Oct 09
10
Homework for our children is met with a mixed reception both from parents and the children who face the task of completing it. The parent’s views stretch from one extreme of a belief that, homework is a must for all children, in order to enrich the quality of their learning. To the other extreme of “it’s the schools job to teach the children and if they can’t do it all during the day then they can’t be doing a very good job.
Whereas the childrens view will follow a similar thought process but with differing reasons. For instance, one extreme may be I enjoy school I can see a real benefit of the work I do; I see homework as an extention of that enjoyment, to the other extreme of I work hard enough at school and I don’t want to be taking extra work home.
It’s fair to say that every parent wants thier children to do well at school, however some parents are prepared to help their children achieve success whereas other aren’t. That’s for the parents to deal with!
Helping in children with their homework is one of the first and most reliable steps to setting children on the road to improving their academic performance and ensuring their personal growth. The dangers appear when the over enthusiastic or impatient parent applies too many of their skills or too much of their knowledge to the homework consequently failing to allow the personal development the child to take place.
Helping your children with their homework can be of great benefit to you as a parent. First of all, it engages your brain and improves your own cognitive abilities, not just your child’s. Secondly it strengthens the parent child bond as you learn to solve problems together and you begin to understand your childs areas of concern in their school work.
If it’s been a while since you undertook any learning it will take you a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things. Don’t forget you’ll re-experience the shocks of learning about those subjects your child is meeting for the first time. Don’t be afraid to let your child know if you don’t know something or understand it; learning respect is a great relationship builder. If necessary purchase some books for yourself from your stationers; all big stores now stock books that will help you and your child with their homework.
When you are working things out if you and your child come up with different answers, that’s great! This will give you an opportunity to investigate alternative ways of working things out. Find out the strategies your child is using, show them your learning strategies and practice using each others; also find other strategies and use them. Let your child see there is more than one way of working something out. The self development you and your child will benefit from, not only your learning, but your relationship too it’s priceless.
Between you, you can develop strategies for learning the rules of English in Speaking & Listening, Reading and Writing and gain an understanding behind the English language. This will open up many more opportunities to both you and your child in other areas of your lives. You may have to undergo an element of relearning but that won’t do you any harm!
Remember Eric Hoffer said
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
As your relationship begins to develop more with your child and they see you have a genuine interest in their success they will become more motivated towards their school work; they will begin to trust you more with otherwise ‘secret problems’ they may have. It may seem unusal for children to ask their parents for help with homework but it’s not so ridicullous it can’t be done. Parents are a great resources for their children and their homework not just as a taxi service.
Becoming involved with your childs school work will enlighten you to the detail of the curriculum they are following and better able to dicuss your their progress at Parent’s Evening. When the teachers realise you are showing an interest in your child they respond with a more positive attitude and it’s surprising how much better their results become.
An interesting thought is that as an undergraduate I worked extremely hard to achieve my degree and not fully understand the information I was learning, however when I began teaching it to others I was surprised how easily I could reproduce the knowledge and information and fully understand it.
Thank you for reading this post, please let me know what you think and share your experiences. While you’re here please take the time to sign up for the newsletter or alternatively you may prefer to subscribe for regular updates in your favourite reader or by email.
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