Junior Infant Homework

fitzcoff

I am just wondering what is the norm for homework in Junior Infants.

My son gets the following every evening except Friday, it takes us about half an hour. I don't mind doing this, that is not the issue, I just feel that it is a bit excessive for JI.

He is following the jolly phonics program.

He has his sounds book - this was one a day in the beginning and now that the quota is done, he needs to go over them every evening.

He then has his writing, one letter a night, needs to write this to half a copy book page.

He then has a book that we read together.

There are then 10 words that he has to sound out, these would be different every day.

He also has tricky words, he can have 2-4 new every night.

Then he has his colouring, he has 2 different books, one of them has 6 pictures and he will have to colour in all the ones starting with a certain letter. Normally this will be 5 of the 6 pictures. The other book seems to be a maths book of sorts. This evening there were 5 pictures and a number next to them and he had to colour in the number of objects that was written down.

Yesterday he got another new book which he is calling his reader and we have 2 pages of this to do.

He is happy enough doing the homework every evening but I am concerned as to how much he will have in the future.

lily09

Oh I think that is far too much for a junior infant.When I taught juniors I would only give new words or a worksheet. The main purpose of homework at this stage is that the parents know what is being taught in school

byhookorbycrook

A certain amount of colouring is good for motor skills and building strength up in the hand.I don't think the rest is excessive, to be honest. He is
revising sounds, he is sounding out words- neither should take too long at this stage.I'd ask the teacher if he could just circle things in pencil or crayon rather than colouring them all in,if you want to pare back on the time it takes.

Our junior infants get about 10/15 mins a night,so will be quicker, some will be slower.Half an hour per night,each night is a bit long.

ihope

mine gets :

1. Sound book, all sounds stuck on it.
2. Nursery rhyme - same for 1 week. once a week draw a picture to go with the rhyme.
3. a page of Maths to circle or colour / half page one letter handwriting 3 times a week
4. book to read daily
5. making letters with sounds (cutouts) once a week. up to us how much or less we want to do. like you'd do with puzzles.

this was done only last month has stopped now
5. 2 letters a week and at the end a Sunny Street book to read with a parent.

So it was 15 mins to 30 mins each day and more than half of it is verbal no writing. Yours is getting a lot more maybe you could take a bit easy on the tougher things.

fitzcoff

Thanks for the replies, I just wanted to see if this was the norm or not, as I said I don't mind doing the work with him and he doesn't seem to be struggling with the amount he has.

I was talking to another mum in one of the town schools and her son has a nursery rhyme or work sheet to do and she was shocked at the amount mine gets so I wanted to see what other kids around were getting.

Gleesonbelle

My son in seniors takes 15 mins to do homework!! Seems excessive having that much in jnrs.

aod113

You should ask what your school's homework policy is. Ours is 10 minutes homework per night for infants

Conchir

I only started getting homework in 1st class :O

That seems an awful lot for Junior Infants anyway though.

fitzcoff

Sorry, I haven't checked back on this thread in a while. With the last week there has been a change in the amount of work he is getting.

He said he has finished his words so doesn't have those any more. This week he has only had his reader, his library book, his tricky words and his sounds book. I'm staying quiet for the moment and hope this continues.

stripysocks85

fitzcoff wrote: »

I am just wondering what is the norm for homework in Junior Infants.

My son gets the following every evening except Friday, it takes us about half an hour. I don't mind doing this, that is not the issue, I just feel that it is a bit excessive for JI.

He is following the jolly phonics program.

He has his sounds book - this was one a day in the beginning and now that the quota is done, he needs to go over them every evening.

He then has his writing, one letter a night, needs to write this to half a copy book page.

He then has a book that we read together.

There are then 10 words that he has to sound out, these would be different every day.

He also has tricky words, he can have 2-4 new every night.

Then he has his colouring, he has 2 different books, one of them has 6 pictures and he will have to colour in all the ones starting with a certain letter. Normally this will be 5 of the 6 pictures. The other book seems to be a maths book of sorts. This evening there were 5 pictures and a number next to them and he had to colour in the number of objects that was written down.

Yesterday he got another new book which he is calling his reader and we have 2 pages of this to do.

He is happy enough doing the homework every evening but I am concerned as to how much he will have in the future.

OH. MY. GOD.

I teach Junior Infants and I give minimum homework. I used to give the sound book Monday and Wednesday, and Tuesday would be a list of 10 words to sound out. Thursday was Alive O homework. Since then, I have changed things a bit as the sounds are all covered. I could give tricky words, 2 per night, although some are able for more so I usually let them work through at home at their own pace, though recommend to do 2 per night.

That's excessive; some teachers just seem to love giving homework


I would request the school policy on homework, or check their website as they might have the information there.

EGAR

We had the same problem in JI and SI until half the parents complained to the teacher. According to their own guidelines homework should take a maximum of twenty minutes to complete, not a hope with the amount given.

After several parents got talking they realised they all had the same experience and spoke to the teacher as a group.

That worked .

fitzcoff

I have spoken with some of the other parents and the feelings about homework is mixed.

Some of them think that it is giving the kids a great start and that it is doing them no harm. Others think that it is excessive but that the next teacher in the school isn't great at giving homework so it evens out.

I'm happy to do the work with my little guy and he doesn't mind doing the work so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. :rolleyes:

Moggie Mac Mathutha

fitzcoff wrote: »

I am just wondering what is the norm for homework in Junior Infants.

My son gets the following every evening except Friday, it takes us about half an hour. I don't mind doing this, that is not the issue, I just feel that it is a bit excessive for JI.

He is following the jolly phonics program.

He has his sounds book - this was one a day in the beginning and now that the quota is done, he needs to go over them every evening.

He then has his writing, one letter a night, needs to write this to half a copy book page.

He then has a book that we read together.

There are then 10 words that he has to sound out, these would be different every day.

He also has tricky words, he can have 2-4 new every night.

Then he has his colouring, he has 2 different books, one of them has 6 pictures and he will have to colour in all the ones starting with a certain letter. Normally this will be 5 of the 6 pictures. The other book seems to be a maths book of sorts. This evening there were 5 pictures and a number next to them and he had to colour in the number of objects that was written down.

Yesterday he got another new book which he is calling his reader and we have 2 pages of this to do.

He is happy enough doing the homework every evening but I am concerned as to how much he will have in the future.

This is far too much work for a Junior Infant child to do. I only give my children literacy and maths homework....letter sound practise and counting games/other activity to do. About 10 mins work. It needs to be meaningful and relate to what is being done in school. That sounds like a LOT of homework and not necessary at all.

byhookorbycrook

The post refers to 2012, please don't drag up old threads. Locking.