Is this a belief you hold about your child? Common responses from parents I meet include:
“Why can’t he do his homework by himself?”
or
“We were in tears finishing his homework last night because he just can’t get it!”
or
“A lot of the other mothers I speak to say that their child does their homework by themselves, so there must be something wrong with my child.”
The truth is, I rarely meet a child who does not get some form of assistance from their parents. In fact, many of the “A” students I have taught at school and at ALA have parents who take a very active role in helping their child/children with daily homework. Surprising? Not really.
Here’s why:
The pace at which teachers are required to deliver the curriculum to their students is alarmingly fast. They don’t have the luxury of spending weeks on any one skill as the content they must cover is vast. The result is something of a skimming, summary over a given topic before it is hastily changed and sometimes not revisited for months at a time. Combine this with the daily interruptions of guitar lessons, assemblies, speeches, the school musical and the swimming carnival (just to name a few) and it is nearly impossible to get anything done!
So, what does this mean for your child? It means that doing their homework is VERY important and it means that your child will most likely need your instruction on the matter as well as the opportunity to make mistakes and to practise in front of you in order to accomplish the skill successfully.
It is possible that the brief instruction they were given at school was not enough to understand the subject at all; and you may have to explain it from the start. You may need extra lessons at home to get on top of it or you may need to get outside help.
There may be other factors which contribute to the unattainment of a skill too, such as the way the information is offered by the teacher (it may be confusing) or the classroom dynamics (too hard to hear instruction because of elevated classroom noise).
The point is, I want you all to know, just because you spend an hour with your child of an evening to help them with their homework does not mean anything is wrong. In fact, I strongly recommend it.
It does not mean that your child has a learning difficulty. It is simply necessary in our current educational climate to make sure that your child is on the right track.
On the plus side (for all of you over-worked, tired parents, myself included), there are many benefits for learning with your child too, such as sharing the moment when things ‘click’ and when mastery is achieved.
It is wonderful to see a child accomplish something they thought was first difficult and for you, their one-and-only, to watch their confidence flourish.
“Why can’t he do his homework by himself?”
or
“We were in tears finishing his homework last night because he just can’t get it!”
or
“A lot of the other mothers I speak to say that their child does their homework by themselves, so there must be something wrong with my child.”
The truth is, I rarely meet a child who does not get some form of assistance from their parents. In fact, many of the “A” students I have taught at school and at ALA have parents who take a very active role in helping their child/children with daily homework. Surprising? Not really.
Here’s why:
The pace at which teachers are required to deliver the curriculum to their students is alarmingly fast. They don’t have the luxury of spending weeks on any one skill as the content they must cover is vast. The result is something of a skimming, summary over a given topic before it is hastily changed and sometimes not revisited for months at a time. Combine this with the daily interruptions of guitar lessons, assemblies, speeches, the school musical and the swimming carnival (just to name a few) and it is nearly impossible to get anything done!
So, what does this mean for your child? It means that doing their homework is VERY important and it means that your child will most likely need your instruction on the matter as well as the opportunity to make mistakes and to practise in front of you in order to accomplish the skill successfully.
It is possible that the brief instruction they were given at school was not enough to understand the subject at all; and you may have to explain it from the start. You may need extra lessons at home to get on top of it or you may need to get outside help.
There may be other factors which contribute to the unattainment of a skill too, such as the way the information is offered by the teacher (it may be confusing) or the classroom dynamics (too hard to hear instruction because of elevated classroom noise).
The point is, I want you all to know, just because you spend an hour with your child of an evening to help them with their homework does not mean anything is wrong. In fact, I strongly recommend it.
It does not mean that your child has a learning difficulty. It is simply necessary in our current educational climate to make sure that your child is on the right track.
On the plus side (for all of you over-worked, tired parents, myself included), there are many benefits for learning with your child too, such as sharing the moment when things ‘click’ and when mastery is achieved.
It is wonderful to see a child accomplish something they thought was first difficult and for you, their one-and-only, to watch their confidence flourish.
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