Homework tips

Homework in 2nd class should take about 30 minutes. It is important that children are sitting at a desk for this, without many distractions.

No homework I give is new content, the children have seen the spellings/words/tables etc already that day/week so the homework task is to help them consolidate this learning. At this stage they should be able to complete all written tasks independently, you shouldn't have to sit with them. Your role should only be to check over it with them at the end.   If they are getting distracted during writing it can be helpful to set a timer/stopwatch and challenge them to complete writing tasks within a certain time.

Expectations for homework

Handwriting in homework copy should be as neat as possible. The page should be ruled with a red pen, dated and each sentence numbered. Encourage your child to expand their sentences as much as possible. If the work is 'dog', all children are capable of writing more than 'I have a dog'. Challenge them to maybe put an adjective in the sentence etc.

Spellings- Practise at least 2 spellings per night. It isn't possible to learn all spellings on a Thursday. The look, say, cover, write, check method is useful for many children.

Reading- The children should be reading aloud nightly. After reading please discuss what they have read with them. This could simply be 2-3 questions about characters/what they think will happen next.
Reading should be encouraged outside of regular homework time. It doesn't have to be novels, many of the children enjoy reading fact books, science books, sport books etc.

Maths- Tables should be practised nightly. Lots of links on blog to help with this.

Gaeilge- Spellings should be practised nightly.
If you would like to learn Irish with your child-https://www.duolingo.com/
This website helps your pronounce Irish words- http://www.abair.tcd.ie/?lang=eng (Dingle Dialect is what the children are most familiar with)

As always, if you feel your child can be challenged further I have many links to Numeracy, Literacy and S.E.S.E sites on this blog.

These websites may also help;
http://www.helpmykidlearn.ie/

https://www.scoilnet.ie/