Homework Oh! How’s It’s Changed

Ok! I come from the era of schooling when homework didn’t start until you started high school. I guess that makes me old, haha! Well, not that old!

I genuinely cannot remember having any homework during primary and junior school, and I am happy about this because it allowed me to be a kid, so that when I got home from school I could go and play outside with my friends or watch TV, which I think is perfectly normal for any child up to the age of 10 or 11. The last thing thing children need at that age is the pressure of doing homework. We are children for such a short time and in today’s world our children are growing up so quickly. Let’s just slow it down and allow our children to have fun.

When I entered the first year of high school I experienced homework for the first time. It wasn’t a heavy load and it wasn’t always every night, it was eased in gradually. If I’m honest I was never very good at getting my homework done on time and I know it wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference had I have been given homework in primary or junior school. It wouldn’t have put me in the mode of must get my homework in on time.

Fast forward a few years and I left school at aged sixteen with 6 GCSE’s under my belt of varying grades. Did it hold me back in life? Well, I don’t believe so.

I have had success in my occupation as a painter and decorator, and even though I was not good at doing homework, I learnt how to read and write, and I was actually very good at maths so I was set for life. Painting and decorating has always given me a very good living, and I would be the first to admit that you don’t need to be a brain box to do the job. Reading is important, especially when you are buying paint so you don’t buy baby pink when the customer asked for artic blue. The maths came in handy when I get to price up the jobs, and obviously counting the money when I’m get paid.

Leaving school at 16 has never held me back to the point where I finally started to use my brain by starting a blog. I am far from the best writer in the world, but I learnt enough from school to hopefully write content of a reasonable quality. Did a lack of homework hold me back in life? Not a chance!

So my six year old twin girls are currently in Year 2 and just the other day some of their class had homework. Yes, it’s not difficult and may be simple word learning and as of yet the girls haven’t had any. The question for me is, do the girls need homework when they haven’t even turned seven years old? It’s a resounding NO! They are little and let them enjoy their childhood. Let them have fun. They are in school 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, surely that is enough time to learn what they need to learn at just six years old? There will be plenty of time for homework once they get to high school.

In my very humble opinion homework should not be introduced to our children until they enter year 7. Let our children be children without adding the pressure of homework.

I would love to hear your thoughts.