how involved do you get in homework? esp interested in early years of secondary

[Hatwoman]

dd has just started y7. So far (all of 3 days ) I have asked her if she has any and asked if she's done it; and, in one case looked at it, because it was a picture and she was pleased with it and showed me. tbh even this has hardly been necessary - she's so excited about the whole secondary school thing she's told me unbidded and she's sat down to do it at the kitchen table while I cook. "Have you finished?" has been more of a conversational thing - not a checking up thing iyswim. (I'm sure that will change.) My only other contribution has been to suggest that leaving work due in on Wednesday til next week would be a bad idea as she has after school activites.

am I ok in thinking I don't need to manage the timetable for her, sit down with her, look closely at what she's been asked to do, help her and check the finished product? I don't want to do all that - it's her work and managing it and doing it is part of growing up and being independent; secondly I want teachers to see the original product - not something that's been tweaked by me - so that they can get a proper picture of her.

Hello Greensleeves. I do like the sound of the "opening and closing earth" . Very nice. And correct as well.

Oh god, Greensleeves, that would be DS2 (the one who allegedly doesn't have any SN, but is definitely not your standard-issue kid).

His Design brief for this term is 'make a decoration out of bent metal'. He has decided this is a licence to create a campervan-shaped CD rack with support stand for a CD player and the on/off button projecting through the spare wheel.

DS2 is an all-thumbs klutz with the design sense of a myopic monkey, but won't pay any attention to my plaintive 'how about a Christmas decoration DS2?'

why can't they just do as they are bloody told

DD has just started year 9. In yr 7 she would show me her homework when she got it, and keep checking with me that she was doing it right - that tailed off by mid-year once she was more confident. Last year, she did most of her homework at lunch/break at school; she had maybe an hour a week to do at home. She would ask me for help if she needed it but usually just got on with it.

This year, so far, she has asked me for help once when she had to design a poster, and has already managed to 'forget' an assignment (luckily the teacher forgot to ask for it!). We have now agreed a routine where she gets home from school, has a cuppa and a snack, changes out of her uniform, a few minutes to relax (and chat with me) then she has to do homework until teatime (about an hour).

TBH, I don't think I could 'help' with homework much now anyway - the maths and science are incomprehensible as they use a completely different system now. I can answer the questions, but my 'method' gets the look from her!

oops I had exactly that last night with DS (yr 8). He asked me to help with his trig homework but Pythagoras' theoram alluded me .

Fortunately I was able to help him prepare a speech in french. So I am not yet redundant.

I left ds1 to it today with English. He was meant to write a realistic heartwrenching account of a refugee escaping a wartorn country (lots of explanations given, and template account) He decided to go completely off-piste and write a fantasy about volcanos, lava, and dinosaurs and magical pirates . But I was rather impressed I have to say. Though it was not what they asked for at all

I love your "open and close earth" story!