Homework.......
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In my opinion, homework is only good if the teacher actually taught the homework material in class. Too many times I think do teachers send home assignments that the children don't understand. Make sure the kids get the lesson! Otherwise it is useless. homework is supposed to be practice of what you've already learned. I always struggled with math in grade school, and homework was oftentimes difficult and demoralizing because I hadn't understood it in class. This brings up the whole other subject of having one-on-one time for struggling students and teachers, and the issue of classroom size. Small class sizes are the most conducive to learning, but of course with budget shortfalls in public schools this won't likely be resolved soon.
There has been a lot of research going on about homework...
and the result is that there isn't a single research that has been able to prove it has any positive aspect what so ever for young children.
See the homework myth, from Alfie Kohn, for details about this.
It is also something that takes a lot of time for both parents and children, takes away from needed family time and recreation time, and it contributes to making school a place children hate, instead of a fun place where they can satisfy their curiosity.
and the result is that there isn't a single research that has been able to prove it has any positive aspect what so ever for young children.
See the homework myth, from Alfie Kohn, for details about this.
It is also something that takes a lot of time for both parents and children, takes away from needed family time and recreation time, and it contributes to making school a place children hate, instead of a fun place where they can satisfy their curiosity.
There is so much more to say about this important topic, but it's a start. Do you agree or disagree? How is homework happening for you at home? Is it easy? draining? How long does it takes? Does you kid like it?
There is a debate about whether or not homework actually does any good of course that is age dependent. Our granddaughter who is 7 and who we are raising gets about 10 minutes of homework except on Friday, personally I think that it adds more stress. Children need to be able to play after school, not sit down and do more work. We are fortunate that granddaughter does attend a homework club at school and there is only spelling to do when she returns home.
I believe that homework is critical to reinforce what's happening in school and to keep the parents involved in education. However, too much homework is not good...my opinion is that any more than 1 hour of homework each night is overkill.
Actually if you research it...homework add's nothing to the childs overall learning. Children who have homework every night did no better or worse then children who didn't have homework. I personally hate homework, it takes away from the family and over complicates the evening. I never assign homework to my kids LOLDadu2004 said:
My children rarely, if ever, have homework. When they do, it is usually due to not turning something in on time. It use to worry me, to not see homework. However, I understand now, that most of their classes are built on class participation and assesments. So, as long as they are understanding the work and performing well on the assesments....they do well. I do not, however, feel that enough is expected of my children at school. It appears to me that standards have been lowered. My older daughter is a cheer leader, and my son plays every sport available. All our school district requires, is that students maintain a 2.0 or higher to participate.
I think homework is rediculous and uneccessary. I think it shouldn't be allowed. It's bad enough kids go to school five days of the week over half of the day for most of the year, but to have to bring school home with them at the end of the day too? Talk about consuming their lives! Give them so free time and family time. I don't look forward to homework. Ugh.
So I am curious, dadu: what would they do or see in this 1 hour per day at home that they couldn't do or see in school, with a professional of education with them?Dadu2004 said:
I agree with the benefit of involving parents in their children's education... when they can do that. But what of all these parents who cannot follow what their children are learning? (this is especially true in high school). I am wondering if other ways could be devised to get the parents involved in their children's education (like they do in Montessori schools, for instance), other than homework...?
I find that my step daughter who is 9 gets homework at times but she rushes through it. Especially with math. She tends to make simple addition or subtraction mistakes even though she is doing multiplication and division. So the homework I believe is good to have so that way parents can help explain it when there is a mistake. I do ha e a question though is it best for the child to make the mistake and turn it in in hopes the teacher will correct it pr should the parent double check the Work and catch the mistake?
Hi, I believe it is better that the child makes the mistake & lets the teacher show her the way it should be done. She may not like you pointing out her mistakes, children can be funny about that sometimes. I would tell her to slow down & think carefully what the questions are about before rushing in to answer it. She needs to have that put in place now so that in the future when homework gets tougher she'll understand it better. Some of the things that you may look at is does she have any free time when she gets home from school? Is she tired? Has she had something to eat? Are there distractions around her? Is she in a quiet place to do her homework? Sorry just thoughts that came to mind as I answered your post. Hope they help. Please let me know how it goes.
As a teacher I've been in schools where I had to give homework. Otherwise, I would only assign outside reading and reading of class novels.
I know the research, and I generally agree with it, but I also know that the realities of teaching today mean that there just isn't time available to allow students to do the amount of research they need to do for a research paper, say, and there is something to be said about learning time management for a long term project. Thankfully, due to the nature of my current job, this is not an issue.
Having said all that, I also know that my pre-k daughter is disappointed every day that her homework involves no more than answering a question or singing me a song. I have to give her workbooks to satisfy her.
I know the research, and I generally agree with it, but I also know that the realities of teaching today mean that there just isn't time available to allow students to do the amount of research they need to do for a research paper, say, and there is something to be said about learning time management for a long term project. Thankfully, due to the nature of my current job, this is not an issue.
Having said all that, I also know that my pre-k daughter is disappointed every day that her homework involves no more than answering a question or singing me a song. I have to give her workbooks to satisfy her.
we use the rule of 1 hour, per grade, over the week. so our yr 7 does 7hrs a week our kindy 2 do 1 hr a week (reading and maths)
this is for finishing anything off, working on projects and assigned homework.
our kids all do a sport 1 night a week, and swimming lessons 1night a week.
they have social time every evening, and weekends are outdoors family time (with sleepovers and playdates)
i think its a good balance
this is for finishing anything off, working on projects and assigned homework.
our kids all do a sport 1 night a week, and swimming lessons 1night a week.
they have social time every evening, and weekends are outdoors family time (with sleepovers and playdates)
i think its a good balance
I don't think children should be burdened with homework that makes their schedule look worse than mine. When is a kid going to play and be a child if they finish school at 2 and have hours of homework each day and sometimes on the weekend too.
I'm going to agree with Dadu from a slightly different perspective. I think homework has some value beyond any pure academic advancement(and it's just my belief, my opinion, not based on anybody's studies.)parentastic said:
-I believe it teaches kids to be responsible for their own learning - there isn't always going to be a teacher, be resourceful - figure it out. My 9 yo, if he's working on homework, with a text book and he doesn't understand the answer he finds in the text book, will go to the internet to find a different explanation.
-I beleive it promotes self discipline and time management
- if done right, it promotes exploration - unlike one view above, I don't think homework should be just more of what was taught in class. Introduce a concept, introduce the resources, then ask a question that is based on that concept but wasn't answered in class.
and as for what to do when suject matter surpasses parental understanding...well, a couple possibilities....
the parents could learn along with the child, nothing wrong with life-long learning...talk about getting more from your education dollar!
or the parent can still provide the role of coach, helping the student stay vigilant, approach problem solving, find resources.
I think education can be so much more than what happens in the classroom between 8 and 3....
I agree with this to a point, I can tell you that since home schooling Cole....I am NOT smarter then a 5th grader. Goodness how much I have forgotten, however there are night were I sit up and learn it. Math is my weakest point, forget that I was in Calculus in high school, I am lucky if I remember how to multiply a fraction LOL and I have always and still do struggle with word problems. I did find a great site though that has helped me and I have passed it on to quite a few people. I'm gonna share it with you guys, you never know when you might need an extra bit of help.IADad said:
http://www.khanacademy.org/
He has easy to follow videos on every type of math out there...I mean every type!
Our 10 year old was bringing home math every night and taking 2 hours to get through it. She wasn't learning in the classroom. We had the school counsellor assess her and found a learning gap that is now being addressed. Was a source of frustration and a symptom to a problem
I think homework is a good way to make sure everything is sticking and I certainly think that it helps prepare younger kids for higher education, gets them into a rhythm.
What I disagree with is older kids getting just pointless busywork, were having this issue with Dita at the moment, she's in her last year of high school, she's taken on some hard subjects that she has a lot of homework for, such as specialist mathematics, yet she also has this "all about me" assignment for her homeroom group that has to do with their self esteem camp that is coming up next week that is basically a giant poster about herself, a letter to her parents, and a book about her life. She came home furious when it was assigned because to her its just pointless, and she hates stuff like that, and as a parent its really frustrating to see her waste her time doing this stuff when she has plenty of homework from her actual school subjects.
Lux's teacher this year also seems to be keen on the pointless homework, she's still young so she dosent get much, but she came home this afternoon and told me that she had to draw pictures of 5 of her spelling words, and I dont understand what that is going to do her for or what the point of it is.
What I disagree with is older kids getting just pointless busywork, were having this issue with Dita at the moment, she's in her last year of high school, she's taken on some hard subjects that she has a lot of homework for, such as specialist mathematics, yet she also has this "all about me" assignment for her homeroom group that has to do with their self esteem camp that is coming up next week that is basically a giant poster about herself, a letter to her parents, and a book about her life. She came home furious when it was assigned because to her its just pointless, and she hates stuff like that, and as a parent its really frustrating to see her waste her time doing this stuff when she has plenty of homework from her actual school subjects.
Lux's teacher this year also seems to be keen on the pointless homework, she's still young so she dosent get much, but she came home this afternoon and told me that she had to draw pictures of 5 of her spelling words, and I dont understand what that is going to do her for or what the point of it is.