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.

[quizqueen]

Stop stressing out about school projects and just keep them simple and relative to the child's age and ability and enjoy spending the time with your children helping them learn about something new. You might learn something yourself too.
Stonehenge- just get your child to collect stones and stick them on a sandy board in a circular position- some standing/some lying down. Or go to the site itself, if you are close enough, and take photos and create a montage with them. Same with any castle project; first hand experience is always the most relevant.
Animals/plants etc. the child draws them or makes up a poem or story or just collect leaves, press wild flowers or do rubbings...all nice things to do as a family.
My grandchild's first project was autumn fruits and trees of the New Forest. I suggested she picked blackberries, a friend gave me apples from his tree and she helped her dad make a pie ( a lovely family activity) and took a slice into school with the recipe which she was capable of copying out by herself.
I did help her make a Tudor house as part of her Great Fire of London project ( they set fire to the ones they made in school) which was quite time consuming but looked lovely afterwards- we just painted a rectangular box white, lollipop sticks black and stuck them on in a pattern of her choice which was researched from library books and she drew the windows and doors herself.
It's not rocket science......or you can just spend your weekends looking at your mobile phone while your child watches the tv!

[MrsHathaway]

or you can just spend your weekends looking at your mobile phone while your child watches the tv!

Clearly those are the only two options.

This weekend we'll be juggling two football matches plus a session of additional training, and MIL's birthday, and the DC seeing their friends, and going to the forest for family bonding/exercise. That's not an unusually busy weekend. Finding half an hour for spellings needs military organisation!

We'd have far more time for this kind of project if we only had one child, admittedly. But it really isn't a case of sitting bug-eyed at a screen all weekend much as I'd like to.

[Paperweightmover]

I have to get the goat to budge over so the kids can see the wide screen TV. But then the satellite dish gets in the way-I can't win.

[paxillin]

Our termly projects stopped around year 3 when they could reasonably do it themselves . I "helped" make the fucking Tower of London (because 4 year olds can do this, right?), a 3D representation of a folk tale and a dodecahedron before they were 7.

I hated arts and crafts when I was little, neither my talent nor my enthusiasm for it have increased in the meantime.

[BubblesBuddy]

I think the comment you made, op, is that the projects don’t do what they are intended to do needs further clarification please.

Do you have learning objectives then? If you don’t, how do you know the homework doesn’t do what’s intended? Is it your view of what it should achieve? Or the schools view?

[OlennasWimple]

We do whatever we were going to be doing anyway, but slightly tweaked to reflect the topic.

So "create something using 100 identical objects!", where some DC brought in the Taj Mahal in sugar cubes or or the Forth Bridge from drinking straws or homemade Roman style mosaics, DD brought in a batch of cookies that we had made that contained 100 mini M&Ms

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

If the learning objectives aren’t clear and parents might have a different view than the school, that would back up paperweightmover’s point wouldn’t it?

Since it will be the parent doing the teaching, it might be helpful if they had a clue what it was they were supposed to be focusing on. Otherwise it isn’t likely to be very effective.

[cluelessnewmum]

Yanbu, I think the school is just passing the buck to parents stuff that kids should be doing at school. Perhaps the teacher doesn't have the time and resources to do this in class and they need it for ofsted but that doesn't make it right.

As pp have said, it is awfully divisive, it must be upsetting for those who don't get any support from parents.

It's not new though, I remember feeling embarrassed when I'd made a loom out of a cereal box for homework and other kids came in with really professional ones made of wood their parents had clearly made.

[berliozwooler]

DD2 had this sort of homework for their recent topic but there was a big choice of activities, from things which involved baking to making models to pieces of written work - they had to choose two. DD2 did a wordsearch and an acrostic poem - writing up the poem neatly with decorated initial letters. The only bit I helped her with was doing the grid for the wordsearch on the computer and I suggested maybe two words out of ten.

[glitterlips1]

Our school doesn't really give out this sort of homework anymore as so many parents starting complaining.