How much help should parents give their children with homework? Should homework be the focus of every evening after school? Over the Thanksgiving break I asked a young mom visiting from Illinois how things were going with her kids. She laughed and said that she just loved spending two hours a night on homework because she had enjoyed doing the work so much the first time. Her kids were well behaved and seemed to be the type that took their assignments seriously. I have had parents share with me that they would rather go to the dentist than endure the experience of daily homework assignments that take up most of the evening.
This topic opens up a whole can of worms because there are kids who just come home and do their homework, and there are those who just don't want to work. It's not easy to get children to do things that they don't want to do. Plus, parents often find themselves competing with each other. Last year my grandson was given the assignment of making a stick horse. His kindergarten class was planning a rodeo, and the activity included the kids riding their horses through the school for the other classes to see. My grandson had a little help with his horse, but most of the work was his own. His horse had a lot of personality.:) The projects were brought to school during Open House. I was lucky to be invited. My, oh my. I could not believe some of the horses. We're talking Hallmark Hall of Fame Stick Horses. I'm sure they could bring a handsome price on eBay. It was funny to see the parents checking out the other parents' work.
Maybe projects could be available on eBay to save parents the time and trouble. Is there a difference between doing a project for a child or buying it? I can just see the parents bidding against each other in the last few seconds for the perfect project. This type of activity might lead to more projects being done in school under the watchful eyes of the teachers.
At least older kids can get help online with difficult subjects instead of asking parents who have been away from school a few years. It's easy to forget learning that isn't used on a daily basis. One site I visited recently where homework help is available made me wish that I had had that kind of resource available when I was in high school. It was a big deal for my parents to take us to the library to do research. Sometimes we had to drive all the way to downtown Dallas because the local libraries didn't have what we needed.
I do have a problem with homework being the main thing families have to do every night. With all of the focus on obesity in America, maybe the homework assignment should be to do some form of exercise after school.