Fly Away

Thanks Tiggs - just thought it was me being a bad parent! I really think homework for under 12's is unneccessary. As you say, reading practice is essential, but they are children and spend too much time in school as it is. Evenings and weekends are for having fun. Today my 7 year old has a spelling test of 20 words like thought, course, haunt etc. It has taken me days to help her learn them. If she gets any wrong she is devastated. On Thursday she has a maths test - doubles and halves up to 40. The same again, days of practice and then stress and possibly upset. This happens every week. The worst part of it, is that she is one of the brightest in the class and she is stressed out. What on earth do the other children feel??? :curse:

We sent her to this school because it is the 'best' school in our area according to the league tables and has a very good reputation. Now we are wondering if it would have been better to send her to a 'bad' school, where she would have been more relaxed. We certainly do not equate more homework with 'good' schools and interestingly, the Ofsted report for our school mentioned that there was too much homework!

I can't wait to get her out of the UK school system and into the more relaxed Ozzie system. I might even home educate her if it feels right...... (As if I don't have enough on my plate. LOL.)

Your poor 4 year old, having homework. Mine had reading and hand writing practice at that age. Used to send me spare at the weekend........... Luckily, she could read before she started nursery, so the reading wasn't too demanding. The handwriting was a nightmare though.

Glad it's not just me who thinks this is all madness!

Bushman

Don't worry guy's the education begins in the BIG country! (and you don't even have to go to school)

Fly Away

Thanks Bushey!!

daunted

I have 3 kids. ages 19, 14 & 12.
I have had the same arguement with schools all the way through. When they were younger (pre secondary school) they constantly came home with spellings, sums, books to read etc etc. IF they wanted to sit and do some i was more than happy to do so but if they decided that they had done enough that was fine by me too. I figure at that age life is about more than lessons and they spend long enough in the classroom without having to start in the evenings and weekends. I always wrote in the 'homework diary' what we had and hadnt done and I was always getting 'told off' for not making them do it

Now they are older when they come home they know they have to do their homework before any free time - i dont hassle them - if they tell me they have none i believe them, if they dont do it it is THEM that gets into bother (it doesnt take long for the lesson to be learnt)

Oh and for the record eldest is the first in the whole family to go to University, studying forensic science. Daughter is in top streams in all subjects and flew through her SATS last year, and youngest son is in top streams and on gifted and talented register for science and maths.

In my opinion the best way for a child to learn is because they want to. Not that they are forced to sit down and work at home after already doing so all day at school.
i work in a 'selective' (secondary) school. Many of those kids have been coached to pass the entrance exam which they do but when they get them into normal everyday lessons they struggle. The only person that suffers is the child

Ok sorry - that is MY rant over!! Do what YOU feel is right for YOUR kids. NOONE knows them better than you do, oh and dont be bullied by teachers

Tiggs+Graz

I quite often get the idea that other parents think that i am a 'bad' parent. I dont think young children should be doing homework, i dont believe in 'memory' type tests (spelling, times tables etc) and i cannot state strongly enough how i feel about SATs and national testing :curse:

I think that most schools put far too much pressure on children to 'achieve' academically when i really strongly believe that the emphasis should NOT be on HOW MUCH children learn but teaching children HOW to learn and that learning is fun.

Adele

Tiggs+Graz

i absolutely agree with all of that

daunted

YAY for once i spoke some sense

Sheff_Sparky

me too!

myeldest is 6 and has to do spelling tests every monday. If she wont learn them herself i wont force her. she has got every single one of them right so far, first time!

Tiggs+Graz

... ok about this house selling thread

EA phoned today to say that our buyers will be signing mortgage paperwork on friday - so that is almost 3 weeks it has taken them.
On the plus side EA was just about to fax their solicitors details to my solicitor so hopefully that has now been done.
EA was very apologetic about the delay (which is not in any way her fault) and had only phoned to try to help reassure us that things would be moving - she didnt have to do that so for that.

just feeling a bit in limbo at the mo - i have shippers in to give quotes on thurs and fri this week and dont really know when to tell them we need to be moving and still dont know where to tell them we are heading

i could do with some answers ....

Tiggs+Graz

trouble is she will be feeling great about it when she is getting them all right - but what happens when she starts getting some wrong?! Do we really need to subject our 6 year olds to that sort of feeling? I REALLY dont think so

to your young one

sammyg

I completely agree!!
I even work in education (Foundation Stage and Key stage 1)
I've had plenty of rants in the past about this:curse:

sam xx

somme

Donnee ? gives you 4 weeks free storage before shipping so you could go and have a look at the area's you want to and them email them.

Have you no idea where you want to go?

Depends how warm you like it and work? What does your OH do?

daunted

Blimey 3 weeks!!! to sign some paperwork?? sounds like maybe they didnt have everything in place when they put in the offer Well hopefully now things will start shifting along
As for the shippers are you not settled on a state yet or jsut not so sure what area within one?? Im sure they can provide you several quotes, you wont be the first ones not sure exactly where they are going at this stage. Im not taking all my big stuff, jsut 4 tea chests and 16 book cartons, what doesnt fit is getting sold, donated or dumped. Chap delivering the boxes says they dont need delivery address until 24 hours before ship docks BUT i do at least know which state im going to
Limbo land isnt a nice place to be really is it

Tiggs+Graz

we were planning on going to canberra but still waiting to hear from that job interview in adelaide - so still dont have a state destination even

we were hoping we would hear one way or the other for this job this week but that is not looking likely now so cant do much else at the mo

Tiggs+Graz

i could be completely mad but just turned down a viewer from our first EA

... but i would have needed to spend all day tomorrow cleaning to get the house in a decent state again and apparently the viewer was a bit hedgy about whether his house was sold or not - so decided not to bother

i wonder if i will regret that later