By Malia Carden | Leave A Comment
Recently my daughter was assigned a project for math homework. She needed to poll 25 – 50 people on a subject of her choosing. She had about a week to complete the form and finish the assignment. The day before the assignment was due, she was three answers shy of the required minimum of twenty-five.
The dilemma was, “What do we do?” Do we help her? Do we say, “Tough luck you didn’t get the assignment finished”? Do we make her hit the street and knock on doors?
In my days of homework, my mother would probably have either pointed to the front door and said, “Go ask the neighbors” or handed me the church phone directory and said, “Get calling!”
But we’re in the days of social media. I looked at my husband and said, “Facebook?”
As you can see, she received an exponential response.
But I’ll be quite honest with you. One part of me feels that we did an acceptable thing given her age, personality, and experience with this particular sort of assignment. Another part of me wonders if we didn’t do her any favors by possibly making it too easy to complete the assignment.
There are many views on the subject of helping kids with homework. Some parents sit down with their children and go over everything with them, some supervise and are available to answer questions, others leave the entire task to their kids and don’t help or supervise. Depending on the age and personality type of the child, you may even employ a combination of approaches. And you may have one child that must have supervision and another that works independently with no issues.
Where our daughter is concerned, we generally fall into the “supervise and answer questions” category. She’s a responsible kid but sometimes needs a little motivation and little attention during homework time. I know that as she gets older, our involvement will diminish. But I do want to teach her how to study and do homework. My justification for our Facebook experiment came from the fact that she had worked on the assignment beforehand. This was not a last minute, “Oh, I forgot!” If that had been the scenario, there would have been no tangible assistance from us.
So, I’m curious. What’s your approach to homework in your family?
Photo credits: ClipArt from Microsoft Office Online and screen shot from the author
ABOUT Malia Carden
New media enthusiast, inconsistent blogger, One2One Network Community Manager & Blog Editor, imp{read more}
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I would love to hear some answers for your question too. My kids have never really needed much help on regular homework (I have a 3rd-grader & 1st-grader). Honestly, though, I really *loathe* projects. You wonder if the teacher would like you to help so he does a nice job, or if she is willing to give a child a good grade when it’s obvious he has done it completely by himself. And, furthermore, I absolutely hated doing projects when I was in school, and I really don’t look forward to having to do them again with each of my 3 children!
As a 4th grade teacher, I give little homework because research indicates that homework – for elementary-aged students – has a positive effect on student achievement when certain conditions are met.
1. The work is practice for a previously mastered skill or preview for a concept about to be introduced.
2. The work can be successfully completed with little or no help from an adult.
3. The work receives timely and specific feedback from the teacher.
Given these requirements, I don’t expect that parents will or should have to provide much more than encouragement, accountability and the appropriate supplies and environment for accomplishing the required tasks. Additionally, since I am not able to give sufficient feedback in a timely manner to a large number of homework assignments, I usually only assign a short math page three to four nights a week. The next day we correct and discuss the assignment in class.
And projects? The ones that are really assigned to parents by way of the students? Don’t even get me started!
I have one child that needs constant supervision with his homework and I have another child that does not need any help with his homework. I guess I would have to say it depends on the child.
I work for a school and it is sometimes sad to see the kids that do not turn in homework because there is no one available at home to help or encourage them. I personally believe if more parents stepped up to the plate, our children would be happier with their education.
Totally appreciate your outlook on homework and projects. You sound just like my husband, who’s a 5th grade teacher.
My daughter is in kindergarten. But im always going over flash cards with her. These include “sight words”, simple math, vocabulary…. simple things like that.
Im not so sure im looking forward to the comeing years when she will have more difficult things to work on. Im not sure i will be much help.
But i will certainly try.
-Misty
I truly think in grade school there should be a period of time in class, probably the last forty minutes where children can complete their homework assignments in the classroom, unless it is a small project that can be completed on the weekend, with a full weeks notice given to the parents before hand, so they can have time to locate reasonably priced supplies if needed.
I know that after school many children have other things they are in, or are doing, e.g. awana’s (a christian gathering of children, but they have things they have to learn and memorize there for the gatherings too, and things they have to participate in and complete to earn badges etc.), sports, dance, music lessons, etc… If there is bunches of homework sent home on top of that I feel the kids get overwhelmed and so do the parents.
I do think parents should help their children with homework, but not do it for them.
It seemed your daughter did do her homework, just didn’t have enough time or enough people she felt comfortable asking the question. I think facebook was a safe way for her to complete her assignment. If she did have to go door to door, I think a parent should have gone with her to make sure she was safe.
That may be because I live in a community with alot of previously released sex crime criminals that have done their time in prison and are now out.