Enough is enough. Dd and me in tears tonight!

[rebellove]

Dd 6yrs gets loads of homework which we manage to get through at the weekend just about but this week she also has 'mad minute timetable' tests daily with sheets coming home to practise every night. Along with this we have reading and spellings to do and have to try and work this around all the after school activities which she loves. I've noticed that she's comparing her times tables scores to others and she's determined to improve. However, she can't get her head around some of the calculations i.e. she knows her 2, 5 and 10 tables but she didn't get 4x1 and we had a meltdown tonight because she was just too tired but yet determined to practise.
I realise the pressure is on to get them ready for sats but it's just way too much!

Regarding learning the times tables. I know this sounds ridiculously simple but I can't tell you how well it worked for my 3 kids.

I got some sheets of A4 paper and wrote each times table out in a different colour, then put them on their bedroom walls.

They stayed their for a couple of years and you'd be surprised how they 'took them in' subliminally.

Even my 24yr old says that when he recalls certain times tables, he can still see the list on his bedroom wall and remember what colour they were written in

Might be worth a try?

This here helped dd a lot: www.bigbrainz.com/index.php I have no idea how much they're charging for it now, but 10 years ago it was quite pricey well worth it though! I suspect the multiplication one is the one we got (there was no choice that I can remember back then). Anyway, multiplication should be enough on its own.

Year 2, that's crazy. Don't know what is wrong with schools.

Sorry I've got no advice my dyslexic dd hated home work and has only started to do it now in Year 6, because it mad her so unhappy, I was happy for her not to do it.

My personal opinion is home work in primary school is over-rated.

www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=6319948

My daughter likes Times Tables App - play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.wissapp.timestables&hl=en_GB - maybe that's the way to go on busy days?

It's utterly ridiculous. She is 6. Talk to the teacher - dd is in year 2 and just gets her reading.

Thank you dancegirl - that's reassuring. Thanks to everyone else too.
Well this morning she was very moody and then tearful at the gates saying she wanted to stay with me :-( I didn't have chance to speak to the teacher but wil do later..

Gosh I didn't see all the other recent posts until a minute ago - thanks so much. I'll check out those links and try your suggestions.

Italian, what is wrong with schools is Michael Gove. Thank goodness he's been moved on, otherwise it would be even worse by now.

I downloaded BigBrainz for free - I think it's free if single use as a parent rather than educational establishment.

That's mad. Ds is in Y2 and gets one compulsory and one optional homework a fortnight, plus request for children to read daily and practise number bonds to 20 and times tables and spellings. And they give out sheets with lots of suggested ways to practise those.

Tests should only be a way of showing where kids and teachers still need to work on certain areas. I would refuse to do more than 30 minutes a day, on the grounds that trying to force more would be counterproductive. Most teachers would be happy with that.

yr2 6yr old here. she is supposed to read every night, has 10 spellings a week, every 3 weeks (?guessing at 3 weeks, it isn't every week, not sure if it might be fortnightly but seems quite random) gets a maths worksheet or english worksheet. tables are mentioned in the yr2 info sheet at the start of the year but not sent home to learn, not tested, no pressure etc with them.

DD is aware there are SATS, they have been doing some "worksheets" this last week which from aht she has said are practice SATS things but they are not being timed, just working through them individually.

My sister got a laminated times table from x 2 to x 12 and stuck it on the inside of the toilet door.

I think all these learning methods, whilst helpful, are missing the point.

No 6 year old should be stressed over homework, it's just wrong. They will be doing plenty of Maths at school including times tables, that's enough at this age.

I would forget what the school say and focus on what's best for your dd (I don't mean you aren't doing that already!). If she's tired just don't do it.

And you definitely need to have a chat with her about this comparing scores. I know all children do it, it's hard not to but she should be reminded that everyone learns differently and at different rates and even if x or y is doing better than her at times tables (for now), she might be better at something else. Just take the pressure off.

This all sounds expressingly familiar. DS is in year 2 and has 10 spellings to do each week, reading and is expected to work through his times tables. We got 2s and 5s in year 1 and we've been stuck in 3s for about six months. Everyone else in his year are doing much higher times tables and now he says he is rubbish at maths and doesn't want to do it. His teacher yesterday said he seems to be struggling with even recognising numbers. If anything he is going backwards. I feel like they expect me to rectify this at home. But surely they should be tackling this at school. Interesting to see what other year 2s are expected to do. It doesn't help that he is a late August birthday and was premature so should actually be in the next school year. Really wish we could have held him back so he would be in year one now. Argh it's so tricky. We'll be going to see his teacher this week too.

When my daughter was 4.10 yrs old her teacher complained to me that she wasn't able to sightread the first 10 basic words and that she was going to struggle with English for the rest of her life according to research evidence.
I told her teacher that I did not start reading/writing/maths until I was seven (continental way) and am now fluent in 4 languages and have done maths A-level.
My daughter is 15yrs old now and the best in English of her whole year group! And her first language at home is not even English.
Children need time to play. Until about 6 yrs a child develops mainly by play and exploration on a gross motor level to lay the foundation for focus, memory processess and fine motor skills for later academic studies.
Unfortunately, over the last 10 years, the English school system has devloped into an academic feeding machine from 4yrs onwards regardless of the science behind brain development. To add insult to injury the government now thinks we need to turn our children into little Chinese/Korean/... children who, as we know from statistics, develop a lot of self - confidence issues as young adults.
Do we want our children to grow into academic machines or critically thinking self confident socially competent young adults.
Childhood is not a disease but nature's way of preparing us for life long learning academically and socially.
For that reason, both my children, who are academically very bright were sent to a good Comprehensive School rather than an overambitious Grammer School. And they are both happy people.
Parents need to be confident that a happy child will always achieve whatever they set their mind to.
A mother's instinct is always right!