Worried Reception child is behind/too much homework

[Headisbusting]

My eldest is in reception and I'm worried she is really behind her peers.
Given the level of homework set I can only assume her peers are much further ahead.

This is what my child work is like, is this what your child gets home and are they confident with it?

Each week homework is set to practice 5/6 new words blend the sounds to read the word, spell the word out and to write the word. While practicing the previous words from previous week's and all letters/sounds. Plus she also brings home 2 books which get changed twice weekly. One of these books is her me to read to her and the other for her to read to me.

It seems a lot of homework especially since she doesn't finish school until 3.30 and I have another younger child..by time we get home from school i have to press on with homework straight away, even when she doesn't want to, then I'm making dinner, tidy up, with little time spare to spend free time together before bath and bed. Some nights we see grandparents/they do pick up or might go a walk or shops etc so can't fit it all in.
I dread after school now, if we don't try do some homework straight away she unwinds and is too tired to do it. But with a younger kids it's hard to have 1 on 1 time to do it.

The books she is supposed to read to me she finds so difficult.she refuses to even look so often get changed without us opening it.

She is really good at recognising the sound of a letter but can't blend letters to make a word. Teachers are writing in her book she needs help to blend and I've been saying she struggles with it but homework wise it seems they are powering on.

I asked to go back to unit 1 on the books with mostly 2letter words with short sentences, they agreed sent it home once the went back to where the class is at. She can't blend two letter words but is expected to read books with 3 sometimes 4 letter words in sentences up to 6 words.

I should add my child is still only 4.

Sorry for long post trying to put in all the info, is this what reception homework is like for your child?

That is just wrong. The only homework should be reading/sharing stories at the appropriate level which your DC clearly doesn't have.

I think you did the right thing by stopping it. It should by no means be stressful.

When you talk to the teacher in Jan make sure you mention everything. How stressful she is finding it. How much she's being switched off. Write it all down and take it with you.

As a teacher of year 4 I'd be horrified if a child in my class was struggling as much as yours.

That is far too much homework and expectation. Maybe for year 1, but not reception.

Sounds similar to what my dcs had.

What worked for me though is to NOT do the homework after school. They are too tired/don’t want to do it. We always did the reading and spelling in the morning before school

She is very young and they are all ready to read at different stages. Not much use to you as you are not here but in lreland most dc are 5 or just 5 starting and only learn initial sounds up to Christmas, moving on to blending then and only starting to write later. Obviously some dc fly through this but is not unusual for some to struggle with it. And they finish, latest 2 everyday going home one hour before the rest of the school. She is bound to be wrecked after such a long day.
You can only do what she is able for. It sounds like a lot and a child of that age will not perform well under pressure.
Leave it all for now and enjoy Christmas and presuming she has some extra time off maybe do a little every day when she is more relaxed and not so tired.
Magnetic letters or an alphabet board when she can handle the letters herself will help..no capitals.
And keep reading to her from school books and fun books.
And it is OK if she recognises words by sight not by sounds as it is a mixture of both that will move her on.
I often find they make a bit of a leap after Christmas and come back more mature and ready..teacher here!

Practice blending and splitting words without the text. So you say c,a,t and she tries to blend to cat. You say mum, she tries to split to m,u,m etc. That's a game you can play anywhere for a minute or two.

OP, she isn't behind at all. My eldest, I remember blending 'clicking' about half way through reception. She is now in set 1 at secondary so no correlation at all. Her younger sister could blend v quickly but is nowhere near as 'bright' (hate that description).

I actually don't think reading and words to do at home are too much homework. I think you are putting too much pressure on it. If you manage to read to her nightly (tell the teacher on the app you are reading together) and look at the words but spend 10mins tops. She can do the writing side of it at the weekend if that's necessary (but it doesn't sound like that's the problem).

I remember my eldest reading 'c-a-t' then looking at the dodgy picture in the book and saying 'dog' . to you.

I am really surprised that the reading books are not tailored to each child. Reading a book is not just a matter of reading the words, it also includes inference, cultural awareness, understanding grammar. There is nothing to achieve by pushing them ahead onto books they are not ready for, as pp above said, it takes all the fun away from so early on.

DD is in reception and learns to spell high frequency words each week, 3 reading books (where each child is on a level appropriate for them) and library books for us to read to them (which they select themselves). DD attends an academically selective private school and her homework is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum

We spend less than 10 minutes each day on spellings and she reads the book for a further 10 minutes before bed - she is able to read the books school send with ease. Anything more than this is too much for reception imo. Like you, I have a younger child to look after and we do after school activities which I am determined to continue as this is the perfect age for them to develop interests outside school

Reading books should be at the level the child is at.

OP. Have you tried doing reading in the morning before school when she is fresh instead of in the evening? I found that really helped with my DDs.

This isn't unusual, some children pick up segmenting and blending much slower than other children. Unfortunately, there seems to now be a push to just continue phonics relentlessly, regardless of whether the children are picking it up or not and Ofsted dictate that all children must have phonically decodable books at the level at which they are learning in class. I hate it, personally as a KS1 teacher because I feel this approach fails the children who are either learning very quickly or who are not ready yet. Read the books to her and model how to read and write the words. Then go back to recalling single letter sounds and reading simple two sound words, maybe with magnetic letters or the like, plus the first tricky words to read by sight - I no go to the. Don't panic, monitor the situation and if there is really no improvement by Y1 school should be looking into it.

There is some words she can say but I think she recognises the word rather than is reading it

This is not a bad thing. I was initially under the impression they should blend every word but since discovered they actually recognise a number of words by sight. Also some are picked up from the pictures and recognising common letters, others by reading what is around the word and figuring it out from context of the sentence.
When DD does not know a word or mispronounces, we sometimes go through the above methods for her to try figure it out before me telling her (when she is fresh and not tired). She now uses these techniques herself and her reading progressed much faster but as others said, a moment does come when it 'clicks'. The rest follows from that

Reception teacher here. It's not that it's a lot, it's that it's too early in the year and it's the wrong level. It's going to totally switch her off, batter her confidence and be counter productive on the long run.
Forget writing anything. Recognising sounds and modelling blending is what she needs. You isolate the sounds in the word and let her guess what you mean. " Let's pop to the sh -o-p-s today" "Do you want a d-r-i-n-k?"
Reading a bedtime story each day is also beneficial, pointing out the sounds and continuing to model blending. Draw pictures for fine motor skills. Speak to her teacher. She doesn't seem to be early years trained.

I've got (summer born) twins. They are in Year 1 now, but last year when they were in Year R my DS picked it all up really quickly, found phonics and blending very easy. My DD really struggled and was much further 'behind' him. She only really got the hang of blending in the term after Easter. They only did single letter sounds, started digraphs after Christmas. They would have weekly books but she would never want to read them, we would read them because it was just making her sad trying and not managing it.
I didn't want to make school/homework into a battle ground at such a young age.
Now in Year 1 she is still not at the same level as her brother, but she is interested in trying to read now.
Fortunately their teachers were very understanding of different abilities in different children.

I wouldn't worry too much about homework for children until they reach secondary age. It's been shown to have absolutely no educational benefit.

Like you I think they are also tired after school and they should be resting and playing.

Just make sure you are reading with her. Before bed is a good time to do it. You can combine reading to her and getting her to read the short words you think she can do.

And I would definitely push back on the too hard books. They need to be appropriate for her or she may be put off altogether. A bit of challenge is ok but she needs to not feel completely disheartened.

Thank you everyone I have read all the replies I completely agree with you @HeyMoana she is shutting off as it's not fun and she is overwhelmed by it. The whole class go up a stage every fortnight regardless it seems if they are able to read the previous book. They don't read the books often on school.
The other book is a leisure book picked by child from the library. Sometimes these go untouched too although not often as we have around 80 books at home and read about 4 stories at bedtime..stories are always picked by the kids.

I'm so reassured that most other schools don't do this.
I've bought an reception activity book which is designed by CGP to work on phobics and she enjoys this ans we're making slow progress. But I've been worried she should be at the level the school is setting her at.

Thanks for all your input everyone.

For these saying it doesn't seem alot have 2 ready books per week plus the words, spelling and writing it probs won't be once she grasps it but she's not yet and it's takes hours over the week to complete.

My son is in reception in an outstanding state school and he doesn’t get any homework.

He can choose a book to bring home whenever he wants and no pressure to.

He can do some phonic sounds and recognises about 10 letters.

He’s also autumn born and is 5

That's a lot of work for pre christmas in reception. I did find homework tough in the early years.

Just do what you can. I had two in reception at the same time and some nights I had to sign the sheet to say I had done xyz but I'd only done the actual worksheet. No one knew any better. Sometimes I did it at the weekend

Enjoy your Christmas 🎄

@LondonGirl83 identical to our school but mainstream

Both of my DC, at 2 diff schools, brought home a book every day. Sometimes we only managed a couple of pages, but crucially they came home with the right book for their ability. Otherwise it’s pointless and demoralising.

The whole class go up a stage every fortnight regardless it seems if they are able to read the previous book. They don't read the books often on school.this would make me qn their whole ethos. DS is Yr 2,a good reader and he doesn't go up a reading level fortnigtly every month

My 4 year old is jn reception and confidently sounding out CVC words and a few sight words.
Homework is now siple reading books rather than re-enforcing blending. It seems new sounds to practice comes in the form of being in the reading books. She's mid-range/ average in class according to teacher.

For what it's worth too my DS is 5 in reception and not yet blending/reading at all. I have an older child with severe reading difficulties and the one thing I've learnt is that love of reading and stories is crucial. Share stories and read lots and then eventually it will come but force it too much when they can't and it backfires.

I personally only read with our son before bed. I don't think they expect him to read yet. We used to read for fun. Your dd is very young still. I'll talk to the teacher and be clear about what your daughter is capable right now. At 4 they don't even have to be in school full time.
If it's making your lives miserable don't do it. She will learn but not by making her miserable. She is very young.

My son is also in reception. We only do homework when we have time and when he feels like it. Some weeks it might be 4 nights a week, some weeks it might be once. I've found that letting him 'stay up' 15/20 minutes after his little sister who goes to bed at around 6.30pm is a good time to get him to do it as he knows that the more he does, he later he gets to stay up!

This term, we've had a letter formation booklet where we had to roughly keep pace with the class "letter of the day". We didn't do it every day. We usually did 3 on night and 2 another night.

We also got books sent home. I rarely read the harder one tbh as I read to my son every night anyway from the books he chooses himself from the town library or old favourites, fiction and non fiction. If it looked good we read it, but otherwise not.

We did the reading book maybe twice a week.

The word cards; i've stuck ours up on the wall near the dining table so we just do them as and when as we're eating. I let him initiate it and we play little games. It's helped the penny drop for him in terms of blending which he didn't get at all at first.

@SleepingStandingUp

Just saw your other messages. Are there suspected learning difficulties elsewhere op? How's her numeracy? A reception child not recognising the word "it" to read it is def a concern. If school won't help with that, I'd be moving her ASAP

What an absolute load of rubbish. English lead in a primary school here.

They’re one term into schooling and have to learn the individual phonemes first - especially if they’ve had limited pre-school experience.

After that, they are right to focus on blending - but a lot of children do find this hard. Funnily enough, two letter words can be harder to blend than 3/4 letter words because they’re so short they often try to blend it into the next word. That said there’s no point going back to individual letter phonemes if she already knows them. Blending is the next step and it’s just about practice until she gets there.

Just do what you can do - don’t stress out over it if you can’t fit it in or she hates it. That will do more harm than good.

We do one page each if she’s tired, or I say the sounds for her and she blends it. Or she says the phonemes and I show her how to blend it. There’s ways around it to take the pressure off her but still support her.

Honestly don’t worry about her progress though - if she were not recognising any phonemes I’d say she was behind, but blending can take a while and is the biggest step in reading: once they can blend they fly with it.

@Clarkey86

What do you mean by blending?