Homework - do you ever tell your child NOT to do it?

[Posey]

Dd is in Y5. They are supposed to be set homework 3 times a week (Mon literacy, Wed numeracy, Fri either).
No homework was set Monday. Wed they were given a lot of maths (took over an hour). Today they were told to watch the news then write a report of what was on it to hand in tomorrow.
I have told dd not to do it because maths already took an hour. Also I don't want her watching the news unsupervised and with younger ones to bath and bed I couldn't watch with her at 6pm. Any later news is too late because she would then need to write it up. She needs to get to bed at a reasonable time as she has a cold too and is pretty tired.
We plan our lives around the demands of all members of the family, extra curricular activities, homework is planned in as we are supposed to know when she will get it. At 9 she still needs a fair amount of guidance and supervision and I think its totally unfair to spring a big thing like this on them to be done in one night.

Anyway I'm happy with my decision, which I will explain to the teacher. Just wondered what others amongst you would do.

write a letter in saying " i have three kids and spent an hour doing maths - sorry about the report but i couldnt aford time away from my other two children...regards"

Have done that Custy. Am happy with my decision.

I've been in to see DS1's teacher (and took the 2 little one's with me) regarding his written work. It did give him a chance to see the mayhem that goes on around DS1 while he's trying to do his homework.

By the time they are in bed, 7.30ish, DS1 is often too tired to start homework and it can be an unenjoyable experience for both of us.

He has loads of homework and I just try to concentrate on the things I know DS1 needs more practise in.

Anything that's incomplete or not started I write a quick line in his homework book to explain that there wasn't enough time.

Thanks for that.
I think in all the years dd has been at school this will be the first ever homework not completed.

dss (7 and 9) do their homework with no help or supervision, and have done for ages. We established routines for homework very early on, and they just get on and do it.

In the 'news' case, I would have told ds1 to write a report on Newsround: I wouldn't want him to see adult news at this age.

We do occasionally have holiday homeworks where the instruction is they can "have as much help as they want" ... we've got one this holiday: make a model of a building from your town ... Oh joy!

Thats kind of the point Roisin. She does do her homework on her own most of the time and I didn't want her to watch the news alone. We weren't in at newsround time as that had been my initial thought. If she'd had 2 nights for homework, as usual, I would have made sure we were in for it one night or taped it (we went out straight from school and weren't in in time to tape it)

I've written notes in the diary occasionally if homework hasn't been completed explaining why, but always stating they will complete it.

My eldest and youngest do most of their homework by themselves, only asking for help when required, plus spellings, My middle child, however, if left to his own devices would never get his homework completed, and often needs help anyway.

I would have used the newsround bulletin - if we'd have been in to see it. We're often not, due to the boys' commitments.

Once in Y5 at last school dd was told to watch 2 hours of TV - 1 kids, 1 adults - and see what kind of adverts there were. It was a Monday night for the next day, and as she only gets back from ballet at 6.30 I said no.
The teacher tried to respond to my note by explaining the prupose of the work. I understood - I'm not stupid - just thought she could have given more notice, such as a weekend. Very poor planning. One of the many many reasons dd left her class.