August born DD2 is 6 and in Y2. She seems to be doing fine at school, on top tables for maths/literacy etc. Her school are pretty rubbish at telling us anything about how they are doing but she seems to be learning new stuff and from what I can see is meeting the curriculum levels. They have a termly homework menu where they can choose items to do with a minimum points value and we manage to do this with not too much effort.
I'm struggling to get her to read school reading books, she's just moved onto Gold level which I think is about average for her age although I know it's pretty behind for a MN child genius type. She'll happily read the easier Roald Dahl books with me (eg Magic Finger, The Twist, Esio Trot) but flatly refuses to read "stupid school books". She does a paid for Spanish club activity one lunchtime but we have never done the "homework" for this as she has no real interest in it and TBH I am not always sure what is expected. We play at home after school. She swims twice a week after school (swimming club) does dancing one evening and on saturday and the rest of the time plays with friends, runs, climbs trees, rides her bike and is an active small girl
I work 3.5 days a week and I only do 2 pick ups and 1-2 drop offs at school (rest mix of our nanny, school bus and afterschool club) so hard to talk to the teacher. It appears that most other parents insist their child does spanish homework (club is extra paid activity, she loves the lessons but says homework is boring and I have no idea at all about spanish). We read most nights but not school books. We don't do any tutoring/school stuff. She's often tired at bedtime so we try to do school reading at breakfast which is sometimes better. At weekends she loves to insist we do guided reading with 2 copies of a book (eg where we have my old roald dahl books and she has a newer copy). She's reading happily for fun and with expression and understanding
I feel she's having a lovely time being a little girl, doing the homework that's needed and doing OK at school. Were she struggling with something I'd perhaps be inclined to force her to read school books or do extra maths but the way she seems to be doing I feel being happy is most important. Is this OK? will I regret this later? Clearly in KS2 if there's more homework we will do it, ditto harder reading books etc. I just worry I'm not doing enough but I really do not want to be a hothousing parent and the idea of making her read her school story books every single night fills me with dread not least because we'd have to stop doing something she actually loves like dancing/swimming/playing (the Y1 teacher was in agreement but not so sure this year as I've not really met the teacher).
Arrrghhhhhh. A bit of me just wishes I could give up work and my other child and be an intense hands on perfect mum, then I realise I love my toddler lots too, like my job and would kill the kids if I were home full time