I love teachers - but I do suspect that they hate parents....

[seeker]

...judging my my year7 dd's half term homework list

Make a model of a cell
Design a new sort of fruit crumble
Write a poem about forgiveness
Make an A3 research board on native australian art
Learn the words to Whistle a Happy Tune

I can just see them sitting at home rubbing their hands with glee thinking "OK, it's Friday. By now all their kitchens are covered with flour, oats, stewed apricots and Slime. Their brains are completely numb because of thE saccarine mixture of Jiminy Cricket and a 12 year old girl's views on the nature of forgiveness, and their living room is a shrine to the DreamTime. AND SERVE THEM RIGHT."

lol

my dd1's half term homework consisted of:

nothing.

So she was mooching around all week looking bored.

Teachers! pah! (don't tell dp I said that )

Make a cushion which looks like an apple pie, including sugar sprinkles.

Yeah.

no i odnt agree wiht homework
even less holiday homework

do you want help with the cell one...i can do that one for you easily?

that seems a rather demanding list.

Does it involve a plastic box, a lot of slime, beads, cling film and a balloon? If you have alovely simple solution I would be really grateful, just in case dd"s Damian Hirst type construction goes horribly wrong!

Mumblechum, please don't tell my dd's teachers abotu the cushion or we'll get that at Easter!

Presumably you're gluing on the sequins rather than sewing them on....

The cushion is a complete mess, I haven't helped at all and frankly neither ds nor I care if he gets a D for it.

FGS, when is he ever likely to need to do that in his high flying career as a fighter pilot/MI5 agent/games designer?????

My DS is in year 8 and at his school in year 7 & 8 they don't have any homework over holidays

Although DS did do some reading for research but that was voluntary

My DH as a teacher spends hours and hours over half term and other holidays marking and preparing

Well said cod. Holiday homework? Pah!

I agree about homework - trouble is dd has had huge fun doing hers. That's not how it's supposed to be.....!

LOL

Perhaps you should get her to copy out from the dictionary or encelopedia

It would keep her out of mischief

Think homework is Wrong
Holiday homework is Wronger
Not having any half-term at all is Wrongest

From your list it says

DESIGN a fruit crumble
not
MAKE a fruit crumble.

Quick question though to those that don't like homework.

Why do you consider homework wrong?

The making comes next - this bit is the research and ideas brainstorming. That doesn't stop my dd wanting to make it as well!

Personally, I don't see the point of most homework. Reading in the younger years, yes, and the occasional bit of reinforcement work (a new rule in maths to practice, for example) But I think that my dd works hard enough from 9 to 3.30 - I would rather she was doing non school stuff in her evenings.

I suppose it's different when you've got GCSEs and A levels to revise for, but not in the early years.

I would say that one of the reasons for the homework for KS3 is to get your Dd use to doing homework in her own time so it doesn't come as such a shock in KS4.

I dont really like homework and as a year head I ensure that the children do not get homework over the holidays or weekends.

My year group has one project a week that they on the whole really enjoy, and as it is one activity per week it is a quality homework that does extend learning rather than something set for the sake of it. I am very mindful however that many of the children I teach don;t come from homes that allow for quiet study or ambitious projects so I run a homework club which is one of the most popular in school.

My 6 year old loves homework, she often does extra homework, I personally think she should not have to do any homework as evenings and weekends are family time and quite often it is only done because she insists on it. We do lots of things as a family that help her to learn in an active way, this morning we have been out with the binoculars watching birds and we kept a tally chart of the types of birds we saw. DD has a very strange obessesion with graphs and excel ( don't ask the joys of a teachers child ) so she is now ( to my slight amusement and worry) converting them to spreadsheet and graph on my laptop!

I really don't get this "you have to start doing x now so that it doesn't come as a shock in 2 years time" It's the same argument people use about pre school - but I think that nearly 5 year olds are very differetn from mearly 3 year olds. Similarly, year 9s are very different from year 7s - they are used to secondary school, the journey, the taking responsibility for themselves, the social scene and the teachers. In year 7 homework is yet another shock along with all the others. I think my dd should be going to scouts, playing with her little brother, watching telly, practicing her clarinet and lounging about in the evenings, not doing more work.

It is another shock to the pupils system but at least in yr 9 and onwars they should be fully aware of the time that homework requires.

Martianbishop if you're reading this and can give moe cell model pointers I'll be eternally in your debt!

"give me" even!

Oh right!

If you want to be mega smug you can do a plant cell and an animal cell.

Animal cell

Plastic bag for the cell membrane.

Wallpaper paste for the cytoplasm

Black coloured ball for the nucleus.

Bits of spiral pasta for the mitochondria

Glitter for the chemical reactions taking place in the cytoplasm

Plant cell

As above pluss a water filled ballon for the central vacuole and green pasta for the choloplasts.

Put the whole thing is a cardboard box to represent the plant cell wall (you can even say that the card board is made of the same material as the real cell wall, cellulose)

Great fun, but only put it all together the night bedore and it will all go off a bit and honk if you do it too far in advance

oh and ties to close the plastic bah obviously

I can tell you the limitations of the models if you like, but that is a bit advanced for y7!