Homework Rant!!!!!

[sabby52]

Why do parents do their childrens homework?? Over the past 3 years I have witnessed a lot of homework being done for kids and I am sick and tired of my sons work going up against an adults work!!! I really do hope the teachers realise it is being done for them!!!

 

[lindseymw]

There is a few parents that do their kids homework (more so when it's something crafty.) It doesn't really bother me to be honest.

Joshua had to make a didgeridoo. He started it and very quickly lost interest as he's not an arty person so left me to do it. In all fairness, I'm not particularly arty either so it looked like a kid had done it anyway. There wasn't a competition/prize as to who did the best one.

Written & maths homework, we make sure Joshua does it himself.

 

[DJJ]

I had the opportunity to visit an infant school 2 weeks ago.while walking round the head teacher showed me a display of summer holiday projects. she admitted that parents would have done some if it but she was of the opinion that its a good thing if parents can work together with their children and produce something together.

 

[OmarsMum]

Omar have to draw every book cover he reads in Arabic, I help when he's tired or too sleepy. I honestly don't see the point of drawing the book cover. He is given extra in English & Arabic in addition to his homework which are more than enough

I don't really care if parents help their children or do their homework, at my boy's school they rely on in class assessment and it is ongoing through out the academic year. Homework as in writing is only for practicing their spelling tests.

Last year in reception they had to do a habitat diorama, all were done by parents, my boy helped us in gluing and cutting, he also collected stones & shells from the beach but we did the majority of the work, he gave us instructions and he chose the habitat

 

[sabby52]

I have no problem with parents helping their children, if my son needs help he gets it and if he has a project to do we will sit down together and throw ideas around but the end result will always be his. I have a problem with the work being done for them, I have actually witnessed one mother sit and do her sons homework while he was out playing her excuse, it was to warm to bring him in to do homework

Plus everytime my son has homework or a project there is always a note from the teacher asking for the work to be the childs work and not the parents.

 

[LoraLoo]

Reminds me of the decorate the egg competitions etc. I leave mine to it (as school ask) yet the winners are always the ones blatantly done by the parents.

For maths homework eyc I always sit with mine and help them count out beads or whatever but they find the answer.

Kids get far too much homework at too young an age imo

 

[Cattia]

Yes, this is a pet hate of mine too. I actually have friends who do this. The child gets set a homework like make a mobile or a noah's ark or something and the mums do it all, maybe the child just helps a little bit. In many cases I think it's because the mums are too controlling and want the work to look good. Obviously I have no issue with parents helping their children with work but I think the work should be the child's OWN work. It's really giving out a very bad message to kids when they work hard on something and it looks frankly a bit crap, because after all they are only five years old, then they take it into school and see that all the other kids have ones that look amazing. I read a meme on facebook the other day that said 'When you do something for me, all I learn is that you do it better than I do'. I think this is so true and we should encourage our children to do their best and take pride in the fact that they had a go. Oh dear, sorry, you got me going there!!

 

[shanny]

There is a massive difference between doing it for them and doing it with them!!

As a teacher we can tell the difference!

 

[LaughOutLoud]

At my girls school they expect the parents to help in the early years but as they move further ahead, then the work would be just solely for the child to do.

 

[Larkspur]

I don't see any harm in parents working with their child on something as long as they are not actually doing it for them. In the long run, it's not really helping the kid for the parent to actually do the work. The kid isn't learning and acquiring the skills, which is the whole point of education.

I don't understand why your son's work would be "going up against an adult's work" though. Surely they are graded against a curriculum and a set of achievement standards, not graded as a comparison against works produced by their schoolmates?

 

[tommyg]

Omar have to draw every book cover he reads in Arabic, I help when he's tired or too sleepy. I honestly don't see the point of drawing the book cover. He is given extra in English & Arabic in addition to his homework which are more than enough

I don't really care if parents help their children or do their homework, at my boy's school they rely on in class assessment and it is ongoing through out the academic year. Homework as in writing is only for practicing their spelling tests.

Last year in reception they had to do a habitat diorama, all were done by parents, my boy helped us in gluing and cutting, he also collected stones & shells from the beach but we did the majority of the work, he gave us instructions and he chose the habitat

Being curious what's a diorama?

 

[OmarsMum]

This is a diorama, he chose marine habitat

 

[tommyg]

That is cool and yes a picture can say a 1000 words.

 

[sabby52]

I don't see any harm in parents working with their child on something as long as they are not actually doing it for them. In the long run, it's not really helping the kid for the parent to actually do the work. The kid isn't learning and acquiring the skills, which is the whole point of education.

I don't understand why your son's work would be "going up against an adult's work" though. Surely they are graded against a curriculum and a set of achievement standards, not graded as a comparison against works produced by their schoolmates?

Alot of the work my son gets home is projects and competitions, so if the parents are doing the kids work then yes my son is up against adults Last year there was a litter competition the little kid that won admitted to my son that his dad drew the picture. They had a project to do over midterm and alot of the parents done the projects for the kids, there will be a first second and third prize for the best so again my son is up against adults work.

 

[tommyg]

I don't see any harm in parents working with their child on something as long as they are not actually doing it for them. In the long run, it's not really helping the kid for the parent to actually do the work. The kid isn't learning and acquiring the skills, which is the whole point of education.

I don't understand why your son's work would be "going up against an adult's work" though. Surely they are graded against a curriculum and a set of achievement standards, not graded as a comparison against works produced by their schoolmates?

Alot of the work my son gets home is projects and competitions, so if the parents are doing the kids work then yes my son is up against adults Last year there was a litter competition the little kid that won admitted to my son that his dad drew the picture. They had a project to do over midterm and alot of the parents done the projects for the kids, there will be a first second and third prize for the best so again my son is up against adults work.

I completely understand your anger and fustration. Surely the teachers can tell when a child presents something that isn't really theirs? I think I would take it up with the school to make competitions only to be for work completed within school time.
Homework done by parents defeats the purpose, and as you say it is unfair on children who do actually do their own.

 

[AngelofTroy]

This brings up a question for me, although my son is too young for homework yet, I've always wondered:

If your child is given, for example, 10 spellings to do, at primary school, and they ask you if they are right.. Do you correct them? Tell them which are wrong and to try again? Or do you leave the mistakes in for the teacher to correct? Or something else?

 

[LoraLoo]

This brings up a question for me, although my son is too young for homework yet, I've always wondered:

If your child is given, for example, 10 spellings to do, at primary school, and they ask you if they are right.. Do you correct them? Tell them which are wrong and to try again? Or do you leave the mistakes in for the teacher to correct? Or something else?

Here amy brings spellings home on Monday to be learned by Friday. They do look/cover/write with spaces for 3 attempts. If the first ones wrong I say 'look carefully at the word' we sound It out, then she tries again. I think it's important the teachers can see any mistakes.

 

[Cattia]

This brings up a question for me, although my son is too young for homework yet, I've always wondered:

If your child is given, for example, 10 spellings to do, at primary school, and they ask you if they are right.. Do you correct them? Tell them which are wrong and to try again? Or do you leave the mistakes in for the teacher to correct? Or something else?

My daughter is in year one and they have not had spellings to learn yet. I was told not to correct spelling in her writing at this stage as they still write phonetically. I'm unclear how she will shift from phonetic to standard spelling but I assume it's all part of a plan.

 

[sabby52]

This brings up a question for me, although my son is too young for homework yet, I've always wondered:

If your child is given, for example, 10 spellings to do, at primary school, and they ask you if they are right.. Do you correct them? Tell them which are wrong and to try again? Or do you leave the mistakes in for the teacher to correct? Or something else?

In primary 1 and 2 (reception and year 1) my son done look, cover, write, he learned the spellings covered them then wrote it down, if he got them wrong I left it, no sense pretending he could spell it as they had little spelling tests on a Friday. Primary 3 and now 4, (year 2 and 3) he just has a list of 15-20 spellling that he learns Monday - Thursday, he has a spelling test on friday then we get the result of the test on a Monday any spellings he struggled with in the test are added to his new list that week (just extra, not part of that weeks spelling test) and he works on them some more.

We have been told not to correct the childs spelling, if Dec is writing a story and he cant spell a word he sounds it out, if it is a tricky word he looks it up in the dictionary. In younger classes they just spell things phonically

 

[sabby52]

This brings up a question for me, although my son is too young for homework yet, I've always wondered:

If your child is given, for example, 10 spellings to do, at primary school, and they ask you if they are right.. Do you correct them? Tell them which are wrong and to try again? Or do you leave the mistakes in for the teacher to correct? Or something else?

My daughter is in year one and they have not had spellings to learn yet. I was told not to correct spelling in her writing at this stage as they still write phonetically. I'm unclear how she will shift from phonetic to standard spelling but I assume it's all part of a plan.

I worried about the shift as well but Dec is now primary 4 (year 3) and for the past year he has left phonics behind, he understands silent letters and some letters making a different sound in some words.