If you do your DCs homework (esp. art), why do you do it?

[WalkingThePlank]

We expect our children (age 7 and 5) to do their own homework. We facilitate by helping them with materials and might ask them open questions for them to consider if they want to make changes to written work but I'd say at least 95% of the work submitted is theirs.

The 5 year old has recently had a 3 week art project. He's really enjoyed doing it but as he is 5 it does look like a dogs dinner. Other mums (never the children) have been proudly bringing in their uncovered projects into school. Some have been truly amazing (jealous, moi?) and when I've asked which bit their child has done they've said things like, 'You don't think I've let her near it do you?'

So if you do their work, what do you think your child gets out of the process? What do you think the point of the homework is? Also, what do teachers think or expect from the homework?

As an aside, my mum did all of my art stuff and I won lots of competitions at primary school but I am truly hopeless at art. I don't think it taught me anything having my mum do it for me.

I remember at primary making a marionette puppet for homework. I did have a pattern to follow from a Blue Peter album but it was all my own work; cutting, sewing, sewing on hair, even sawing and sanding the wooden hands and feet, chiselling the joint on the control bit and drilling holes for the string (my dad supervised me with the chisel and hand drill but I did it). No one believed me so I didn't get a prize . It really knocked my confidence as I was actually very good at that sort of thing and being from a large family my parents would never have had time to do it anyway.

I learnt my lesson. Aways used to "help" with homework. As I gave up a good job to stay home I became obsessed with DS's quality of homework. Instead of bonuses my rewards were housepoints. Ridiculous. It doesn't help dc's in any way obviously . Is a total waste of time and in fact is detrimental to their development. Teacher's hate you doing it as it masks the child's real ability and it creates an unhealthy competitive environment in the class. Been there, done it, don't do it any more! Just sayin...

Reading some of these homework examples I'm starting to feel very thankful for the short and sweet literacy/numeracy tasks mine have.

Never do DS1s homework, he's bright and motivated and so its a good exercise in independent learning. DS2 doesn't get any (no homework til KS2 yippee!). DS2 really struggling at the moment and if he continues, I like to think I'll help in terms of giving him one on one attention and explanations etc but put a note in to say what help he needed. DS's primary are very thorough on marking and very approachable so don't think this would be a problem.

Given how much my own DCs differ it might be helpful if homework included a v small box for parents to tick if did it independently or needed help, with space for a very brief explanation of what help was needed.

DD would love it if I did her homework for her! It's meant to take no longer than 20 minutes so if it drags on longer than that (excluding time out for toilet breaks, cat-squidging, requests for drinks of water, indefinable stomach or leg pains...) and she's really not grasping it, a letter goes back to the teacher.

Unfortunately her school IS full of pushy bastard parents who demand more homework and sadly the teacher seems happy to give it to them. Joyless gits.

Lovecat, that list of time wasting excuses is very familiar to me

My 5 year old took his art project in today as did most of the other children. He (and I!) actually got pitying looks from some mums...

I am so glad that in all the time the 3 DC have been in school they have never had an art project homework to do!
I have therefore never needed to do their homework for them. I do occasionally give pointers e.g. from year 3-6 they do a history project for a half term at home. In year 3 I told DS that he could do whatever he liked, but he mustn't hand in any information that wasn't 'referenced' in the back in a bibliography. (Is it obvious I work in a university), from the next year that requirement had been added into the project specification .When DS1 got to year 6 I told him that quantity isn't everything, and even if his project was shorter than usual he needed to start saying 'why' things were important, or to describe how an event made him feel, not just which events had happened.
I think it gives them a great sense of achievement to do it independently - DS2 when in year 1 had to do a project on an animal of his choice. He researched it on Google - I sat by him at that point, just to be sure that the information he searched for was 'suitable'. But he was so proud of writing his 5 page project (a sentence and a picture per page).
However, usually they just get bog standard reading/phonics/maths practice so I can just leave them to it - I do still sit by DS3 doing his to make sure he practices his letter formation correctly, but wouldn't correct his answers if he gets them wrong.

My 5 year old took his art project in today as did most of the other children. He (and I!) actually got pitying looks from some mums...

Which is fine till the DC notices - or in our case DD1 noticed everyone else's being better then her then teacher told her her wasn't very good and it didn't get displayed. We still let them do there own.

I can be hard not to overstep the helping aspect. I can now just find appropriate web pages or sources for eldest yr4 and put her in front of stuff she needs and steer her away from things like optional art parts of homework to the other common alternative option of a report or booklet.

I do worry I overstepped the help with Yr2 DC this weekend - they had to write about a day out with school- all he had at started with was we went there. Lots of questioning and helping him organize day in order as require and suddenly all these rather interesting facts and observation came tumbling out from him - things I didn't know and wouldn't have expect him to remember or work out. It was first time I actually found out what he'd done that day.

It did demonstrate to us how his writing is being hampered by spelling worries and grammatic issues and just poor letter formation - something we had already started working on at home after having put loads of effort into his reading then maths. As we described what he could write - he did pick up words from my speech as they sounded better than his - so worry there is too much me in final report- it certainly took a very long time to complete.

Me too, Retropear!

I leave the kids too it mostly, but sometimes they will ask how to spell a word.

I think how early you can leave them to to it depends on how soon their reading level is sufficient to read and understand the instructions. i've been lucky that both of mine reached that level fairly early on, so never got the chance to get used to me helping them. I suspect for many parents they start off by helping because they need to and the children come to expect it.

I helped DS with an art project once, and he won an Easter Egg for it.
I asked the judge how she had chosen that one, when there were so many lovely designs, and she replied that it was so obviously the work of a 7year old!

Replying to the point avbout 'how do we know that parents want homework'?

Anecdotally - the number of phone calls and queries I get from parents when I accidentally set the (short) maths homework the policy asks me to one day late.

More scientifically - annual school survey asks parents about homework. The general message from this is that virtually all parents want there to be some homework, and the balance is that more parents want more (than the spelling + short maths + reading + occasional piece of writing) than want less than we currently set.

I am currently sitting on my hands while DD is writing that chimpanzees used to be humans. I try not to interfere!!

If she thinks chimpanzees used to be humans then she's half right. In some cases the truth is rather more insulting to the chimpanzees. But, all in all I'd have thought it the perfect opportunity to chat about Darwin. That's not interfering, is it. Telling you children things about the world they live in isn't interference; it's parenting!

Anecdotally - the number of phone calls and queries I get from parents when I accidentally set the (short) maths homework the policy asks me to one day late.

Well I ask about this if its late. But only to make sure dd has brought it home, so I can set aside time for her to do it. But if there is no homework, and occasionally this has happened, then I am over the moon about it.

Brian, i wuld agree with you as a parent - and certainly that is the tone of the message I would send in if my own children's homework was late.

It's the 'Where is the homework? My child needs more homework. Why do you set so little, and even worse why is it late this week? Can you set extra homework? The homework is too easy. X school / Y class gets more homework and your class should too. They will never make progress unless you really sort out the homework' tone of the messages that gives the indication that, at least in the school I teach in, parents want homework!

I hate homework, I feel sorry for my kids who had it piled on. They spend a lot of time at school and I want to spend educational time with them too, following their interests,but not be dictated to by what the school wants.

I also hate the homework which is given out and expected back the next day, my DD does 9 hours of after school activities and some evenings there is simply no time for homework.

Atthestrokeoftwelve- I read back what I'd posted here yesterday, and I am CRINGING my ears off; I sound like a real penis. So sorry- I had let myself get wound up by a couple of braggarts, and unconsciously ended up posting exactly like them. In reality, I don't have particularly strong feelings on homework, and took a hands-off approach out of my own laziness more than any real conviction. Luckily in this case, it doesn't seem to have made much difference (and as dd is great at science and maths, whereas I don't know a proton from a quadratic equation, it's a good job really ).

No worries bof, I didn't take it personally.

I do think some homework is agood thing, but my kids have such a lot piled on at primary school- often reducing them to tears at the shear volume of it that I have become quite cynical of the value of it and found it easier to do myself rather than argue with a dictatorial head teacher.

Luckily- probably despite my interventions- my kids have a good attitude to the moderate amount they now have to do at secondary school.

Forums are for throwing ideas about- no harm done. X

My yr1 DD wouldn't let me anywhere near her artwork :) She does her spellings independently and has me check it. She comes up with her own sentences and only asks me if unsure how a word is written. Maths - I explain what needs done then she does it and checks with me.

Not sure if letting her do completely independent work would help, I believe we are supposed to offer support at this age.