What 'homework' is your reception child bringing home?

[sunnysideup]

I have been a bit surprised at the amount of stuff we have had home, tbh. But I wonder if most schools do this nowadays?

DS has a book every day that we change from a book box in the classroom; we have this as one of our bedtime books every day.

He also has a word 'envelope' with four words on, which we have to take back in once he has recognised the word for 3 days on the trot. We then get four more words in the envelope. This seems to be a 'look and say' based activity as it's more about recognising the word.

We have had a sheet a week with 'phonics' sounds of letters along with actions to learn, over the last three weeks, about 6 letters on each page.

We also have a scissor exercise pack with a sheet of activities to pursue with the child to get them ready to use scissors, and a picture to decorate/collage, which is returned when done for another worksheet to be returned in the pack.

DS is 4.3 years old and I do find this ALOT of stuff. He gets in at about 3.30pm each day and he is usually in bed, asleep by 6.30pm. This is down to us feeling that he really needs and benefits from a good 11 hours sleep a night and won't thrive so well without it, specially now he is at school!

I have done little bits with him but to be honest he is knackered when home and wants his freedom, to run about and play as he likes...I feel he is making a huge adjustment to school and that's ENOUGH!

I don't want to be unsupportive of the school or hold DS back, but we simply don't have time to fit all this stuff in before bedtime! Are we unusual or is this amount pretty usual???

[swift1]

Hi sunnysideup,

the little boy I look after has a reading book each day that we share, that we can chabge as oftern as we like.
He also has a jolly phonics folder , and each day he has to learn the phonic and practise writing it.
Then last week he got 8 words, i.e mum dad the etc which we play games with.
He does enjoy it but I do not agree witht he jolly phonic thing. He has to do one each day and if he doesnt he will behind the rest of the class.
The thinkg is, sometimes he doesnt want to do his jolly phonic but I am having to make him, which i dont think is right for a chlid of 4 years old,to be made to do school work and not a very good first experience of school for him.School at this age should be fun, and maikin ghim do stuff he flatly doesnt want to do is not fun .

[sunnysideup]

thanks for that Swift. That also sounds alot to me, but then I guess anything would - Personally I would rather he brought nothing back, in reception!

I hate to think of four year olds feeling that they HAVE to sit down and 'DO' their phonics.....what a good way to turn a child off learning, and off school

I know what you mean about being behind if they don't do it, but this is only 'behind' in terms of the schools own targets, surely? So what if they don't meet them?

I think that's how I'm thinking at the moment. I will offer DS the chance to do all this stuff, and I will be creative in how we do it so that he doesn't feel forced....but if I really can't do it with him, if he won't at this stage, then fine by me. I know he is bright and I know that he will be brought up in a home which values his education and his school. If he misses a school target then fine, so long as I feel it's because he's not ready rather than any genuine 'learning' difficulty.

[bakedpotato]

DD brings home a worksheet at weekends, with a few letters on it to copy and talk about. The teachers have indicated that it's only really worth doing this if the child wants to, so it is pretty unpressured, really.

She has also just started bringing home picture books which she 'reads' to us (again, this is over a weekend). I suppose soon words will begin to appear in them.

Normal bedtime books gets changed irregularly (whenever I remember to put them in book bag, basically).

Is DS's school private? It sounds like a lot to me.

[sunnysideup]

thanks Bakedpot. No, it's not a private school just a bog standard local infants!

Though it has had a good rep for years and everything was 'outstanding' at ofsted.

It's just that what I, and Ofsted, consider important for my DS at 4 yrs old, seem to be differing I guess!

[mysonsmummy]

wow he has to get up at 5.30am - thats the middle of the night in our house.

[foxinsocks]

until half term we had nowt

we now get a reading book twice a week (do as much or as little as you like)

the school also got a great Ofsted and I, for one, am relieved that it doesn't overdo the homework. Even dd (in yr2) doesn't get as much as your boy!

[twinsetandpearls]

DDis in reception and we get homework to be done over the week when it suits you. We get three reading books, a library book, key words to learn and phonics to go through - key words and sounds are tested once a week. We also have some words on cards thatdd can use to read or make sentences with. Parents are asked to differentiate homework, my dd who is a bit of a swot tends to read a book every night and then every other night we do some written homework, but I never push her. We are also told on a Friday what they will be doing in school so we can follow up at home if we wish. so for example dd is learning about animals so we hvae read a book in the library and watched a wildlife programme, at the weekend we also went to the zoo. Occasionally there are extra sheets, so overhalf term for example there was some extra activities.

[twinsetandpearls]

But i must stress that if dd wants to play, we let her play.

[MascaraOHaraIncredibleSheHulk]

my dd only gets a sound sheet to colour in if they don't finish them in class. A sound book to practice sounds if we want to and that's it..

[hulababy]

Only homework DD gets is reading. She brings her book home each day and spends up to 5 minutes reading, depending onw hat it says in her record book. With new books, it may be one page learning a couple fo new words. With the "recap" type books with no new words she might read 4 or 5 pages.


At half term she got a sheet with all the letters on, to practise letter sounds and starting sounds of words. This was just revision for DD, so we spent very little time on it. It didnt have to be handed in or anything anyway.

[Spagblog]

Nothing apart from books

[kid]

DS gets 2 reading books once a week. No homework yet which suits me.

[sunnysideup]

hmmm. Thanks everyone, it does sound as if we are on the high side for homework, as I thought might be the case....

I am being uncharacteristically assertive, we do what we can without making it feel like 'work' and that's IT.

thanks for all advice; and yes unfortunately ds DOES get up every day between 5.30am and 6am, and yes we've tried EVERYTHING to change this, and it never really has changed, so now we just go with his natural pattern and make sure he's in bed earlier so that he is getting as many hours as poss!

[nikkie]

reading books are theonly homework, but they do bring home a phonics sheet every night but they don't have to take it back.

[twinsetandpearls]

It does sound high, dd school tends to set nore homework that neighbouring primaries, but theyarevery flexible and do not make a fuss if it is not done.

[Smithagain]

We get a book for us to read to her, which is changed Mon, Wed, Fri. We have to write a comment in her reading record, but there is no problem if we choose to read something else for some reason. We haven't had any books for her to read yet - they are concentrating on learning the letter sounds.

And we are supposed to spend between 2 and 5 minutes (and no more) per day practising Jolly Phonics.

That's the lot - and yes, sometimes she's too tired even to do that.

[elliott]

Two books a week. And we sometimes forget to do that

[LunarSea]

Two reading books a week. Another library book they can choose to bring home and change when they like. And extra reading books if we choose to have them (which we generally don't as we've got loads of early reading books anyway, and our own books make a change from Biff and Chip!)

[curlysmum]

Hi my dd brings home a phonics letter and action to practise every night they have to do the sheet that night and practice writing the letter its marked the next day with a well done! good try! etc think they have more or less done the main letters now , every thursday they choose a book from the library we have to keep a record in their reading book put comments about whether they liked it etc and goes back the next week.
Mini projects like share time once a week bring in a toy and desciribe it to rest of class. Thats all really.

[mogs0]

My ds gets a reading book and library book once a week.

At the beginning of term he was given phonic games, about one a week for about 5 weeks but haven't had one for a while. I'm not sure if that's because he hasn't mastered the ones he's got. Also have a number game.

At the beginning of term all the parents were invited into school and the teachers explained their teaching methods and how the parents could help their children's learning at home.

I don't think my ds is really understanding half of it due to being so exhausted from the full time hours!! He went to bed at 6pm last night!!

[Ruwla]

He brought his first reading book home this week its about minibeasts and on every page has "a worm" and then "a spider". He can read it and is very proud of himself.

He has 3 words to learn too "and" "a" and "my".