Help with 3rd class homework

jordata

I need some advice please as homework is hell. Let me start with some background. I have 3 girls, an 8yo in 3rd class, a 7yo in 1st and a 3yo in playschool. None of them have any special educational needs tg so homework should not be a struggle.

7yo comes in and does homework straight away, done and dusted in a short time. 8yo, on the other hand, likes to have a snack and short break, which is fine. Then she wants me to sit and do her homework with her. She finds it very hard to focus and gets easily distracted by her little sister, or anything else. As the evening progresses the 3yo gets tired and needs to get to bed by 7. In the middle of all this I need to make and serve dinner.
This evening 4.5 HOURS after starting homework I sent her to bed at 9 still not finished. I estimate she should be able to complete the amount of homework she gets in 1.5 hours max.
What should I do? By the time she went to bed I was so exhausted with the struggle of the evening that I sat down and cried. I actually cried. I really don’t know what to do.
Any advice would be great.
Another quick question. Any one got any tips for teaching Irish spellings? I’m not sure of the pronunciation so can’t help phonetically as I can in English. Any tips? Thanks.

Khannie

jordata wrote: »

This evening 4.5 HOURS after starting homework I sent her to bed at 9 still not finished. I estimate she should be able to complete the amount of homework she gets in 1.5 hours max.

Jesus. That's rough.

I'm trying to remember the guidelines that we were given for study because I think they'll apply (it's easy to get distracted from study). Does your eldest need a lot of help with the homework or do you think she could do most of it on her own? If it's the latter then I'd suggest sticking her in a quiet room that the others aren't allowed go in to at a desk that she only uses for homework (so she associates sitting at that desk with homework). Separation from the things that distract her is probably a good option to start with anyway.

jordata wrote: »

Another quick question. Any one got any tips for teaching Irish spellings? I’m not sure of the pronunciation so can’t help phonetically as I can in English. Any tips? Thanks.

You can (more or less) sound out words in Irish just like in english.
a makes an ah sound
á makes an aw sound
i makes an ih sound
í makes an ee sound and so on
I'd say if you have a google you'll probably find a definitive list, otherwise I'm happy to help if you PM me a list each day for the next while. You'll get the hang of it after a bit.

jordata

See needs very little help with the actual homework but if I'm not beside her she will not focus and her mind wanders easily - whether her sisters are in the room or not.

smurff

Hi jordata. Sorry to hear the homework is such tough going at the moment. If it's any consolation it takes a little time for a routine to be established even after the holidays so lots of houses are a bit like yours at the moment. As you have identified, the problem is with the focus. Perhaps, it might be worth your while to sort out the younger children with a snack and the tv for 15 minutes while you get stuck in with your older child. At this stage, if ye are doing written exercises, she should nearly be into the swing of them, and tell her to show you when the exercise is finished. Then that'll free you up to check in on the other kids. Maybe a bit of bribery may not go astray. If its done neatly in 10 minutes..tiny treat. As for the Irish spellings...If you can say off the letters with a bit of a rhythm it could make them easier to remember. Or writing them on a scrap piece of paper a million times...if you don't have the correct pronunciation..just don't say the word too many times...by the end of the week you will possibly be hearing the word being read...Dont worry. A few weeks of pain should set you up for a good year

deisemum

Ask for a copy of the school's homework policy, schools have policies on all sorts of things.

My children's school's homework policy states that the most children in 6th class spend actually doing their homework (not dawdling or sitting topping pencils etc) is an hour. Each of the other years is a bit less ie 3rd class would be around the 40 min mark.

It might be no harm to have a word with the teacher just to see what your daughter should be doing and if she needs help.

I know from experience plus I've been told the same from teachers I know on a personal level that there are some teachers who are not great at teaching but offload the teaching onto the parents and sometimes a class is constantly given excessive homework to make up for this. I'm not saying this is the case here.

In my childrens school pupils are meant to fill in how long homework takes and one particular teacher was giving at least 90mins homework when the school policy stated no longer than 40 - 45 mins. A lot of pupils were putting down half the amount of time it took so they wouldn't look stupid. So many parents complained and the homework was sorted.

4.5 hours is just not on, do leaving certs even spend that amount of time doing homework and studying? That amount of time would put anyone off school.

Homework is only meant to be a recap on what was learnt during the day and parents shouldn't constantly correct it if there are mistakes as the teacher needs to see if the child has learnt it or not.

pickarooney

Does the homework involve mostly written work or reading/learning? How is she doing in school? She may be getting distracted because it's difficult for her or she may just as easily find it simple and not engaging. When you teach her things yourself, doe she have the same tendency to lose focus or can she follow better if lessons are adapted more to her?

I don't ever remember spending more than half an hour doing homework in primary school. Has it really changed that much in... ouch, 25 years already!

CDfm

Does your school have a remedial teacher ? I would suggest you have your child tested so you know where she is at relative to her age and relative to her class. Find out the top level data first before getting too enmeshed.

On the Irish language stuff. Some kids are absolutely crap at Irish - my son was the worlds worst. Off to the Conragh na Gaelige shop in Harcourt St Dublin and buy the simple study aids and pictobooks on words and grammar. He had 3 months to learn enough to pass the Inter Cert after a test score of 10% in the mocks.

Don't forget kids should not compared against each other.Dont do that.

I am divorced at 1 PT meeting I said to the teacher when she said " I suppose you are here to see how X is doing" " I said " X is fine I am here to see how you are teaching her" . A kid can move from a class having been teachers pet to one where they or not. So don't discount some sort of issue between the child and the teacher. Kids are kids and can blow stuff out of proportion.

Once you know what your dealing with then do your homework stuff.

A suggestion - set up her study area with no distractions or sister. She has her assigned task do it with her and give it 15 mins or whatever and cover each thing till the 45 mins or whatever is over. Done then play . In a few weeks you should have her doing more unsupervised and you checking after each segment. In other words until she gets to show you what she learned and can do.

jordata

Thanks for all your suggestions.

We coped much better this evening. I made her get stuck in almost straight away and kept a closer eye on her to make sure she didn't get side-tracked. We were done in half the time. There is still a bit of work to be done but, like y'all say, it is early in the term and hopefully we'll get a better routine.

WRT to Irish spellings, she is very good at Irish but I was just worried that my mis-pronouncing the words might put her off. Today I asked her the word in English and got her to translate, then spell. Much better!!

Again, thank you.

byhookorbycrook

1.5 hours for a third class child??Mad. Sitting with her is like a reward, so she looks for your attention. Get her to estimate how long homework should take, piece by piece. Then say, right, 15 mins to do your maths, I'll be back to see what you have done in 15 minutes. After 40 mins put the homework away, write a note to the teacher. If homework goes over an hour, it is pointless, she is learning nothing and wll not benefit.

Victor

Éireann - note the pattern narrow vowel (e, i), consonant, narrow vowel.
Iarnród - broad vowel (a, o, u), consonant, broad vowel.

This applies in excess of 99.9% of the time.

Nevyn

It can be a hard transistion form 2nd class to 3rd, I had the exact same struggles with my daughter for a lot of last year. She just didn't want to do the work and would sit over it for as along as possible unless I literally stood over her and that then would stress her out.

Starting earlier certainly helped as did taking breaks but there were several weeks of heartacke and it taking well over an hour.

di11on

Hi Jordata,

I don't really have any specific advice but I'd just like to say that I think you're a super mum and it sounds like you are doing a really really great job. I understand the stress of the evening and it really isn't easy.

By the way, I assume you're mum and not dad, but I could be wrong :-)

ebmma

CDfm wrote: »

I am divorced at 1 PT meeting I said to the teacher when she said " I suppose you are here to see how X is doing" " I said " X is fine I am here to see how you are teaching her" .

That might be a bit off topic on my part, but this is a bit rude. For all you know X might not be fine. 'Fine' in a sense of being a healthy and happy child, but not necessarily fine with his math, English, whatever it is.
I just not see the reason for coming across as hostile towards the teacher.

byhookorbycrook

CDFM, I am in learning support(remedial teacher is no longer used.) What tests do you propose the teacher do?

Most schools now do the standardised tests in English and maths from first to sixth. If a child were in need of extra support,under DES guidelines, they would be offered learning support.

It is not the job of the learning support teacher to do any other form of testing on children not under their care. We are far too busy to be conducting random tests not on our caseload .

Jordata, you say none of yours have special needs. Do you know how thr 3rd class child did in the standardised tests last year?If not, make an appt to talk to the class teacher and you can also discuss the homework issues too.