Have you done your homework?

How involved should parents be?

There’s a fine line between helping your children with their homework or school projects and actually doing it for them. Barbara Mowatt examined the topic.

Learners and parents alike often view school homework and projects with resignation, trepidation or loathing. The learners because it’s such a bind; parents because they feel that school work is something they thought they’d left behind when they left school.
How much assistance should parents give their school-going children to do their homework? And can helping too much be detrimental to the child’s progress?
‘It’s a bad idea for the parent to do the child’s work to avoid facing obstacles this can be extended to life in general. Parents should have the wisdom to know that by protecting the child in the short term, the long-term ramifications will be worse,’ says Cape Town-based psychologist Marc Kahn.
‘Every time the parent does the work for the child, the child is set up to fail. If the child passes [to the next grade] based on the work done by the parent, the next year he will face more obstacles, and he will be set up to fail in a bigger way. It is better to help the child over the obstacles.’
Making the child accountable for their daily homework and term assignments will teach them to be responsible to carry out tasks. They will be taught organisational skills and how to be independent, and they will also learn from their mistakes.
If the child ‘forgets’ to do the work or doesn’t put in the required effort, they will learn that there are consequences – such as getting low marks or even failing their grade.

Discipline
‘Parental discipline can cause huge conflict in some homes. Many parents hate it when they have to confront their child and impose structure and discipline,’ says Ros Emanuel, now retired from teaching English. ‘Too many parents are afraid to challenge their teenagers and would rather do the work for them than face the fact that they might fail.’
Exerting pressure can start a power struggle and pressure results in resistance. Consequently, it is necessary for both parent and child to be disciplined when it comes to homework.
‘Let the child “fail in a healthy way”,’ advises Kahn. ‘It’s important for parents to use their discretion.’
‘Children who have lots of encouragement at home are on a better wicket than those who don’t,’ says Margaret Fischer, high-school physical science teacher, who has 30 years’ experience at a number of schools in the Cape Peninsula.

How much input should the parent have?
‘That depends on the age of the child, her personality and abilities,’ says the mother of three daughters. ‘Help enough to get them started particularly with big assignments then leave them to work at it. You can check the work when they’ve finished and make suggestions for corrections, but they should largely be left to do it themselves.’ Therefore, the major part of the work should be the child’s effort, and the parent can be involved without actually doing the work.

School projects
‘Parent-assisted projects invariably earn pupils more marks,’ says Fischer. However, she continues, ‘Not enough teachers can discriminate between the work genuinely done by the learner and the input by the parent. Some of the most perceptive educators find it very difficult to pinpoint whether or how much parents have helped with homework. Therefore, some teachers only set projects to be done at school under the supervision of the teacher, not to be done at home.’
‘There’s no doubt that having a computer on which to do homework and
projects is an advantage for children. They will produce neater, better-looking work. Having access to the Internet for research is also a big advantage,’ adds Emanuel. However, it is not advisable to rely solely on Internet research because examiners are alert to the fact that many children use the Internet.
If you don’t have a home computer, make use of lending libraries. Encourage the child in the habit of reading and using books, which are better sources of information than simply picking information off the Internet.
Teachers have a good idea of the learners’ competence and they will know whether a child is capable of producing the work that they hand in. If it’s a ‘cut and paste’ job, the teacher will probably know, and the assignment will almost certainly be given a lower mark than one albeit with less information that has been properly researched by the child.

A good start in life
There are many ways for the parent to help the child to make schooling easier. If the child is familiar with the basic tools of language and calculations, problem-solving will not be the bogeyman it’s sometimes made out to be.
Encourage your children from preschool age to play games that entail counting to develop their cognitive skills. Board games such as Monopoly and card games such as rummy, patience and even poker can be played from a very early age.

Make routine activities, such as a trip in the car, an opportunity to play participative number and word games. These games will develop the child’s mathematics and language skills. Try word games such as I-spy to improve spelling and vocabulary, and counting games such as tallying the number of blue cars, green cars, etc. seen on the trip from home to the shops.

Build up the child’s general knowledge in an informal way show how maths is essential for activities such as knitting, baking, cooking, crafts and hobbies, even for working out how much money they’ll need for purchases.

Give the child taped children’s stories so that they can read the books while listening to the tapes.
Get the child to read aloud to you from books, newspapers and magazines. It will improve the child’s language proficiency and concentration.
Show an interest in what they are doing and share your own experiences with them.

Be involved every day
* Talk to your child about general topics and encourage them to converse with other adults.
* Attend parent-teacher meetings, and contact the school if you’re worried about your child’s performance.
* Watch (or videotape) the Learning Channel on TV, which reviews English, maths, physical science and biology. Because someone other than the teacher presents the subjects, learners will invariably get another perspective on the specifics of the topic.
* Encourage your child to work, from time to time, in a group with her peers. Having to explain things to each other will both clarify the thinking of the ‘teacher’, and the ‘learner’ will be more likely to query areas of uncertainty.
* Provide a specific place to work that is quiet, well lit and clear of clutter.

Assignments and homework
* Ask every day what homework your child has been given and discuss the work. Talk about the subject rather than giving direct information or telling the child what to do.
* Brainstorm ideas on the topic. This will develop her mental skills to assimilate facts.
* Take books and reference material from the library. Give guidance without actually doing the work.
* Minimise distractions. Turn off the TV and make sure that games and toys have been packed away when it’s time to settle down to do homework.
* Ensure she takes regular breaks while doing homework, before she becomes fatigued or stressed. This will refresh her concentration.
* Make sure she is not hungry while doing homework. This doesn’t mean snacking all the time while working. A hungry child will not be able to concentrate on the task at hand.
* Check that all your child’s homework has been completed.
* Pack her school bag the night before to avoid having things forgotten or left behind. This will prevent any crises in the morning,
* Set a bedtime and insist it’s adhered to.

Words by Words by Barbara Mowatt.

From January/February 2005 ClubCard Magazine
Clicks.co.za