.

The only homework ds has had so far is reading and maths.

1. No.

1. a) Yes, but it would be a one word answer. b)Very unlikely.

1. No, not independently.

DD2 is August born, considered to be 'average'. 1a English, 1b Maths in YR1.

Thank you, I've ordered that dictionary!

1. She could point out things that didn't look right, but wouldn't be able to respell all the words on her own confidently. I don't think she would likely do commas without help.

2. She's be able to talk about it fine, writing it down would be another matter which she would want help.

3. I think she's have a good crack at three. Seems a bit odd and pointless though to just write the page numbers, even if they all have the same edition of the same dictionary.

My dd could do this with support but has major confidence issues at the moment. She's found the step from yr1 to yr2 really hard and is only just settling.

Dictionary ordered, thank you for the tip!

DD could do 2 and 3 but 1 wouldnt be completely right. Teyre doing something to do with planning and mantles at the minute which I dont understand at all!