Elementary School Homework
What is the purpose of elementary school homework?
Teachers assign homework for a wide range of reasons, and I think to get into a teacher's head is almost impossible. You are going to have teachers who assign busy work, and sometimes there's homework that I look at that I can't interpret as anything other than busy work. And some teachers are going to assign things that seem a little too hard, and you're going to think, "Wait a minute! I can't teach my child this! They have to go to school to learn this, because I don't know it." So there are definitely going to be some bobbles in the homework process that you're going to feel a little confused by, but as a general rule, the reason we give elementary school kids homework is because they need to practice what they learn in school. Most kids are in school 180 days a year, and they're in school for about 6 hours a day. So that means they're in school less than half of the days of the year, and they're in school for, I don't know, about half of their waking hours. It's not that much time. And so you want to think, "Do you want your child to sit and do 6 problems, 6 long division problems in class, or do you want them to do 3 in class and then take 3 home? Those 3 that they do at home a) help solidify the skill, b) give the teacher time in class to move on to a new lesson, and c) force your child to actually recall the process that they learned in school and try it out at home. I also think homework serves a really important purpose of showing parents what their kids are learning in school. It's one of the main ways that teachers can keep parents informed. We're doing long division. Exhibit A is the homework. Secondly, maybe your child's struggling with long division. Exhibit A is the fact that your child can't do the homework correctly. So if you pay attention to your child's homework, it's often a really good way to see how they're doing and what they're learning.
Should I help my child with his homework?
You want to kind of bear in mind the purpose of the homework. The purpose of the homework is for the child to practice the skill and get better at it. So to the extent that your help is helping him do that, then you're doing a great thing. You're saying, "okay, you don't forget--remember how to do that. Let me show you and let's do the problem out here, let's do the process and let's talk about it. Okay, now you try it. Okay, that looks good, try another one. Okay, you're making a little mistake there, let's correct that. Do you remember? You're supposed to subtract before you multiply," or whatever the process is. And as long as you're doing that, as long as you're talking them through it, as long as they're learning and as long as they're practicing, then your help is a wonderful thing. The only time it gets bad is when you say, "Alright, give me that essay, I'm going to correct it for you," and the child isn't gaining anything out of it. The homework's getting done, but the child's not learning. Or when you take, heaven forbid, or when you take the homework and you do it for them: "it's due tomorrow, it has to get done, you go to bed, I'll do your homework." You're not helping anyone. You're not helping your child learn the skill or practice the skill, you're not helping the teacher get a good assessment of what your child can do, and you're not helping your child learn that he needs to get his, his homework done. So there's definitely a line, but as long as you're being productive, definitely. You should definitely help.
How can I help my child with homework if I'm not familiar with the material?
The one advantage that adults have with elementary school homework is we read faster than kids and the vast majority of the homework is gonna come from a book; literature book, or science book, or history book or math book and we can read it. We can kind of skim over it and then talk about it. We can also look at the examples in the math and usually it'll come back to you when you look at it. You may really remember how to find the common denominator with fractions, but once you look at you'll probably be able to piece it together. So do that. Don't be afraid to skim over you childs homework, don't be afraid to tell your child, "You know, I need to look over this first, let me refresh my memory." Don't be afraid to say to your child, "Well, let's read it together and see if we can figure it out." And, finally I would say, don't be afraid to send a note to the teacher. It happens sometimes. Even as tutors it happens to us sometimes. I'm not familiar with this concept could you please either help so-and-so with it and could you please write out an example and send it home with him, so that we can work on it together, and most teachers will do this and most teachers will be happy to be asked. And quite often the teacher will go, "Ooh, I wasn't as clear about that or I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I didn't send the instruction sheet with this material. So don't be afraid to ask. Teachers are always going to appreciate that a parent want to help and wants to learn.
What can I do if my child is forgetting or skipping homework assignments?
There's a lot of steps about homework. A child has to bring the homework assignment home so that he or she can do it, they have to actually do it and then they have to remember to turn it in. So you're putting a lot of trust in your child in terms of the whole homework process. One of the things that I always ask students is to have some kind of calender or some kind of planner or agenda book where they write down their assignments. Little kids often get homework packets so then they don't have to remember all the different work sheets that they are supposed to do. But definitely have some kind of system where they write it down. In dire cases, you can even have the teacher check it over before the child leaves school and sign it off and say yes, everything that Johnny was supposed to complete is written here. Make sure they do it. Go over the things step by step asking to see each thing that he's done and it's his job to turn it in What I try to explain to parents is, there should be consequences if they don't do the things that they're supposed to do. If you know the homework is done, the hard part is done. All they need to do is remember to turn it in. You talk to the teacher. You figure out the system they use for collecting homework. Do they pass all the papers up? Do they put it in a basket? What do they do? You talk to your child so they can recognize the signs. Ok, all the other children are passing their papers up, so you probably want to figure out what they're passing up and get yours up there too.Then talk about it and figure out some type of appropriate consequence for the child if the homework is not turned in. Most teachers will give you a report if the student is turning in homework or not turning in homework during the course of the week. I like to think of school as work. I think it's your job. My job is to go to work and earn money for the family. Your job is to do your schoolwork. We earn free time by doing our homework. To me, Game Boys gets taken away or tv gets taken away or sleep overs get taken away or some kind of thing, not a huge thing, not a thing to ruin their life, not necessarily for a huge period of time, for them to understand, life goes well when I do what I'm supposed to do and life is really less fun when I don't do what I'm supposed to do.
How much homework can elementary school students expect to have?
The question of how much homework elementary school kids should get is a tough one, its going to vary tremendously from school to school, from teacher to teacher, from grade to grade. A lot of people argue that kids should have ten minutes of homework for every grade. So first graders should have ten minutes, second graders should have twenty minutes, third graders should have thirty minutes, and so on. How long your child's homework takes depends so much on your child. This is one of the things I find frustrating. Parents will come in and complain that their child has two hours of homework, but you watch them do it and they are daydreaming for at least an hour and a half of those two hours, so its really only thirty minutes of homework. I would say that kinder, first, second: thirty minutes of homework. Third, fourth: forty five minutes of homework. Fifth, sixth: about an hour of homework, but that's concerted doing homework time. It's not homework in front of the TV. It's not homework in the kitchen while you are chatting between problems. So if you find your child doing more homework than that, and they are concertedly working, and they are really trying then that is probably time to talk to the teacher and just try to figure out whats going on. But some teachers are going to give more than that and I think its one of those things you roll with and try to survive.
When should my child do her homework?
When it comes to doing homework, my preference is for kids to pretty much do it right after school - come home and just knock it out. It's going to depend a little bit on your child - some kids, they're in the school-mode, they can come home, have a snack, do their homework, get it done, and get on with their day. For other kids - especially kids for whom school is frustrating or hard, they need a break. They need half an hour to just kind of run and scream and play, and get that energy out before they sit down to homework. And you're the one - the parent has to know "can my kid refocus after he's been playing? Does he need to play before he can refocus?". And that's a determination that parents have to make. But, I think kids - elementary school kids especially - should do homework before dinner. After dinner they're tired and it's hard to get anything done. And for working parents, this is a hard thing because you're not there. [In a] perfect world, you'd find some kind of program that your child can be in so that homework can be done before you pick them up. And then you get to come home and have dinner and spend some time with your child, not fighting over homework and not wrangling over school things.
How can I avoid arguing with my child about homework?
Arguements between kids and their parents about homework are age-old. I don't think this is something that we can ever escape from entirely. I think one of the main things parents can do is to be real clear as to what they expect about homework: that they expect it to be done, that they expect it to be done correctly, that they expect it to be done before dinnertime, or before the TV goes on, or before the phone gets picked up or whatever the rule is. And to be just absolutely set on that rule, whatever it is. So the kids understand it is a priority and it's not, "Oh, well, Susie invited you to a playdate today, so today you can do your homework at 9: or we can get up early in the morning and do it before school." These are the things that set really kind of bad examples for them and they think, "well, so homework is dispensible." So I think one of the ways that parents, just from a very early age, "you come home, you do it, you do it right, it's a priority," and then you move on to the fun things.
