Yr3 homework all going online - not happy!

[ZucchiniPie]

DD's school has announced that from now on all Year 3 homework is going be done online. They're using BugClub for reading and MyMaths for maths. I haven't seen either of these yet as the log-in details haven't come home (I'll see them later today) but I'm instinctively very unhappy about what this will entail, on a number of fronts. Most of my worries are about screen addiction (which I, like most adults, suffer from myself, and want to delay the onset of in my children for as long as possible). But I'm also very far from convinced that this is the best way for a child to learn and truly understand maths. And certainly for reading, DD loves reading, part of which is the pleasure of curling up with a book, which I really don't want to take away from her.

Has anyone else with a child in Year 3 had this imposed on them and did you try and resist?

I personally have never liked Kindles for myself (and they're not even backlit)

Um, yes they are

Well we've now done the first MyMaths hw she's been set and it wasn't too awful. But as with you, StarUtopia I only have a MacBook Air which I'm not happy to leave her with on her own and also only has a touchpad which she can't operate very well for all the drag and drop stuff you have to do, so I had to do that for her.

But as for BugClub, I've just had a look at that and it's going to be awful to have to read off a laptop screen as it's a double page of a paperback squashed into the middle of a browser window so you have to squint to read it (or bring the screen very close). The zoom in function is pretty limited, so again, I'd have to sit there with her to navigate through every page - completely defeats the object of independent reading!

I remember reading this article in Scientific American a few years ago and there are all sorts of reasons why reading off a screen isn't a great idea: www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

"I'd have to sit there with her to navigate through every page - completely defeats the object of independent reading!" As a teacher I'd expect a parent to be with the child not leaving them to get on with it ...using paper based books never mind on line. There's really no point in reading scheme books if there isn't anyone supervising no matter how good a reader.

I must admit I hadn't made the distinction between a reading scheme and the books we take out of the library or buy that she reads to herself at bed time (we read to her as well). I realise there is guided reading at school but is this something one ought to be doing at home too?

Yes the whole idea of reading at home is that she reads to someone. That way you can make sure she is reading accurately and not skipping over words and also explain any unfamiliar words to support understanding and build vocabulary.

Thanks for the advice!

I have to say I introduced Bug Club to my school when it was first published ...we no longer subscribe because we found children weren't using it correctly at home. Unsupervised they simply click on the read to me option and the computer does all the work.

Mrz - in your experience, is much consideration given to what kind of hardware families are likely to be using to access online homework? My children are older now, but thinking back to year 3, I really cannot imagine sitting side by side at a computer desk for my 7yo to read to me. Or sitting with a massive laptop on our knees. It's an entirely different dynamic to cuddling up on the sofa together with a book.

Mrz, KS2 books doesn't have read to me option.
Also, our school doesn't ask children to read bug club books aloud to parents. Reading aloud is differnt task, using real books.

I normally let my ds get on with computer homework while I'm cooking dinner or something. I won't sit with him, just be around to keep an eye.

I'm afraid that's why we no longer subscribe Irvine

AChickenCalledKorma that's how I feel. It's just such a cumbersome way to go about the whole thing.

But my bigger fear with putting everything on a screen is that it gives kids the kind of dopamine hits we adults all get every time our phone pings with a new email. I feel completely in thrall to the technology I (have to) use because of work, apart from for the couple of weeks a year that we're away on holiday when I can put my phone/laptop pretty much completely away and all the low-level anxiety it triggers in me drifts away... So I'm just really, really reluctant to expose my children when they're so little to something that I don't think does any of us very much good (necessary evil of modern life though it is...)

Op, what does your dd think about online homework? At my ds' school, I think children actually enjoy them.
I know a lot of parents are not keen on them, but if the school have invested money already, it might be quite difficult for parents to change school's mind about them.

IMHO KS2 books should be read I'm afraid all too often these children. Are left to develop poor reading habits and skip over unknown words both in pronunciation and definition.

I confess I embraced the idea of reading online (easy for teachers to monitor -supposedly) without giving thought to the logistics for parents korma (many of our parents don't have computers or internet). The children loved the idea initially but when I reviewed it I decided it wasn't as effective (or as you say such a nice experience) so we didn't renew the subscription after the five years were up.

I wouldn't bother with the reading OP, or I'd just let my kid flick through so she could get on with reading a proper book.

We have MyMaths and it's ok. No substitute for working on paper but easier for teachers as there is no marking. I try to get dd to redo any exercises that she gets less than 80% on with me sitting there and helping her through it. Sometimes I do workbooks with her as back-up (have lapsed this term but think I'm going to start again).

pinkish that's more or less the conclusion I've come to. The MyMaths seems to have some good elements but I can't see anything to recommend the reading.

I've just been to DS's reception class half-termly parent presentation and didn't realise that he's supposed to be using Bug Club too! Fortunately they're still going to give out one physical book per week too (instead of two or more). For early reading, I can almost see the benefit of online - or at least it doesn't turn me off so much - because the books are so short and this is definitely I do sitting with him anyway.

Then again: www.bostonmagazine.com/health/blog/2013/12/18/ereaders-bad-kids-books-tufts/

"I suggest starting off using them more as compliments to paper books, instead of replacing print, especially in the promotion of early literacy in young children."

Don't buy her a laptop unless you really want to. Check what format they work on first. I know bug club works on tablets. So a cheap Kindle fire would be better.

We use bug club at school with our eyfs to year 2 children on computers and tablets, alongside real books as well. I don't see an issue with introducing e-books even from being small. But then I don't see them as being inferior to a real book myself either.

Not used my maths but I suspect it is also tablet friendly. You can get a kindle fire tablet for £50 and sometimes cheaper, so a cheaper option than a laptop.

Of all the digital formats available, I agree a Kindle is the best option. But I think there's a fair amount of evidence-based research suggesting e-books are inferior to real books, from a neuroscience perspective:

www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-18/your-paper-brain-and-your-kindle-brain-arent-same-thing

Bug Club did my head in. We had an android tablet, an aging laptop and a very aged PC without windows. It didn't really work properly on any of them. It was a nightmare enabling and installing on the nonsense to get it working at all and it didn't work at all well. The Bug Club helpline was useless, basically told us none of our three devices were compatible. I don't know how anyone has the patience. Bit gobsmacked by the PP who says the homes without internet access are the ones that won't bother with reading and homework anyway. I couldn't be bothered with Bug Club but have read to DS every night since he was a baby, he loves books, we haven't room for all his books, he will fall asleep with his head in a book. Homework always done despite the challenges, recently diagnosed ADHD, and there have been times we have had to coach him through every letter he has to write, and times he has also come home with a whole day's work he didn't do at school to be done at home as well as home work all done despite two parents working full time. It's not a lack of parental commitment round here! It's that Bug Club is rubbish, unless you shell out for recent model of a compatible device.

KingLooieCatz I'm with you. One of the Reception mums this morning mentioned there was a bug (excuse the pun) with BugClub when she did it with her son over the weekend. The comprehension activity didn't work I think. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, the zoom function is really dysfunctional. So I'm with you - it seems like a shoddy system from all I've seen so far. And that's not even getting into whether the writing quality is actually any good - is it?

To me, it feels like a marketing coup on the part of Pearson and a sign of the marching consumerisation of things that shouldn't be market-driven.

And on this subject, the Guardian's Long Read today is How Technology Gets Us Hooked

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/28/how-technology-gets-us-hooked

We would not have been able to do this in primary. Dd's homework was completed in the ballet school changing room in between classes & ds's homework in a local cafe whilst waiting for dd to finish dancing.

Exactly - there's no consideration at all for the practicalities, let alone whether it's a good way to learn...

Hi,

I would feel the same. My daughter is in Y3, we don't use any online staff. Interestingly enough, she is now a free reader (I refused to sigh up to Bug Club), she is one of the best, if not the best in her class when it comes to reading (she is one of the worst in Maths though).

Also, they have just mastered handwriting, it needs to be practised for long years in order to be able to use it promptly (otherwise they will end up writing like great-great grandparents).

Also, here is a link , journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797614524581, there is a TED talk out there too.

Or a simplified version of the previous article

www.spring.org.uk/2014/05/how-to-take-notes-you-will-remember.php

If I were you, I would insist on paper based work.