Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
Homework battles- need help! (vent included)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 109632" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Different strokes for different folks. Depending on our circumstances as well as how we learn, taking into account other issues such as the need for medications to be on board if we are to focus sufficiently to benefit - homework can be beneficial, or it can be a huge, pointless burden.</p><p></p><p>There are ways, and there are ways...</p><p></p><p>For any of my kids needing stimulant medications in order to focus sufficiently, homework after school hours was generally a disaster. They were ill-equipped to stay on task, to functionally benefit from what they did (let alone actually produce anything respectable!). easy child 2/difficult child 2 wasn't too bad, but she tended to do her homework after taking medications, on her way to school (she had two hours' travel plus waiting time). Or on weekends, during the day, when medicated.</p><p></p><p>In my case - I was shocking with homework. No ADD in any way, I could do the work fast and easily but had little time to do it because I would get home from school to a mother who needed my help. There were times when she was in hospital and I had to get dinner for everyone (as well as breakfast for my father in the mornings, following his Phinneas Fogg strict regime). So like my daughter, I did the bare essential paperwork often at school in the mornings, or on the way to school. Sometimes while on the way home. With senior high school most of the required work was study, which I never had a problem with - I would just read my texts cover to cover. I don't remember doing homework then, although I know others did. I do remember reading a lot of texts, purely for pleasure, often last thing at night. I passed with high marks.</p><p>Basically, my methods and not doing homework worked for me.</p><p></p><p>easy child did homework - a lot. I remember a few late night/early morning tantrums when an essay she's been working on for hours was lost because the computer crashed and she hadn't done a save. She also did well.</p><p></p><p>It seems the gist of all this - homework is a good thing to do, providing it fits in with the way that particular person learns and is done in a way that supports that learning method and capability. Where it becomes a problem is when nothing is learned in the process, perhaps because the child is simply incapable of maintaining focus at the time of day normally available for homework, or because the homework has been set in either too great a quantity, or too much new work and not enough revision set in the homework. I deplore the habit of some teachers to use homework to learn large amounts of new work. Such learning is unsupported and unsupervised, often turns out to be ineffective and leading to big gaps in knowledge. easy child especially experienced this; easy child 2/difficult child 2 and difficult child 1 also but to a lesser extent.</p><p></p><p>Our kids were, for a time, unable to do homework during the week (due to travel times etc). The school accommodated this (it was a common problem for a lot of students) so instead of setting regular small amounts of homework they would set larger projects to be done over weekends. </p><p></p><p>As long as some acknowledgement is given to the need for kids to have free time, and the problems some kids have (due to their disability as well as due to a difficult home situation), then homework needn't be the battle it is. But I still feel that homework is the big issue it is because in many cases, TOO MUCH is expected of homework as a teaching toil, a revision tool and a means to justify the subject.</p><p></p><p>Homework is directed, which can mean a child has to do it regardless, when maybe they have less need in that subject and more in another and would have benefited more from simply learning to attack the academic areas giving them the most trouble. When we go to uni we have to learn to study in that way; how much better would it be if, instead of homework assigned on a regular basis, we were instead taught to focus in and work on our most troubling areas academically?</p><p></p><p>Homework is directed; study is generally undirected. "I am already familiar with the comparative parasitology, I can leave that bit and instead focus on respiratory pigments in crustaceans where I'm a bit rusty."</p><p></p><p>Schools have requirements. If you have a child who is severely clashing with the ethos of homework and you can see why (and it isn't an easy one to solve) then you need to talk to the school to find a better way. Always keep the main aim in focus - the aim is for the child to learn. If you can sort things out with the school so you can find a way to support the school's education process AND teach your child to work on his own as well - then great. But sometimes this means doing things differently to what is uniformly expected.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 109632, member: 1991"] Different strokes for different folks. Depending on our circumstances as well as how we learn, taking into account other issues such as the need for medications to be on board if we are to focus sufficiently to benefit - homework can be beneficial, or it can be a huge, pointless burden. There are ways, and there are ways... For any of my kids needing stimulant medications in order to focus sufficiently, homework after school hours was generally a disaster. They were ill-equipped to stay on task, to functionally benefit from what they did (let alone actually produce anything respectable!). easy child 2/difficult child 2 wasn't too bad, but she tended to do her homework after taking medications, on her way to school (she had two hours' travel plus waiting time). Or on weekends, during the day, when medicated. In my case - I was shocking with homework. No ADD in any way, I could do the work fast and easily but had little time to do it because I would get home from school to a mother who needed my help. There were times when she was in hospital and I had to get dinner for everyone (as well as breakfast for my father in the mornings, following his Phinneas Fogg strict regime). So like my daughter, I did the bare essential paperwork often at school in the mornings, or on the way to school. Sometimes while on the way home. With senior high school most of the required work was study, which I never had a problem with - I would just read my texts cover to cover. I don't remember doing homework then, although I know others did. I do remember reading a lot of texts, purely for pleasure, often last thing at night. I passed with high marks. Basically, my methods and not doing homework worked for me. easy child did homework - a lot. I remember a few late night/early morning tantrums when an essay she's been working on for hours was lost because the computer crashed and she hadn't done a save. She also did well. It seems the gist of all this - homework is a good thing to do, providing it fits in with the way that particular person learns and is done in a way that supports that learning method and capability. Where it becomes a problem is when nothing is learned in the process, perhaps because the child is simply incapable of maintaining focus at the time of day normally available for homework, or because the homework has been set in either too great a quantity, or too much new work and not enough revision set in the homework. I deplore the habit of some teachers to use homework to learn large amounts of new work. Such learning is unsupported and unsupervised, often turns out to be ineffective and leading to big gaps in knowledge. easy child especially experienced this; easy child 2/difficult child 2 and difficult child 1 also but to a lesser extent. Our kids were, for a time, unable to do homework during the week (due to travel times etc). The school accommodated this (it was a common problem for a lot of students) so instead of setting regular small amounts of homework they would set larger projects to be done over weekends. As long as some acknowledgement is given to the need for kids to have free time, and the problems some kids have (due to their disability as well as due to a difficult home situation), then homework needn't be the battle it is. But I still feel that homework is the big issue it is because in many cases, TOO MUCH is expected of homework as a teaching toil, a revision tool and a means to justify the subject. Homework is directed, which can mean a child has to do it regardless, when maybe they have less need in that subject and more in another and would have benefited more from simply learning to attack the academic areas giving them the most trouble. When we go to uni we have to learn to study in that way; how much better would it be if, instead of homework assigned on a regular basis, we were instead taught to focus in and work on our most troubling areas academically? Homework is directed; study is generally undirected. "I am already familiar with the comparative parasitology, I can leave that bit and instead focus on respiratory pigments in crustaceans where I'm a bit rusty." Schools have requirements. If you have a child who is severely clashing with the ethos of homework and you can see why (and it isn't an easy one to solve) then you need to talk to the school to find a better way. Always keep the main aim in focus - the aim is for the child to learn. If you can sort things out with the school so you can find a way to support the school's education process AND teach your child to work on his own as well - then great. But sometimes this means doing things differently to what is uniformly expected. Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
Homework battles- need help! (vent included)
Top