OMG Homework

[Squiglet]

I know kids are difficult about doing their Homework... but I swear Tia is taking the biscuit..

Admittedly she has loads of homework... she comes home everyday with at least two pages (17 questions approx) of Maths and Language (aka. English but really Spanish)... then occasionally she will have English, Valenciano, Science maybe one or two exercises... but not everyday. Its mainly the maths and the language.. And if she doesn't knuckle under and do it she gets swamped really easily, so we have to keep on top of it.

But getting her to do it is like trying to get blood out of a stone... and it's getting to the point I want to physically tie her to the chair... and beat her into submission. She has had 7 bathroom breaks today in the time I've had three and I'm the pregnant one... I think I've heard every excuse under the sun... from, my socks are falling down and making my ankles itchy to my pencil is making a funny noise and distracting me... we have constant tears and tantrums... here and at school and its driving me spare.

We've spoken to the teacher, but he's just a horrible teacher this year, and is forever putting the kids down. In a meeting the other week, he turned around to all the parents and said all the kids (with the kids in the room) are completely behind for their age, and can't do the simplest things... when 90% of Tia's class have been at that school since they were 2... so who's fault is it that the entire class is behind? If he's got a problem with it, shouldn't he mention that to the head... not be derogatory to the kids???? (ok sorry that was a slight pregnant rant!!) So Tia's got it in her head that she's stupid...

On top of that, it takes Tia 5x as long to do her homework because she's dyslexic, her handwriting is horrendous... She has terrible problems with concentration, she takes eye q which used to help, but this year doesn't seem to do anything... I'm sick of her coming home at 5 then sitting down and doing her homework until 8:30, eating her dinner then having to go straight to bed by 9:30... I miss her.. Oh and I'm sick and tired of shouting "homework" at her.

Are there any tricks to get the kids to do their homework?

 

[Babylicious]

Firstly is she getting any help with the dyslexia at school? There should be a programme were she gets help with things like handwriting etc. But I don't know how and if that applies in spain.

We get all the same from Paris, including the tears, screaming, swearing you name it she does it, plus she gets up from the table like a million times. We ignore her now and leave her to get on with it, I stay nearby but keep **busy** and so far it seems to work.

Sounds like she gets loads TBH, could you not speak to the head or someone else as this teacher sounds like a complete prick and all he's doing is knocking the kids confidence

 

[libs]

we had phases like this - now DS seems to do all his homework according to the teachers but we never see him. According to him he finishes it at lunchtimes, in lessons and before we come home from work.

If you don't think it will do any good to talk to the head - speak to other parents and find out if it takes their child as long (allowing for the dyslexia) and if it does, try going together to talk to the head. If they say no - maybe you're worrying too much over the standard of her work.

Also maybe it would be a good idea to just set a time each day and any homework not finished in that time will have to be picked up at the weekend. But that takes a lot of strength to stand up to the school.
If the exercises she's doing are just similiar every night then I don't see the value in repeating and repeating.

He had one teacher who liked to give the 3 hours homework allowed for a class per week on one night to be in the next...along with any other homework from other subjects. She stopped it once enough parents complained.

 

[Squiglet]

Firstly is she getting any help with the dyslexia at school? There should be a programme were she gets help with things like handwriting etc. But I don't know how and if that applies in spain.

We get all the same from Paris, including the tears, screaming, swearing you name it she does it, plus she gets up from the table like a million times. We ignore her now and leave her to get on with it, I stay nearby but keep **busy** and so far it seems to work.

Sounds like she gets loads TBH, could you not speak to the head or someone else as this teacher sounds like a complete prick and all he's doing is knocking the kids confidence

Yup, Tia sits at the dinning room table and I have to stay in the same room as her keeping "busy", she used to do it alone in her room then we caught her playing with her toys, then she moved to the kitchen, but she'd just wandered off to her room, so now I have to stand guard over her like an SS officer... now she'll start "chatting" to me so I'll say HOMEWORK.. then ignore her... only to find out that in 45 minutes she's managed to start one question, and doodled about a hundred pictures..

Yer her teacher is a complete t*sser tbh. We've spoken to him about Tia but there aren't any concessions in Spain for children with disabilities.. they are all expected to muck in and do the same... its really hard for them. She visits an educational psychologist on site twice a week for speech therapy and reading etc though, instead of having religion. but she's still behind bless her...

 

[Babylicious]

what would happen if she didn't do all the homework?

 

[Squiglet]

If she doesn't do her homework... I get told off and she has to complete what she didn't do the previous night along with the homework she had been given that day... If we don't stay on top of her and her homework, she quickly drowns in it...

Recently I've been doing what Libs said... just setting a time and saying, if it's not finished by such and such time, you'll have to leave it and take it to school the next day uncompleted... in the hopes that her teacher tells her off and thus nudges her to do her BLOODY HOMEWORK and has it worked... Noooooooo ...

Tia's a lovely child, very bright, interested and curious.. but such an a typical airhead girl at times... (aka Bratz... ) and although she has issues, sometimes her issues are her own making... like the chatting and doodling. Today she was supposed to be doing her homework... when I checked on her.. what's she doing, she's making a list in her homework book, of all the friends she's going to invite to her birthday party...... IN AUGUST!!!!! So thus an argument breaks out then we have tears and tantrums...

 

[libs]

The only other thing I can suggest is something I use at work - 15 minutes solid work with a 5 minute breather at the end. Initially it may seem longer, but by having such a short concentration time it might work. (If its any reassurance - I'm having to do this with 18 - 24 year olds )

a normal concentration span should be 3 to 5 minutes for every year of a child's age - but not if its pages of boring exercises

 

[Emma58]

The only other thing I can suggest is something I use at work - 15 minutes solid work with a 5 minute breather at the end. Initially it may seem longer, but by having such a short concentration time it might work. (If its any reassurance - I'm having to do this with 18 - 24 year olds )

a normal concentration span should be 3 to 5 minutes for every year of a child's age - but not if its pages of boring exercises

Thats exactly what I would suggest - if she works for a set amount of time then give her a breather from it (esp if she has Dyslexia).

That seems an awful lot of homework for a young child. George is almost 12 and he doesn't have to do that much although he does tend to do it at school at break or lunch. I often find him in the library at work doing it, so he has more time to enjoy after school.

 

[Babylicious]

How about telling her all the things she could be doing instead of messing about and taking ages to do her homework? Works with Paris sometimes

 

[Squiglet]

I'm going to go away and think how to impliment a sorta break schedule into her homework time Its an idea I've not tried yet and I'll try anything .... Thank you

 

[zebrastripes]

When I went through my homework strike in first year,my parents made me do my homework the minute I came home.They also made sure I had loads of fruit and water,and having an apple and a drink every so often used to really help,it was like having a break without actually moving.

In school,when we did study schedules for GCSEs,the teachers recommended that every 20 minutes or so we go out for a breath of fresh air and a walk round the garden,because it's giving us a break,but we aren't getting absorbed in a TV programme or something.

 

[mamichuli]

Mamichuli's OH speaks: I just think that giving Vic breaks would mean that he ended up doing nothing. As it is he asks for breaks whenever he thinks of it. The one thing that had a significant effect was seeing his optomotrist. But the only reason it really worked was that we could detect the difference between his functional semi-dislexia and his p*ss*ng around.
His inability to remember WHAT homework he has (in spite of having a required schoolwork diary) has led to Lisa going into his school classroom before he leaves school in order to check that he's got all his homework written in it so that he knows what to do. Yesterday there was such a disparity btween what was required and what was written that I heard about it 2 hours later!
We are equally at our wits' ends. My only hope is that we can outlast the little b***er