WIBU to tell the school I am no longer facilitating topic homework

[Paperweightmover]

subtitled, talk me down from a paper mache ceiling.

Once a term DD gets a topic homework, they have to do research and build something -out of Twiglets- The class has an open hour and any parents that can bunk off work early go and see the finished masterpieces, the children tell the adults what they have learnt.

I find it all very stressful even though children are supposed to do the work un-aided. DD in Y4 has very little idea of how to do research and I don't see how I can give no support. So I fond appropriate web-sites, we talk about why they may or may not be a good source of material. She then spends hours making stuff out of toilet rolls.

She learns very little from this work, apart from how to glue structures together. This may be useful for STEM subjects but tells her little about ROmans or whatever.

Today I went into class to see all the unfacilited homework to see once again lots of "stuff" that can only have been made by parents. So, not only is DD not learning anything , she also feels let down as she hasn't created a life size sarcophagus or a representation of the Great Wall of China from lentils.

Would I be unreasonable to say to the school I am not playing anymore. I will be ignoring any project type homework in future. I will quite happily spend the time reading with her or teachinhg her the times tables the school also seem to expect we teach her.

Of to do some paid work so I can afford the copydex, but will be checking back in when I have calmed down.

[Paperweightmover]

:) 2sly

What do I say though? The last time I made a stand about phonics ( wanting some please), I was told I was arrogant and the school wouldn't be changing for one parent. We have a bit better relationship now but the SMT CANNOT be challenged- I know the parent governors, they are finding it tough going.

[LML83]

I agree with everything OP. Especially that teacher is following school homework policy bullshit and 'don't die on this hill'

Just send a note. 'we have read about the topic and learned some interesting facts, but other commitments meant we couldn't manage the crafty bit'

As long as you dc won't mind not having it, and I suspect that will be the issue.

I would also feed back to school council your thoughts and suggest the £1 entry school competition to satisfy the people who enjoy it. (i bet there arent many!)

[Paperweightmover]

and, and, the purpose of the homework is to learn something about Romans, Egyptians whatever. If the purpose was to create art or craft or spend time with the family that would be a different issue.

[Paperweightmover]

LML I hug you

[2sly4you]

Oooh, I see the problem. Well, the teachers and SMT sound like they have no idea about pedagogy at all which is unfortunate.

To tackle it, you don't say anything. You ask questions. Lots of questions. "what is the educational goal of this activity? How will you know if my child has made progress because of this homework? What are you looking when you formatively assess this piece? What are the success criteria? When you say "research", do you mean that you have taught my child how to critically analyse sources or do you have a list of good books/websites she should use? Is there any reason why you cannot have the crafting time at school when trained professionals can support her and I can help her learn spellings/read the book you recommended? Is is expected that I make the sculpture myself because she does not have the experience/manual dexterity to do it independently? How would you suggest I teach my child independence... looking at some of the other children's pieces, they have learned how to craft by themselves at a much higher level than my child, do you have any tips for getting her there?"

Be aggressively curious. And don't do more than the bare minimum with her. She "researches" by looking in a book with you. She makes a POS sculpture with twiglets herself. Get her to ask her classmates how much help they had, so she doesn't feel bad that it is a POS.

[Paperweightmover]

yes, unfortunate to say the least 2sly ;). THank you, you raise some really useful and interesting questions and suggest a good way to go about it. Once I have scrapped myself off the ceiling I will give it a go-aggressively curious, great phrase.

[dameofdilemma]

We are not a household that stockpile toilet rolls. They go in the recycling and remain there...

I can't see the value in the 'build a [X]' type homework either. Parents who aren't able or willing to 'make stuff' with their kids are hardly likely to become any more able or willing because its mandated as homework.

Dd likes doing plenty of things outside school that to my mind have greater educational value - this term she wrote a joke book and learned to count to 10 in another language. Not as homework, she just wanted to do it then took it to school as show and tell.

And it didn't require gluing toilet roll.

[BrieAndChilli]

Our school does this bit there is a huge list to choose from ranging from male a graph, draw a picture to cool a recipe, make a model, do an animation, etc
Kids then choose what they want to do, DS1 chooses the quickest and easiest thing eg compare the lengths of the major rivers of the world, label main points of interest on a map of egypt.
DD on the other hand will pick about 5 and do them all independently and make life sized Egyptian spears, models of pyramids conplete with a mummy and playdoh organs in pots!!

[NoSquirrels]

My DN's school does what Brie's school does - a big grid of homework options to be completed throughout the topic (per half-term). The DC chooses one per week.

So you have to complete 6 pieces (or whatever) on the theme, ranging from arty projects like Build A Coliseum, to cooking, to drawing, to maths-y stuff, to creating a leaflet with research, or creative writing. Something for everyone, from the Overly Invested Model Maker Parents to the Fuck This Shit Do Your Own Homework types, and a good variety of quick tasks for busy weeks and longer projects to do over the whole half term.

I think that's the only way. I am an In Principle Great I Am Supportive But In Practice Fuck This Shit parent

[DarthMaiden]

One of my over riding memories of the day DS left primary school was “thank fuck I’ll never have to do another paper mache/clay/plaster of Paris project ever again”.

I agree they are a waste of time and what’s more they cost a fortune. We must have spent over £100 over the years on craft supplies to do this stuff.

Like you OP I tried to get DS to do it and for it to be his work, but invariably he’d get bored half way through - because there’s only so much fun you can get out of building a replica Egyptian pyramid complete with sarcophagus and Mummy - and I’d get landed with finishing the fiddly bits ready for him to splash paint over it.

You’d then see them in school, thinking you’d done a pretty respectable team effort and find at least 60% of the class had outperformed you with 5 foot tall models with moving parts, models that came set into their own deserts, a replica of the whole valley of the kings with 6 bloody pyramids painted in gold leaf, with scale model camels etc etc clearly with minimal child involvement.

And don’t get me started on the annual Easter bonnet “competition”......

[brilliotic]

Ah, I like that 'curiously aggressive' advice.

We haven't so far had any crafty style homework except when they were studying something art/design/craft related, which was fine.

But there are plenty of other things not quite right with our homework. I tend to have a common sense approach: If it only takes five minutes or so, then I just make DS do it 'because the teacher asked you to'. If it takes any amount of time, I see if I can find an angle that gives us a good relation of effort/time to outcome e.g. learned something, had fun, gained some understanding, got some needed practice. 'Research' stuff I usually find an age appropriate book on the topic and ask DS to read it (thank goodness for free next-day delivery, and for cheap book sets). He won't then usually be able to answer the precise questions given, but will have gained a general basic understanding of the topic. Anything that can be fairly easily incorporated into our regular lives, gets incorporated.

And if I cannot see any way to make it meaningful, and it takes more than 10 minutes to do, then we just don't do it. We might do something else, just for fun.
Luckily DS is not very observant and hasn't noticed that his mates approach homework differently, he's just glad I don't make him do that kind of stuff. And I didn't show him his scorecard where homework is the only thing he's only got 'good' on ...

[user1491295468]

My children don’t do homework, and almost never have. We read the set reading book and do spellings (though they don’t ever actually do a spelling test, weirdly?!), but everything else is ignored.

I’ve only one child at primary school at the moment but he gets a reading book, a set of spellings, a few maths worksheets regurgitated from twinkl or similar and a bigger project each week. The project is usually something like ‘write a newspaper article about x random event’, or ‘research the Olympic Games from 1908 to the present day, and produce an information leaflet with your findings’. Cue the kids in his class turning up on Mondays with beautiful tea stained information heavy newspaper articles about the start of World War Two, and lovely glossy leaflets. These kids are five, give me a break! Most can’t read back what they ‘wrote’ much less understand or retain it. Every so often there is a big craft project slipped in too.

I’m too bloody busy spending time with my kids to have the time or energy to complete these tasks which seem to just be thinly disguised attempts to force me to spend time with my kids whilst ticking an Ofsted box.

[GrockleBocs]

Happily our school has reverted to reading, spelling and maths practice as routine homework. The energy saved in arguments and wailing means ds actually does his homework.
Our highlight from y1 before this nonsense stopped was to research a well known designer and produce a piece of work based upon their work. There was literally nothing to pique a 5 yr old boy's interest. Certainly not a little boy who only drew fire engines and was reading at red level. He couldn't read the stuff on the internet, wasn't interested in it and I couldn't find a single angle. I'm still confused as to why this was even covered in y1.

[Paperweightmover]

Just been to the showing, it was brilliant, you learn so much about the parents.

I asked one girl how long her model had taken to make and what she had learned? She said it took weeks and she learned that her dad shouted at her for not being careful enough. It was brilliant!

I think I'm going to copy the parents who got their child to copy pages of text in their best handwriting.That child has amazing handwriting and it's something my dd really needs to improve on. We could kill two birds by making project homework into handwriting practice.

[KOKOagainandagain]

DS2 did his own project on flushing toilets in Ancient Rome by building a world in Minecraft. He had to use Redstone programming to make them actually flush and have an understanding of aquaducts. But the school couldn’t deal with it ‘live’ and so he had to print out screenshots. His work was completely overshadowed by models (built by parents with carpentry skills) with action man sat on the bog. He was disheartened and could never see the point after that.

[MrsHathaway]

I think I'm going to copy the parents who got their child to copy pages of text in their best handwriting.That child has amazing handwriting and it's something my dd really needs to improve on. We could kill two birds by making project homework into handwriting practice.

[user789653241]

I think that's it. Use the HW for other purposes. Or resent it and don't do it.
I just don't see the point of people complaining about other parents getting involved and helping(and make better things), when you can, but don't want to.
It does invade into our life, and it is annoying. But I can't be bothered to challenge the school, so we do it. But I won't be annoyed about others who spent more time and effort to make better things, even it's done by the child or the parent. It's your choice.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I don’t think it’s much of a choice if children are getting upset by it though.

[Ttbb]

YANBU. These things are a waste of time and unduly stressful when they go wrong.

[BeyondThePage]

If it could not be either made with plasticine (keeps it small scale ) or painted on paper it didn't get made here...

[user789653241]

Rafa, I really don't know. For us parents, it's either do it, or make a stand and don't do it. I really rather they don't set these kind of homeworks, but it's out of question to say that anyway, unless you are willing to fight till the end.
My ds is very artistic and loves this kind of homeworks, so my view maybe skewed. But still, we have so many wasted weekends doing homework instead of going out to beach to fossil hunt, etc.

[Butterymuffin]

I think I'm going to copy the parents who got their child to copy pages of text in their best handwriting.

I get where you're coming from OP but if I can be frank, that sounds dull as fuck. It sounds like a punishment from back in the days of lines being given at school. There must be ways of improving handwriting that would be more interesting. I know it shouldn't have to be sweets and funfairs the entire time, but..

[IDefinitelyWould]

I love my Dd's school's approach to homework. She has a homework book which comes home on a Monday with worksheets in which total about 40 minutes work to complete over the week and hand in on Friday. The teacher wants independent working to be one of the main aims so beyond asking her to sit down and keeping her company it is all dd's own work. She has come on leaps and bounds this term.

[frogsoup]

Mixed feelings here. I have one child in her element with this stuff, she does it all unassisted and the results are so spectacular that I keep wanting to say to the teacher 'no honestly, I genuinely had nothing to do with this!'. Other child needs coaxing/shepherding through every last stage, and unless tied down will bugger off at first opportunity to watch TV while I do it all. On balance, I think craft projects are best left for when it takes their fancy, rather than set as homework.

[frogsoup]

On the other hand, between that and mindlessly copying pages of text, there's no contest! They do learn stuff from making things, they really do.