Hey thanks Heidi.  I understand what you'e saying and I think I will mention it to her teacher.  Last week she got 10/10 on her spellings, and this week it was 9/10 so I'm really pleased with her. 

I think she just gets stressed becaue she has been working hard all day, and she doesn't want to come in and start again.  She loves to read, so that part is easy and we now do spellings every morning with breakfast.  As for the other bits and pieces, I shall have to try and fit it in when she is happy to do it.

Atm she loves school and I don't want anything to jeopardise that.

Thanks for your advice, appreciated. x

Hi Scooterjam (sp)

Your daughter shouldnt be getting stressed about her homework, so it suggests to me that maybe the teacher is putting pressure onto the children.  ..... if you dont do it, you wont get........ or similar threats.

homework should be just a revision of what they are learning in class, and to support and go along with what they are learning.  If she finds it hard to do, the teacher should not be expecting her to do too much

The most important thing for a child to do at home is read, everything else is a bonus.  If she is having tantrums, may be its because its either too hard or too easy, but the pressure and stress needs to be taken away.

My only thoughts are doing spellings with her food, make up the words with toy letters and play around with them until she thinks the words are right, maths comes and goes with every day things, so make it into games

but above all,  talk to her teacher so that her teacher is aware that she is getting stressed out.  Its better to be honst with the teacher and explain whats going on at home rather than letting her assume that her dd isnt even trying or bothering.  Many kids tellthe teacher things like "mum says I didnt have to do it" "I didnt want to do it" and this then causes aggro for the children.

Keep asking questions, there are lots of people who can advise you of different approaches.

You will find on Bounty (and all forums) that very often the messages go away from what you were asking in the first place, so you have to start again

Heidih

Well it seems I am in the minority regarding homework!!!

I appreciate everyone's feedback thanks.  I just think its too much too soon.  I wholeheartedly agree with a small amount, and reading every night but this week we have had spellings, reading, maths and an italian project.  As well as trying to learn her spellings, she is trying to learn an italian phrase and numerous other things. 

I really really feel that yes children of course need to educated to the best possible standard, but also they need to be children.

Did anyone see GMTV the other morning - the chap, think he was called Richard Woodward or something, said that children don't get stressed, only the parents.  Well that's rubbish - my daughter has been stressed and it concerns me a lot. 

Hi i have a six yr old daughter that has just gone into yr 2 also. I do agree with homework but probably not as much i agree with reading writing and a bit of maths and spellings but they send home a poetry book and also give another task to do. It is ok when you have nothing else to do but when you have 4 children and a part time job, and of course they like the play time especially now the nights are getting darker, i tend to do hers on a morning by then she is more refreshed and more alert. As it goes she is struggling, but not through lack of trying at home, am waiting to speak at parents evening, the teacher is aware that i know she is struggling as i know they are aware, but she is still assessing her and getting to know her abilities, wether she is doing it on purpose, lack of concentration or something else.  Sharon x

We had the same problem for a while, having 3 kids to look after and husband coming home late didn’t help so I asked acouple of friends if they fancied doing a "homework club" at home, we take it in turns to have the kids over one day after school, 3 kids including mine then they do homework together.... more fun and if they do it quick have time to play D.

Also more fun when doing it together and helping each other out. Works well for us. x

One thing I would suggest is that if you dont have time to help your child with homework, that you should discuss this with the teacher, so that the teacher will make allowances and not humilate your child in class because its not been done.  You know your own circumstances and what suits you and your family

there are certain children in our class, because of parents circumstances, dont do the homework, but those that can are expected to and they get reminded all the time.  the ones taht have been excused dont (but teacher manages to do it so that whole class isnt aware)

heidih

There are a lot of views about whether kids should be given homework

some think its so the parents can see what their child can/cant do

some think it gives additional learning support to what they are doing at school

some think kids shouldnt need to any at all, they should just learn in class.

our school has four classes of similar aged kids, two teachers give homework, two dont!

our teacher gives a worksheet with a few basic facts, spellings once a fortnight, and a quiz on whatever topic they have been learning.  it takes my ds about 2minutes and its no big deal. 

I personally think its good for our kids to revise spellings at home.  There just isnt enough time in class to do this, along with everything else they do.  If children learn the key words at home, this will help with their writing at school and then they can concentrate on learning other words, ie for their topic, rather than wasting time on key words.

Children who read at home, also do better in the classroom - because they can read the questions on the workpapers!  It gives confidence if they are aloud to read to their family and/or friends on a regular basis.  It also widens their own vocabulary because they learn new words and understand their meanings

It will help your child at school if they can learn to spell at home, and dont just stick to the 10 the teacher gives them/.  Look at patterns, look for other similar sounding words, or words spelt differently that sound the same.

Homework should not be a chore, it should be incorporated as part of your childs every day learning.  If they are forced to learn something for a test, they wil instantly forget it.

Children need to understand what they are learning and why, and if it is built around every day life, it will stay as a long term memory and knowledge

heidih

My son was exactly the same in year 2 so I just gave up for a while and he started getting on much better in class time.  I reintroduced it slowly with a token reward for spellings if he did them before a given time.

I think the key here is how you do the homework with the kids. you have to be relaxed and make it as "fun" as you can.

Don't stess out at them if they don't get thier spelling right...they'll just get them back the next week to do again the following week, they won't get in trouble.

I use homework as a tool to spending time, uninterupted with each of my kids.

Give them plenty of praise...even if they were rubbish and the tantrums will soon deminish as they begin to enjoy doing the work with you.

my dd has just gone into year 2, she gets reading every night to do, 10 spellings and 10 math quesitons on a monday to learn for a test the following monday, also on wednesday she gets a piece of topic work to do, sometimes she only has the weekend to do the topic work other times she will have over a week to do it, in yr1 she only had reading and spelling, so the home work this year has stepped up a bit,

i'm lucky my dd loves doing home work, we got into the routine of getting in form school, having a snack then doing home work, it's ment to be 20 mins a day for reading, spellings and maths together, we like to get it do and out the way so then she has the rest of the time to play, otherwise once she starts playing we end up forgetting about the homework as other stuff takes over.

i don't mind her getting homework, i think it gets them ready for later on, if they keep doing a bit more home work over the years then when she gets to secondary school home work wont come as a shock and she hopefully be able to cope with the amount they end up getting, i'm sure over the years we will have problems with home work and not wanting to do it, at the mo i'm just glad that she enjoys it.

rox :-)

I guess it depends on the child.  My dd was 6 at the end of July, so has just gone into year 2.  She has reading books - although she has finished all the ORT books so is on free readers - but we're supposed to aim for listening to her read at least 10 minutes a day.  She also has 12 spellings a week for a test on Monday and a mental arithmetic test each Monday - last week it was spelling zero to nine, but last year it was number bonds etc.  Also literacy and numeracy homework thats given out on a Thursday and has to be handed in on Monday.  It was like that for most of year 1 though so they are all used to it by now and my dd doesnt really struggle with any of it.  But I do hear some parents moaning about it all saying their child struggles with it all and my friends child who is at a different school has found it hard to adjust to year 2.  At my dds school though as I said they did similar in year 1.  I guess its because of the SATs in May they push them quite hard.

DD1 was in primary 3 last year (the equivalent of Y2). She got a spelling card on a Monday which had about 12 words on it. On Monday and Tuesday they were to practise the words in any way they wanted (e.g. rainbow writing, writing in sand/salt, type them on the computer, paint them), Wednesday was an activity sheet, eg a wordsearch, based on the words and Thursday was a mock spelling test that we did with her. She also had a maths sheet given out on Monday to be handed in on Friday and reading twice a week.

She didn't find it too bad and this year is turning out much the same amount. Our difference is that we don't have the pressure of SATS in Scotland.

I am a primary teacher and personally don't like homework as such for this age. I do agree with sending reading books home but don't think spellings etc are necessary yet. However I find it tends to be the parents who want homework to be set and have always commented if its not.

I have to go along with school policy though, which for Year 2 would be a reading book every week, a maths or literacy task every week and sometimes some topic work. Each school will have its own policy and sometimes its a good way of letting parents know what their children are doing in school.

Hi all

My  dd is 6 (nearly 7) and now is year 2.  She has reading to do every night, 10 spellings to learn each week, as well as a maths sheet and sometimes topic work.

This week we have had endless tears and tantrums trying to get her spellings correct - it was days of the week  and I personally feel its just too much for a young child.

The teacher has told us that year 2 is going to be hard and they will be tired - so why not let them chill out at the end of the day and have some "kid" time rather than ramming homework down their throats.

Just me or anyone else of the same view?