I,however, being a parent to a six year old daughter have a different take to all of this.
Homework,itself,is not bad:
Homework,in my opinion, is not bad.However, it depends on
1. What sort of homework is given?
2. How homework is done?
The sort of homework, of course, depends on the teacher. It should be free of restriction. By restriction, I mean, having fixed answers like copying answers from a book.Mere copying does no good except if it's given for ameliorating handwriting.
Home time is Parents' time:
I am a strong advocate of the notion that parents should be allowed to teach whatever they want to when kids come home.Plenty of homework leaves no time for kids to interact with their parents.Homework is imperative but it doesn't have to be a daily homework. There should be weekly homework but that homework should be interesting and creative both for parents and kids. Children should learn something out of it. It should allow kids to give a free vent to their thoughts. Some schools do ask kids to borrow books for a week and then after a week, submit a one page report on that book. Such sort of homework is less hectic and also beneficial for kids teaching them the significance of reading a book and doing work on time.
Homework : Listen, Praise and Correct
I have never been a strict parent asking my daughter to make sentences of my choice. Instead I believe on making homework an interactive activity. Whenever she has to make sentences in her homework, I first ask her to use the given words in her sentences and then I praise her for her sentences. After that, I tell her politely to correct her tenses and the sentence structure. Some people oppose this idea of correction, saying that this halts creative ideas but parents are the one who have to make sure that their kids learn the right things.If a kid starts writing the wrong tenses and you don't correct him, he will keep doing it because he doesn't know what is right. That is actually making the kids habitual of using the wrong spellings and wrong tenses.
Homework: Brainstorming of ideas
A weekly homework does kids chance of brainstorming ideas with their parents. Kids' parents might be having some ideas which would even outshine the teachers' ideas. Sometimes a parent's way of teaching might be better than the teacher' s way of teaching because a parent understands the psyche of his kid better than the teacher.
Whenever my daughter does creative writing, I am amazed to see her little mind thinking so much. Little minds are no doubt inundated with imagination. First, we discuss about the topic. She gives me her ideas and I tell her about my ideas. Then I leave her to write whatever she wants to. I do check her work later. First, I praise her. Praise is pivotal for kids if you want them to be confident about their work. Then I tell her that though her work is perfect and it doesn't matter if her spellings are wrong, but as I want her writing to be the best, so I write the correct spellings at the top of the words.
In a nutshell, homework shouldn't feel like a burden; infact it should give a chance to parents to get acquainted with about how much children have learned in school.Moreover, parents should not dictate their kids in doing the homework but rather help them to get a wider image to the topics on which they have been given homework.And yes, I agree that the daily homework does no good but a weekly homework allowing kids to be creative does wonders!
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