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My older son went through a phase where he refused to do his homework in kindergarten. I mentioned it to the teacher at pick up and she said do NOT nag him and if he refuses to do it, let it go and she would take care of it at school. Next time it happened I did just that and ODS missed recess ONCE. He never missed his homework again. LOL
@nana053 I totally agree with you. I don't always check my children's homework. I will help them if they ask for it, but IMO, it is their responsibility to know what they have to do and do it. I provide a safe, loving and supportive environment for them to live and grow in. It is up to them to take full advantage of that environment.
Let me repeat for some of you...I will help them when asked. I will secure tutoring when needed. I attend all parent teacher conferences, check their grades on Skyward and volunteer at the school several times a week. But at the end of the day it is the student's responsibility to learn and do the work.
Ultimately, it is not the school's nor the teacher's responsibility to ensure my child receives an education. It is the parents' responsibility and only the parents'. The school and the teacher are tools that the parent uses to help educate their child. My child's education is MY responsibility (and my husband's).
Say my child has a few mistakes on her homework. I have 2 choices. I can 1) hope/gamble that the teacher notices and does something about it, and then hope/gamble that the teacher actually has enough time to devote the attention to my child to ensure she understands it, or I can 2) sit down with my child and teach her, and devote all the time attention needed to make sure she understands it. I choose number 2 every time. Sure, maybe the teacher doesn't get as much feed back on her teaching skills because I circumvented it. I really don't give a darn, as long as my child got the attention she needed and learned what she needed to know.
I really can't understand why so many parents release themselves of the responsibility of educating their children completely to their local public school. Really? You trust someone you've barely ever met, who has 20 other students, who sees your child 6 hours a day M-F, and will never see them again after June, and who is hideously underpaid and overworked, to be 100% responsible for your child's education this year? Even if the teacher is superman and ABLE to do that, I just think that's shoddy parenting. It's the parent saying "well I know I'm supposed to do part of this, but someone else is offering to do all of it for me, so I'll just let them, whether it works or not, and keep out of it". Really? With your own child? I just don't get it. Why?
Whoa! Just because some of us believe homework and schoolwork is ultimately the responsibility of the child does NOT mean we completely relinquish responsibility for our children's education. What a jump!!!
My husband and I take our children to the library several times per month. On the weekends, we attend programs at local state parks and in the city. We also take them to several art and history museums per year. On top of that, we make it a point to discuss current events, politics etc with them.
Its the parent saying, "Well the child is well prepared, supported and living in an environment conducive to achievement in school. They are the ones who need to retain the information, they are the ones who are responsible for their own work so I, as the parent, recognize this need for independence and responsibility and foster it."
As a teacher, homework is meant to be done at home and not in school. It is extra practice to be done and fixed at home. We spend plenty of time pretesting, doing guided and independent practice, as well as assessing and re teaching.
Parents are expected to provide the minimal amount of support needed to help their child complete and understand the homework. You don't want to provide too much or too little support.
As a parent, checking over homework helps me identify areas my child needs help. No teacher can give the same attention to my child that I can give. They will have her one year, but I get her eighteen years. :-)
Wow. Its amazing how things differ from region to region. Here, the teachers have always told us the homework is the responsibility of the children and that they go over the homework in class to identify mistakes and learn from them.
The Chinese mothers placed the responsibility on the children to perform.
The article illustrated that when the parent got involved and took the time to go over the "homework" (in this case, the test results) with their child, the child improved, significantly more so than when the parent did not help. It's the responsibility of the child to perform on the test, yes, but it's the responsibility of the parent to get involved and help outside of the formal environment.
Its the parent saying, "Well the child is well prepared, supported and living in an environment conducive to achievement in school. They are the ones who need to retain the information, they are the ones who are responsible for their own work so I, as the parent, recognize this need for independence and responsibility and foster it."
The key word there is "prepared". That implies that you have prepared them. By teaching them how to do it first. As in, teaching them how to sit down and tackle their homework when they are 8. If you never sit down and prepare them when they are 8, how are they supposed to be prepared when they are 14? Study habits need to be taught. They are not generally intuitive. The teacher is not at your house every night to teach them how to effectively do their homework. It is on the parent to teach this.
Once you have taught them, once you have prepared them, then you give them independence and responsibility. But an 8 year old is likely facing their first "real" homework beyond "color this picture" or "trace these letters". They still need to be taught. They still need their parent to sit down with them, teach them how to figure out what their assignment is, how to memorize things like spelling words, how to look up examples when they don't remember how to do a math problem, how to double check their work and go back and fix their mistakes, how to make sure to put their homework back in their schoolbag and recheck the assignment list to make sure they didn't miss anything and hang their school bag up by the door.
Let me see if I can give a concrete example. My six year old kindergartener's awesome teacher picked a few kids from her class that she felt could benefit from some advanced curriculum, including my child. Among some other things, she started them on spelling tests. When we started this, she assigned the children 10 words on Monday, to test on Friday. My daughter had NO CLUE how to study for something like this. If I had left her alone to do it herself, she would have been lost. So I helped. The first few weeks, we took 3-4 words a day, and memorized them by rote repetition (as suggested). It was successful, but very stressful and time consuming, an hour every night. So I went to the teacher and asked if we could reduce the lists every week by 5, and if she could give us the list 2 Fridays in advance. She did. I purchased an account on an online Spelling games website, and assigned my daughter to play two spelling games a night, one for this week's list and one for next week's list. This takes 5 minutes a night. Come spelling test day, she has seen all of her words for 14 days straight, instead of 4. With minimal effort. She now completely whizzes through her spelling tests with no problems, and also has learned how to study just a little bit every night instead of cramming at the end. And I taught her that.
The article illustrated that when the parent got involved and took the time to go over the "homework" (in this case, the test results) with their child, the child improved, significantly more so than when the parent did not help. It's the responsibility of the child to perform on the test, yes, but it's the responsibility of the parent to get involved and help outside of the formal environment.
Help when needed.
The child should be able to do most homework by herself for the most part barring other issues.
The key word there is "prepared". That implies that you have prepared them. By teaching them how to do it first. As in, teaching them how to sit down and tackle their homework when they are 8. If you never sit down and prepare them when they are 8, how are they supposed to be prepared when they are 14? Study habits need to be taught. They are not generally intuitive. The teacher is not at your house every night to teach them how to effectively do their homework. It is on the parent to teach this.
I told them to sit at the table and do their homework. I'm here if you need help. That's it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pkbab5
Once you have taught them, once you have prepared them, then you give them independence and responsibility. But an 8 year old is likely facing their first "real" homework beyond "color this picture" or "trace these letters". They still need to be taught. They still need their parent to sit down with them, teach them how to figure out what their assignment is, how to memorize things like spelling words, how to look up examples when they don't remember how to do a math problem, how to double check their work and go back and fix their mistakes, how to make sure to put their homework back in their schoolbag and recheck the assignment list to make sure they didn't miss anything and hang their school bag up by the door.
I don't agree. They are told at school what their homework is, they have an agenda book with the homework assignments listed and they are given the needed worksheets and assignment pages. I provide a space for them to do their homework. They are given a break and snack after school. At that point, a child, barring other issues, should be able to sit down and start working.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pkbab5
Let me see if I can give a concrete example. My six year old kindergartener's awesome teacher picked a few kids from her class that she felt could benefit from some advanced curriculum, including my child. Among some other things, she started them on spelling tests. When we started this, she assigned the children 10 words on Monday, to test on Friday. My daughter had NO CLUE how to study for something like this. If I had left her alone to do it herself, she would have been lost. So I helped. The first few weeks, we took 3-4 words a day, and memorized them by rote repetition (as suggested). It was successful, but very stressful and time consuming, an hour every night. So I went to the teacher and asked if we could reduce the lists every week by 5, and if she could give us the list 2 Fridays in advance. She did. I purchased an account on an online Spelling games website, and assigned my daughter to play two spelling games a night, one for this week's list and one for next week's list. This takes 5 minutes a night. Come spelling test day, she has seen all of her words for 14 days straight, instead of 4. With minimal effort. She now completely whizzes through her spelling tests with no problems, and also has learned how to study just a little bit every night instead of cramming at the end. And I taught her that.
That's an example of helping when needed, not an example of sitting down every day with your child to do homework with her.
That's an example of helping when needed, not an example of sitting down every day with your child to do homework with her.
Okay, call it "helping when needed" if you want, I call it "sitting down every day with your child to do homework with her". At 8 years old, "helping when needed" should at a minimum include sitting down every night with your child for at least a few minutes to get them started, then hanging around in the room while they do the work, answering questions as they come up, and then sit down with them again at the end to help them check everything and go over any mistakes etc.
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