Could your reception age child do this homework ??

[IllegallyBrunette]

Ds has got a sheet with 4 pictures at the top of a Fire engine, firemans boots, firemans uniform and firemans helmet. Each item has a colur next to it to indicate what colour they should be.

The underneath there is a pic of 3 firemen fighting a fire.

Ds has to colour the pic in correctly, using the colours suggested above.

That is fine, he can do that.

Then underneath that there is 6 lines where Ds has to write 2 sentences using the words listed at the bottom of the page.

The words are - engine, hose, ladder, water, put out, fire, danger, wearing, jacket, trousers, suit, helmet, boots.

Now I am assuming that he has to add words such as I, and, The to these words, else a sentence cannot be made.

Last time he had a sheet like this he ended up in tears. His pencil control is still very poor and so his formation of his letters is still very wobbly, and he gets them back to front upside down etc. His writing is also very big in his attempt to control it, and so he can take up a whole line with two words.

If he has a word up in front of him, say on a board, then he can copy it given time, but if he has to keep looking for a word to copy then he loses all sense of what he is doing.
I did write the sentence out for him to copy, and held it up in front of him, but he was too upset by that point.

Last time I let him stop after one sentence as he was so upset. I told his teacher why he'd only done one sentence and although she said it was ok, she looked a bit confused that i'd let him only do the one sentance because of it.

I am surprised that they have given him another similar sheet so soon after that one.

I know he has to learn and practice, but if it upsets him again I am not going to make him do it.

I think my DS1 would struggle a bit with this. His handwriting is not great and he doesn't always follow the lines and sizes are deffo a bit random. My only ideas are to keep the sentences really short and spell out the words phonetically with him.
I am assuming they don't have to use all the words. If they do then that's absurd as my DS1 couldn't even fit all those words on 6 lines. If they are supposed to use them all then I think its time for a bit of accidental misunderstanding on your part and limit each sentence to a 5-6 words max.
e.g The engine has a hose /ladder
The fireman is wearing boots.
Can you split the work over a couple of days i.e. one sentence a night. DS1 often responds better if I say I only want you to read/write 5 words.

My daughter could do it with some guidance as to what she is meant to do and the kind of thing the sentence is supposed to say.

If a child is crying over homework it is wrong to make them do it, honestly. And are you sure it is homework that has to be done? My daughter brings home all sorts but it is up to her if she finishes it and doesn't have to take it back in.

No way could my Ds do that. He can copy a short (3 word) sentence if it is written directly above.

I think you should just do the colouring and leave the words if he's upset at all

then tell the teacher that you think it is inppropriate

Dd could do it, I think ds1 would have been able to, though I'd have had to sit with him.

The writing abilities vary SO much in reception - I remember going in to help with ds1, and abilities range from being able to write good structured sentences, with emergent and learned spelling (so dd wrote something like 'I went to the zoo. I liked the buttrflis best. My best buttrfly was bloo.' to not being able to make a mark on paper with a pencil.

I think you should help him and tell him which letters to write! Get him to choose the sentence, and then help him word by word, with a chocolate button after every word! One for you and one for him!

It is definatly homework, as his teacher told me at his last parents meeting that he would now be getting homework sheets.

I think I will think of the sentences for him before I even give him the sheet, write them out in big black letters and pin them up on the wall and see if he can copy it.

If he can't do it then, I will just leave him be.

He only started getting homework sheets a few weeks ago and tbh I think this is too much too son for him.

Also, can I ask, does your reception child do spellings ?? I can't remember if my dd's did, but some of the children in Ds's class are now being given spellings.

Ds isn't, thank god.

Spellings - yes, they started this term. Dd has a piece of paper with something like a teddy or a bus, with sections with a word in. They learn 3 spellings a week (this week was to, had, was), and then they are 'tested' (hugely informally), and if they get them right they can colour in the appropriate section of the picture. Then when they finish the picture they move onto a new sheet.

I totally agree with you. I don't know about anyone else, but the only "homework" my DS brought home in reception was a reading book .... no writing or anything else. It is heartbreaking to hear of your DS ending up in tears over this ... and I agree with you that he shouldn't have had something so similar to the previous time.

I did do things with DS at home when he was in reception, but as soon as he wanted to stop (he has a short attention span anyway!) we stopped. I believe learning should be fun at this age - and I really want to avoid my DS's being anxious about school work.

Perhaps you could have a word with the teacher - and as I'm sure you do - give him loads of praise for what he does manage. The colouring in on it's own would be a challenge for my year 1 DS - keeping within the lines is still tricky for him!

not sure if she could do it or not. But I wouldn't ever make her do homework that she was anxious about.
And if the teacher has assumed that all the children will be able to do it i think she is a bit of a numpty.
Just tell her that your DS isn't ready to do these types of sheets yet and will just be colouring them in and practicing a couple of label type words underneath. If she then has a problem with this she can explain it to you.

Exactly Blue, IMO the coluring in is a huge achievement for Ds as it is, because at the beginning of reception all he could do was scribble.

I think he is probably struggling a bit from their point of view (although they havn't said so), but from my point of view he has done so so well this year and I don't want him to feel under pressure to do things he isn't ready for.

He definatly is not ready for spellings.

DS1 would have struggled with that even in year 1. He was allowed to colour things in while other children were writing.

DD would have been fine with it, depends on the child. He should NOT be getting upset about it.

Have to say that I am hugely worried how things will go when he moves up to year one. He doesn't seem ready for that in any way at all.

DD1 could not read the words and write a sentence on her own unaided (and I'd say she 's fairly bright).

She could probably make a verbal sentence using a couple of words if we discussed it together. Eg

Me: Let's try and make a sentence. What do fire engines do?

dd1: Put out fires

Me: OK, so we want to write "fire engines put out fires."

Then as she wrote I would help if she forgot what her sentence was, or if she had problems with any of the words.

That is the only way she would do it. But I am thinking that at this stage the school is probably expecting quite a lot of input from parents, and would no expect a child to be able to do it alone.

yes

But ds got upset even with alot of input and encouragement from me.

He can't read any of the words he has to use in the sentence, so imo that already makes it too dificult without the added bit of having to write the words out.

I will see how we go and if we have problems again then I will definatly bring it up with his teacher.

School is so much harder for Ds than it was with the dd's. Both of them have sailed through every year so far, so this is new territory for me.

Do you think that if I actually ask them if he is way behind everyone else, they will tell me ??

If he is then I want to know, not sit in the dark, until he is in yr6 and then have them say he could of done with a bit of help all along.

Would it not be better for him if he thought of the sentences himself and said them out loud - even if you then ended up writing the words out for him?

If you emphasise to him that the important thing is that he is looking at the pictures and thinking up a sentence for himself, and that the writing is not the important bit, then surely he will feel more of a sense of achievement?

I don't think thinking up a sentence yourself is going to help him learn much. I would even go as far as getting him to think of a sentence, writing the sentence myself and asking him to fill in a missing word eg fire.

I don't think the school is really expecting that reception children will be doing this on their own at all.

Would it not be better for him if he thought of the sentences himself and said them out loud - even if you then ended up writing the words out for him?

If you emphasise to him that the important thing is that he is looking at the pictures and thinking up a sentence for himself, and that the writing is not the important bit, then surely he will feel more of a sense of achievement?

I don't think thinking up a sentence yourself is going to help him learn much. I would even go as far as getting him to think of a sentence, writing the sentence myself and asking him to fill in a missing word eg fire.

I don't think the school is really expecting that reception children will be doing this on their own at all.

But he needs to be able to read the words to think of a sentence surely ??

Even if I tell him all of the words, or make up a story with it, he still isn't capable of then giving me a sentence that he can write out.

But instead of giving him all the words, just tell him to make a sentence using 'fire' 'is' 'danger' or something like that, then help him with what letters to write. I would tell him the letters rather than expect him to copy them, as that can be harder.

I think my daughter would find that reasonably challenging and she's in Year 1 and reported to be good at literacy.

I would do the colouring and talk through the words with him, to see if he can come up with something. But drop it immediately if he's getting frustrated.

He neds to copy it TS, because if I say for example 'g' he won't always know how to write the letter.

I always say it as he is copying it though, so he learns which letter is which.

Or could you write the words onto separate pieces of paper and get him to arrange them into a sentence?

Oh ok - I tend to do a mixture - so if they say how do you spell right, I would say r - i - g 'What's a g?' - like this (write it on piece of paper) - h- t.

If that makes sense!

Yeah thats a good idea TS, although as he won't be able to read any of the words it will still be a challenge.

Obviously I will tell him the words, but he will of forgotten them by the time I say the last one.