How long would this piece of homework take your 6 year old?

[GentlyDoesIt]

It's the usual "Write about your weekend" one.

DD (who is currently being assessed for SEN) chose to write "Me and Mummy went to eat a dustbin lid pizza." I encouraged her to find sounds for herself, and to write once in rough and once in neat. She sobbed throughout and continually called herself "stupid" and "crybaby." Like every weekend, it's been heartbreaking. I offered no criticism or harsh words and stayed positive and affirming all the way through.

I am struggling (but managing) to conceal how concerned I am about her, from her.

She's working on the picture now, which is her "reward" - she loves to draw and is now happily chatting to herself as she does so.

I just wondered how long writing this sentence might take other children? She's my eldest so I'm not sure what the normal range is at this stage.

In ds1s grade 1 class in Australia they were taken outside for 45 mins of gross motor skill activity before going inside to do writing - don't ask me the whys and wherefores but it seemed to work - doing the big movements seemed to be a very helpful precursor to doing the fine motor things. Ds2 did similar pre-writing exercises at Gymbaroo - you could try googling that for more info; it'll be an Aussie site.

Thank you DottedPyjamas, hearing her call herself names was the thing that really brought a lump to my throat, too. I have never called her either of those things, but I know that these terms are directed at her and kids on her table a lot at school.

as a year 1 teavher i would (a) wouldn't excpect your dd to write it out twice and (b) expect any homework to make a child cry. it should be fun ... if i were her teacher a picture would be enough

Hi i am a teacher in year 2 and have a 7 year old dd who is SEN. My dd finds all writing, spelling and maths hard. we just do a little bit of what others do so if everyone is learning 20 words i help dd learn 5. i judge it myself and tell the teacher this was all dd could manage. He is fine about it.

could you get letter tiles (we use the ones from scrabble) and she "writes" her sentence with the tiles first and then copies it up so there is only one lot of writing

or could you get a whiteboard and some colour markers and get her to do her sentence on that. as that would be a bit more fun!

the thing with the tiles and the whiteboard is that they can have a go without worrying about mistakes.

Could you ask if your child could draw a picture of their news and verbally tell the teacher?

i would be upset as a teacher to think that one of my class was in a dreadful state about homework! At this age it is just not worth getting upset about and would definitely work with the parent to find a way round it. Please speak to the teacher she/he may be happy to help

What you're describing sounds exactly like what would happen if you tried to get my dd to write (even copying) a sentence this time last year when she was 6.

She's a little better now, and thank heavens they don't have homework generally at her school, but she certainly couldn't have written the sentence you've given independently given any amount of time.

I've just posted on another thread about a programme called POPAT that her teacher has been getting her to do which has helped a bit.

BTW it took me 20 minutes of gentle persuasion to get her to go and copy down the numberplate of our car for a drawing they're going to do tomorrow.

it would take DS who's 6 about ten minutes if I sat with him the whole time telling him each letter to write and keeping him focussed. On his own, he would never get to the end, or it would take him about half an hour. TBH if he where sobbing I would just stop the exercise alltogether.

A few months ago when DS was still not 'getting' writing, I decided I needed to do something to help him as the school just didn't have the time. So every morning I'd put the kitchen timer on for ten minutes and just get DS to practice wrinting one letter, over and over, correctly. Half his problem waas he had no idea howe to form the letters.

I kept it short, achievable, and fun, with lots of praise and a sticker on his work if he did particularly well.

We have now moved on to simple sentances, or just practicing writing words, and his attitude has improved a hundredfold, as has his handwriting and confidence.

popsycal - do you mind CATing me about why Sparklebox is deemed a risk? I looked on your link but obviously it doesn't go into details. Like Hulababy we use it all the time. Thanks

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Those targets are ridiculous. Level 4 to 12 in a term? Are they mad? TBH I think that alone would warrant a visit to school for a chat with school.

Level 12 isn't even the norm for Y1 anyway. I assume we are talking ORT levels?

ORT stage 12 is aimed at Year 4!

Stage 4 is Year 1

It's a Level 12 reading book that she's supposed to be aiming for. Don't think they use ORT stages. As far as I can see, about 5 of the children in the class are comfortably on level 10 or more, with the majority of the class somewhere between levels 7 and 10, so I think that must be a different level system Hulababy.

just to add:

sometimes my son - who is also 6 - gets homework he finds annoying, difficult and there are tears. i just lightly skip through it, i don't care if its "wrong", etc. i never spend more than 20 mins on it. some of the homework set is stupid, and pointless.

some of the homework my son does he enjoys but we even skip through that. life's too short!

DD1 would take about 2 mintues for that, but she loves writing. I complained as she gets 3 pieces of homework a night, and i felt this was too long for her, even if she is bright.
You know her limits, and dont let homework become a battle for you. x