Homework…..the lasted great debate,
…(and seemingly causing a bit of a stir on
multimedia recently)…
With everyone back in full swing at school, after the holiday break and a
lull in the ‘study sector’ being all but a fading memory, I thought I’d help bring
you back to reality with a little food for thought…..
How would you answer these few questions?
-how much time should be taken to do homework
-what are the expectations regarding homework
-is it only revision or do they set out work not yet
covered at school
-what are your thoughts on parental input and involvement
-should we help and when do we help
-how far do we go
The school laid down precedence from the time my
children were at school with the expectation of parents becoming involved in
their child’s academic ability
Now, with my grandchildren in full swing at
school all of a sudden they are doing a back-flip stating that we are stifling
their progress, independence, and creativity by our involvement
I personally will take it all in and give one
simple response….”It all depends on the
child!”
With my 3 children, all with differing
personalities, all with different abilities;
Worksheets were sent home specifically designed
for parental involvement, including home readers, spelling lists, and times
tables to be practiced with the parents and to be signed off as a confirmation
it was attempted and finished……
Child 1- independent to the end, did not want -
did not need - did not accept any form of assistance and happily progressed
through without any problems;
Child 2- struggled with some concepts and
subjects and would ask for direction and help when needed, although once found
the bearings required would continue on unmonitored or unaided;
Child 3- ADHD -we could state ‘no more said’-,
as we needed to target on lots and lots of help and encouragement and guidance
and keeping focused and so much more….
Then along came the grand kids and not only was
the requirements even more-so directed at parental assistance with home-reading
books to sign off each night then spelling lists to read out, plus English
sheets, and Maths timetables and other equations, we seemed to need a
professors university degree to even understand some of it, workbooks for this,
worksheets for that, but only take 15/30 mins per night, although the reality
was so much more when you include the tears and dramatic displays of “I don’t
know this yet!”
Knowing I would be having a lot of involvement
with my grandson’s schooling and homework, due to the delays he faced, we gave
him a lot of attention before he started school, and without it he may never
have begun when he did.
Then we worried if he would struggle to keep up
or cope with any changing routines, so we always arranged with each year’s
teacher to work together assuring he kept up with the process. Along with that,
we had to assist a lot with his homework.
Knowing our little ones struggle in general with
most things, it is a given we have to be there to help hold things together,
although in our case, when so many things educationally were put back in our
lap to be dealt with, we had a specialist say to us “it’s not your
responsibility, the school is required to handle this; you need to take a step
back”
……sometimes easier said than done……
Now after reading the stories coming up on
newsfeeds posts as well as TV and other areas stating we are stifling their
creativity, with the belief they assume ‘we’ the parents are doing all the work
ourselves without any input from the child.
……I have to respond with……
In general I believe we do have to be there to
‘assist’ our children in some way, as long as the end work is a reflection of
‘their’ ability and presenting their opinions and knowledge, and not completely
done by the parent.
The outcome for any child overall, due to input
and support given from parents and other people they come in contact with,
regardless of any ASD diagnosis, if given in the correct guiding manner can be
beneficial to their overall independent confident creative personality.
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