For those who dislike homework for infants ...

[Smithagain]

... how do you approach things with your child, if they are being asked to do something that you don't feel is useful and/or necessary?

The specific case for us is practising phonic sounds every night. We are asked to do this, but have been slacking off on it because (a) DD1 basically knows them (b) the ones she sometimes forgets are not getting any better for practising them at home (c) her teacher told us she is near the top of the class for literacy anyway (although she is not one of the three who have allegedly been told they don't need to practise) (d) it is boring and I'd much rather get on with reading some decent books or doing something non school related.

I am happy in my own mind that we are doing enough practising to keep DD1 moving forward, without driving her mad. But she is getting the message at school that they must be done every night. And being a conformist little girl, she's a bit worried that we are not.

Am I giving her the wrong message by neglecting to follow the teacher's instructions to the letter? Or am I teaching her a reasonable lesson that sometimes it's OK to figure out what you need to do for yourself?

And why do I feel so rebellious about it anyway, when it only takes a couple of minutes out of our lives LOL!

Am so shocked at the amount of homework WigWamBam's dd gets! That is awful, you poor things. I found the Shakespeare sonnet very surprising, what on earth did a five year old make of it?

lol at Boco's ORT parody. Parents get off lightly though, teachers get those books over and over and over. I know many off by heart.

dd2 in Yr R , some spellings Dad/cat/gog/hot etc to do (but don't worry about doing them if your child is tired) a reading book+the group book (just to show Mum and Dad ) and tub of words to play with.

wwb. that's outrageous.
I love the ort.
To the op, don't do it. Just do your reading with her. Much more enriching, and less likely to turn her off books. Maybe you could do it VERY VERY Casually in the car occasionally, but not to sit down every night.

I can't believe the outragous amounts of homework these poor children are getting!!! When are they supposed to play??

Frances5: Don't know if it helps, but my DS (6) has learning difficulties, so we try and think of ways to make words easier to remember. We call would, should and could, 'O U Lucky Duck' words because they end in 'OULD'......Not for everyone , I know, but it helps DS!!

Fortunately my dd isn't school age yet, but I'm sure that when she gets there we won't be doing huge amounts of homework with her every night. dh & I are both teachers at the school she will be going to so not doing homework may cause a stir I think .

If you DO feel you have to do something, and only if you feel you must, then sometimes things like spellings can be approached in a more artistic sort of way -
write them in the sand pit, on a dry day use a squirty bottle filled with water to write them outside, write them oversized in multicoloured pens, going over the word time and time again but using different colours makes very pretty pictures, paints on huge rolls of wallpaper, board pens on windows.

Anything that is different will help to get through yet another boring set of spellings.