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

Choosing the Right Nursery

"Born in India, however, brought up in Dubai, I have literally witnessed Dubai transform from sand to cement scape! Went on to graduating from the University of Texas in Austin as a certified Special Needs and Regular Elementary Teacher. Worked at the Dubai Center for Special Needs for five years and nearly two years at the American School, Dubai. I decided to stay at home to be with my loving one-year old daughter and to have more home-cooked meals for my dear husband. In the interim, I started a fun/educational/creative/social/arty playgroup and we called ourselves KidZ and MumZ. Two years into this, I've returned back to being a Substitute Teacher, enjoying my much longed for tennis lessons and yoga classes before I anticipate life as a full time teacher in the horizon."

Shalini Nagji

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As you visit a few nurseries, your first visit should be without your child. This is your time to meet the administration, collect necessary forms, and ask for a tour of the nursery. Get a feel of the place…and people. Take your child on the second visit, where hopefully if positive the first time, you should feel similarly the second time rond. Things are familiar to you first, which your child senses instantly as you show your child around. You don’t have to hit all the nurseries in town… there is no magic number however, seeing 7-8 should cover getting an idea of how nurseries function.Factors to keep in mind when choosing the ‘right’ nursery for your child:
· YOU feel a sense of comfort as you walk through the premise - see smiling staff and kids.
· There is an overall, general ‘Pre-school’ curriculum followed in most nurseries. Some are clear in the curriculum they follow. Some will incorporate a touch of Montessori. Some skew towards ‘British’ or ‘American’ pre-reading, pre-writing, and story-telling activities and will even be able to tell you which schools their graduating buds move on to. So, if you have a preference of curriculum you will want your child to follow – this is your first question.
· Convenient location from home – there is no need to feel like you are not giving the ‘best’ to your child if he/she didn’t get admission in one of the ‘popular’ nurseries or that he/she did, but you are traveling 40 minutes back and forth. Your child is (a). young (b). we have terrible traffic and summer weather (c). potential playdates will probably be as far away – kids who already live around the nursery.
· Overall hygiene and maintenance of classrooms, equipment, and materials used.
· Ask about the health check ups carried out by the nursery – who do they bring in and at what intervals. At this point, ask and visit a completely equipped nurse’s room. Go over and feel comfortable with their emergency plans for your child and their premise.
· Recommendations of just 2-3 friends, if possible.
· A bonus, if your child knows a friend starting with him/her or in another class. Familiarity of some sort.

Having made your decision, there is that rare child that doesn’t shed a tear upon parting with mommy/daddy. An important advice:

Happy Mommy/Daddy = Happy Child left at Nursery

The ‘right’ time to send your child to Nursery

First, working moms and stay at home moms need to be equally commended! As long as YOU feel comfortable, trustful, and confident of the people that you are entrusting your child with – the weaning process can begin as early as four months! In Dubai, the concept of day cares is becoming more of a reality, with just a few at hand so far – so currently, a working mom’s option is limited. Having your child in as early as under two years of age, the top most priorities are (1) Feeding routine (2) Regular nap routine (3) Safety & Health. A well-fed child, a well-rested child, and a healthy child is the goal to be achieved! Social skills, cognitive achievements and so forth all branch off from the above. Make sure your nursery addresses this in its philosophy.

For those moms who do have the option of being at home, a ‘sensible’ and ‘popular’ age that is commonly chosen to send our kids to nursery is at two years or closely approaching the two. The two top reasons moms seem to agree on at this age, are:

(1). Their child’s immunity is stronger. No doubt, your child will go through the whole first term with rounds of sicknesses. However, a two-year old plus child will more likely have a stronger ability to fight illnesses and then his/her body settles in. A one and a half year old child, mostly, will have sicknesses recur. The more absences make ‘settling in’ harder for child, and mom.
(2). Kids at two are talking more than a handful of words. This helps in their transition of socializing and communicating with less frustration. They have a degree of cognition, if practiced in earlier situations, that reads:

Mommy says a ‘happy’goodbye and ‘see you later’ = mommy comes back

By Shalini