Homework help

"I am a Pre-School Teacher and my husband and I moved from Australia last February. I have enjoyed the past year off, filling my days with writing my first Children’s book, learning guitar and attempting to learn yoga and Italian. My husband has especially enjoyed being able to take holidays in the 'non-school holiday' time of the year. I was delighted to write this article as it allowed me to engage my brain again!! Also, I realised how much I have missed talking through issues in Early Childhood Development."

Bonnie Masters.

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Homework. Just saying the word aloud conjures up images of a child pulling a face and a parent ready to pull their hair out.

As I sat down to write this article it became quite clear to me, why it can be such a dreaded task. Now, I don’t have a magic trick that will make your children sit and complete their homework (whilst whistling the theme from the Sound of Music!)
However, I do have some points to consider and some suggestions and strategies to help make the homework hour a more pleasant experience for all.

As in many countries around the world, Dubai places a very high importance on academic achievement. Children as young as seven are set homework that takes an hour to complete. We all know (or can remember) what it feels like to slog it out at work all day and then be asked to take work home and complete it in our own time. Time rather spent with our family and friends or just chilling out. Recall this frustration you felt towards the task (and perhaps the people who set it). Empathise with your child as you sit down to work with them. As they have spent the day slogging it out at school and have been asked to take work home and complete it in ‘their time’. Time rather spent playing with their friends, siblings or engaging in some physical activity. Sound familiar? When you think about it from the child’s perspective, you can understand why the homework hour can be doomed before it even begins.

That being said (and I strongly believe to understand is to walk a mile in their shoes) the hard truth is that homework must be done. Like eating, brushing your teeth and going to school, homework is one of life’s necessary chores.

So how can we make it nicer for everyone?

The basics· Make sure your child has had something to eat and is well hydrated. Hypo-glycaemic children and homework are not a good mix!
· Allow your child their much-needed down time. Let them have a play or do ‘whatever’ for a period after school before homework begins.
· Give positive encouragement as much as you can.


Talk to your child

· Whilst empathising with your child, be honest with them and explain that there are going to be times in life where we have to do things that aren’t much fun but we still need to do them…that’s just the way it is.
· Teach your child that no matter what the task – they will only get out of it what they are prepared to put in. If they don’t put in the effort then they won’t improve or be successful.
· From the youngest age – teach your child that ANY work they do, be it academic, sporting or creating, they are doing it for their own satisfaction. Not to please Miss Jones or Mr Smith, not to please or Mum or Dad or Granny, not to please their friends, but to please themselves.
· Don’t offer any material rewards for completing homework!! It will start with a sweetie (bad for the teeth anyway!!) and escalate to goodness only knows what. Teach you child natural and logical consequences for their behaviour. The reward is their success, for example, acing the weekly spelling test, knowing their times tables and improving their hand-writing skills. Not the toy or chocolate or game boy they will receive if they get all their spelling words right.
· Make your own observations or talk to your teacher and find out what type of learner your child is. Visual spatial, do they learn best by seeing things in the written form? Aural, do they learn best by hearing and repeating? Or kinaesthetic, do they need to be touching something, writing it down or moving to take in new learning? Apply the appropriate strategies when completing the homework. This is especially useful when working with memorisation tasks such as spelling or times tables.

Make it fun· Start the homework with a joke or something funny. Make your child smile, so the brain stores the experience as a positive. Homework equals a smile not a scrunched up face!
· If stand-up comedy is not your forte, then sing or dance with your child before and after the work
· Once your child has mastered the times tables or spelling list, have a go at timing them with a stop watch! Note: this is not recommended as a teaching strategy to learn the material but as a fun way to revise.
· Role play – Let your child be the teacher and you are the student. They ask you the spelling words and the times tables. Let your older child teach a younger sibling – the 3 -5 year old thinks homework is fantastic! (if only we could bottle their enthusiasm!)
· Let your child read through the daily tasks and tell you in which order they will complete them. It’s a good chance to practise reading, encourage independence and a nice change from being told what to do by an adult.

Finally, it is important to recognise the days when your child really just needs a break from it all. I gave this advice to parents when I was teaching in Australia. There were days when some children just couldn’t face being at school. We all know how these ‘mental health’ days feel and it’s important that we recognise and respond to our needs and those of our children. Some parents believed that granting time off was a bad idea as they worried that their child would always want a day off. But those who were willing and prepared to accept that it’s okay to take a break when you really need it, found it to be invaluable advice.

May the homework hour be a little more pleasant for all!

By Bonnie Masters