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Homework - Pollutant or fertiliser?
The thing about homework is that it’s supposed to help children. Help them to learn, to understand, to absorb and to use the skills and information that they are being taught in class. So why does popular children’s author Eleanor Updale think it is polluting family life?
It’s certainly true that too many children, particularly girls, spend too long over their homework. And that it can become an outlet for parents’ anxiety and/or competitiveness. I remember feeling desperate as I tried to judge Year 6s’ WW2 “Anderson shelters in a box”. How to compare what was supposed to show the girls’ research, resourcefulness and creativity when faced with highly engineered, expensively sourced works which were obviously not made by 10 year old hands?
And I admit I’ve sympathised, though secretly, when a parent complained about repetitive, pointless homework clearly set by an unimaginative teacher.
At its best homework will improve your child’s understanding, develop research skills, impart further knowledge, improve memory and their ability to learn and recall (see our Parents’ Guide to Homework). Most children love to learn and delight in impressing adults. Rejoice the first time your Infant Prodigy tells you something you didn’t know and watch them glow!
Listening to your child read involves being physically close and giving them your full attention. Can you honestly say you would manage to make the time to do this, every day, without the discipline of homework? When you read through a piece of written homework (don’t go on about the spelling mistakes) you have in your hands a valuable source of conversational topics – it’s not always easy to find a safe one with teenagers! There’s truth in the saying that if you hear something you may understand it but if you do it you remember…
Your child’s homework should be a fertiliser, not a pollutant. Click here for top tips from those who know and you could be the Alan Titchmarsh of your kitchen table!
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