I HATE Homework - I really can't see the point of it

[Katymac]

I makes us argue

I think the work she does is crap

I think she spends too long on it

It doesn't benefit either of us, I shout and she crys

I cannot see any positives it has at all

I hate homework too. Dd forgot hers on friday unfortunately & had an after school club yesterday, so we have to do the whole lot tonight for it to be handed in tomorrow. Ive had a look at it & some of it doesnt make sense to me. Its like the teacher deliberately writes it in a cack handed way that only she can understand. Cant wait to get started on that tonight.

I am a fan of a small amount (30 mins per week) of homework, because it shows the parents what the children are learning in school.

However, all too often my daughter's homework is all mixed up. Some weeks none at all, then other weeks worksheets that take over an hour. The most annoying thing is that when she gets maths homework, my dd often swears blind that she doesn't have a clue how to do it, and has never been given work of this kind in class. Mostly, she is exaggerating, but sadly occassionally she is telling the truth!

"The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn is well worth a read.

I think children would do a lot better to just read a book of their choice for half an hour or so in bed every night rather than do homework
if you instil a love of reading in them, they will end up being far far better educated (in the real sense of the world) than children who don't have time to read for pleasure because they are sullenly re-hashing what should have been taught to them in lessons during the day.

One of the best things about DS2 finally being diagnosed with severe dyslexia at age 10 was feeling I could say 'no more' to homework that was taking too long. I did not want to undermine the teacher, but now if I can see he can do the maths etc, we stop. It takes him ages to write the date and title.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets shouty or the only one whose DC behaves himself in school but is a total pain when I ask him to do something.

To be fair I don't mind the reading every night, although DS is getting sloppy and missing out the easy words because he doesn't think he needs to read to me any more. I don't really mind doing the spellings as I used to do them although it is like pulling teeth getting DS to do them. I suppose I wouldn't mind reciting the times tables a few times a weeks.

But I hate the projects and the maths. This week DS had a comprehension excercise about the RSPCA which I would be surprised if some of the children could read let alone understand. We also had to estimate the weight of household objects. Both of which should have taken about 5 minutes each and took a hour. DS didn't really learn anything and we both got cross with each other.

It is all so unnecessary and I worry about the effect it is having on DS2 who sees the two of us arguing every week and must be thinking that homework and school are something that are best avoided!