Homework overload

[Aidan's Mummy]

I am all for homework and will happily sit with my son for as long as it takes. He had a parents evening last week and he is already exceeding at school according to his age and the teacher said she has been challenging him. Today they broke up for the eater holidays. I opened his book bag and inside was 14 pieces of homework, 7 sheets of handwriting practice, two books, a spelling list and a reading list of words he has to learn to read . He is 5! This is homework overload, there is challenging a child and then there is total overload. I know he is very bright and that he is doing well but this is too much x

 

[aimee-lou]

If I were you I would just do what you're comfortable with and also what your son is comfortable with. 7 pieces of handwriting practice plus all the extra memorising to do does seem excessive, especially for a 5yo. Just do a little at a time and then if they ask when you go back then I would say it was altogether too much for a 2 week break. Especially at that age they're supposed to get 10-15mins a day max.

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

Thanks hun, going to do exactly what you suggested. There is only so much a child can concentrate on x

 

[RachA]

I would say that's far too much. As far as I'm concerned school holidays are to give children a break from school work and therefore I wouldn't make my child do any homework.
At my sons school their homework is supposed to take them 1 hour per week. If it is taking them longer than we are to stop at 1 hour and send it in incomplete. They started doing this because they were finding the level that was being set was too high but parents were making their children complete it-it was taking my son 7+ hours to do what was supposed to be an hours homework.

If I'm honest I'm not sure we'd find time to do all that your sons been set, my son is busy playing in the garden and experiencing a natural type of education lol.

 

[MrsKyliePaton]

I'm surprised they get homework in the holidays! I haven't even looked at my daughters bag since she broke off a week ago, think I better check in the morning lol

 

[KayBea]

that is far too much!!

as a PP said. just do some of it.

LO has just turned 3 & they get homework - not huge amounts just things like learn to count to 30 (she can count to 20) learn 5 new letters of the alphabet etc etc. so just things to challenge her brain while shes not in nursery for 2 weeks.

but if she came home to that at 5yrs old it wont all get done, no chance! xx

 

[Noodlebear]

I don't really agree with homework for primary school children anyway so I'd probably write in to the school about that. Far too much for a 5 year old.

 

[hel_5]

That's ridiculous!!!! Lucy has absolutely nothing!! Just do a bit and leave the rest xx

 

[Dragonfly]

William has 3 books, work sheet, another part in his home work book to do, some maths now also and I thought that was a bit much. His bag was heavy from books too. And he hates home work. I didnt think they got so much at that age. Seems they arnt doing this in school and I have to do it at home.

 

[aimee-lou]

wow i didn't realise that such lo's could be given so much, and in reception too which isn't even compulsory for some children!!

 

[JASMAK]

Id be having a kinipshit

 

[LaughOutLoud]

Gosh that is a lot. I never got any homework until GCSE's in my time, but I am aware kids get it on a weekly basis now. What your son has got is too much in my opinion.

 

[Racheldigger]

Goodness, I thought Rowan got a lot of homework, but that's horrific! I've discussed this with other parents of children at Rowan's school, and some of them say that they only do what their child can reasonably do in the time they've got, and the school's never given them trouble about it.

 

[morri]

wow i didnt get homework over the holidays until i was in year 10 .

 

[mummy2o]

My son has 3 reading books for over the holidays and he's in year 2! Maybe my son's school is slacking...

 

[RachA]

My son has 3 reading books for over the holidays and he's in year 2! Maybe my son's school is slacking...

If your sons school is slacking then mine is even worse - DS has his usual reading book and that is it. I think its good to have the holidays off though. I always find with my son that when we have a complete break from school work for a week or more then when he starts back up again he's progressed.

 

[Bernie]

Olivia is 5 and she has only come home with a piece of homework that was more of a presentation so she could talk to her class about what she had done. Luckly for me ive got a teacher in the family and she sat with us and helped that was it. She brings home books to read at home and some practise writing not much though. I would say that tons of home work for a child of 5 and i would be complaining i certainly wouldnt be making him do all that. Far to much pressure on kids at school. Let them be kids is what i say

 

[Noodlebear]

Let them be kids is what i say

Absolutely! I hope I don't have this issue when my son goes to school because if I deem it to be too much and it gets him stressed or interferes with time he should be spending with the family, he won't be doing it. Simple as that. I don't get home from work and start doing MORE work so why should my child?

 

[Bernie]

Let them be kids is what i say

Absolutely! I hope I don't have this issue when my son goes to school because if I deem it to be too much and it gets him stressed or interferes with time he should be spending with the family, he won't be doing it. Simple as that. I don't get home from work and start doing MORE work so why should my child?

I agree why should they do more work? If the teachers are that bothered about kids doing more work then i think they should extend the school hours so they finish at 4 instead of 3. So then evenings and weekends are family time and having fun not for more work poor little buggers. Its a long day for them anyway and its not as if they are sitting exams at that age. These teachers are crazy

 

[Racheldigger]

It's particularly hard on little ones like Rowan with two working parents, who have to stay at after-school club till half past five and then still come home and do homework; when she's older, of course, she can do her homework at after-school club and keep her family time free.

I find Rowan's homework particularly challenging, as the homework sheet often doesn't set specific goals: you may get a list of words to read or of letter groups where you have to find words including them, but otherwise they just tell you what they've been studying that week and you have to work out for yourself what you can do to build on that. I suppose it's really a good way of doing it, as you can do something your child's capable of rather than running into a challenge they can't handle, but it does require a lot of parental ingenuity. Over half-term, Rowan had a list of words to learn, and then it just said that in mathematics they'd been looking at the shapes of slices of tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese, cutting bread into rectangles or triangles and weighing different foods against each other on a balance, while in literacy they'd read a book called 'Sam's Sandwich' and written instructions for making a sandwich. Taking all this into account, the best way to do her homework seemed to be to bake a cake: we wrote down a description of how we did it, with Mummy doing the difficult bits and Rowan filling in the bits like 'wash our hands' and '4 bananas' (or 'bnans' as it actually came out), mentioning the shapes of all the things we were using and what we were measuring our ingredients with.