Are You a Parent or Teacher with Homework?
September 16, 2009 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Parenting
Now that school has started, some parents and students feel frustrated about homework. The youngsters haven’t caught on to all that’s being taught at school. Yet the parent doesn’t understand the teacher’s methods or even those in some textbooks.
Image:sxc.hu
So begins an evening of frustration, even anger, and no one gets anything done. Some authorities feel the parents shouldn’t do any of the teacher’s work. Others think parents should get involved. Is there a happy medium?
If you don’t understand what the teacher or text book is teaching, say so. It doesn’t mean you, as a parent, are dumb. There simply are different methods of teaching. You may or may not agree with them. However, trying to insist on yours for homework and the teacher’s for class, can become very confusing for youngsters so no learning is accomplished.
Coordinate and cooperate with the teacher. Encourage your youngsters to ask for extra help. Meet with the teacher yourself and see how you can help. The teacher isn’t dumb and you aren’t dumb. And the child isn’t dumb. There are different ways of communicating and learning. So communicate together.
How do you solve the homework challenge?
I’ve noticed that myself. Having 5 kids and the oldest 2 are in gifted/talented math, science and history I feel like their homework is tough for me. I’ll admit I don’t recall everything I ever learned in school……that doesn’t necesarily mean I wasn’t paying attention though.
Now kids can google or bing their topics and find a plethora of info….I wonder how much smarted I’d be if er had the internet in the 70’s?