Help with homework?

This made me chuckle, last time my GS asked me to help him with his homework to rewrite the ten commandments, I had to look them up to see what they were in the first place, does that make me a bad GP, he hasn’t asked me again!!

Homework should not exist. It’s too much to expect kids to start again when they get home. They should be playing ! My daughter is a child psychologist and doesn’t let her son or daughter do heir homework...she’s been to their schools and talked it through and she told them her kids aren’t doing any. No problem at all they say!My grandson is ‘up to scratch’ with his work and my granddaughter is a year ahead in her work! Good enough. It should be banned as unnecessary ! Mind you my daughter is quite intimidating being 5’11” without the heels... and extraordinarily confidant...she scares me sometimes!

He asked you once, according to your recollections, andyou refused to help. The mind boggles!

Also, it is French oral, so presumably simply case of listening or testing him!

It all depends on what you mean by help. I am one of those who listened to reading in the small classes, heard spelling words, asked history dates etc.

Basically, both as child, adult and teacher I feel homework should be set to check whether pupils have understood what they were taught in class and that if they haven't they should be able to come back to class and say so honestly.

They don't learn if their parents do the homework for them, but sometimes it is helpful if a parent tries to help an older child understand what the question is, or what they are supposed to be doing.

In my experience smaller children become easily confused or upset if the parent explains something differently to the way they had be told it in class and this is extremely unhelpful.

My DF always wanted to help me with my maths homework but he had different ways of doing things to my teachers so I ended up very confused and generally in tears. To this day I dread anything to do with maths although I am actually quite capable and fairly good with mental arithmetic as I grew up in the pre calculator generation. I have since found that I have a form of dyslexia when it come to figures, I had to check telephone numbers with patients in my job and had difficulty saying what was in front of me on the computer invariably transposing some of the numbers and to this day I struggle with long card numbers and phone numbers if I have to say them.

Sorry wrong thread - that'll teach me to have 2 windows open!

We don't know what the nerve agent used was Therefore, I suppose we don't know whether the people who came in contact with it through helping them will have any long term effects which could manifest later on. It is this aspect of the "hit" which bothers me. Ok, if you want to send out a message to your own people that traitors will never get away with it then it could be carried out in a way that would not put innocent bystanders at risk.
When my husband was working in Prague a few years back one of his older colleagues who had lived his life under the communist regime told me many stories of cruelty and stated that to the Russians human life was cheap - it meant nothing!

I use to try to help my daughter with reading and I think made things worse as many years later she has been diagnosed with a reading disorder. It was the Beano comic that really helped her.

I am glad they are reducing course work for exams as I know of many parents especially in Languages who have done the course work for their children.

My daughter was at an English Internation school where they were taught in English, I know at age 11 some of the other pupils use to ask her to go and ask her mum the answers to some English homework as I was one of the few parents whose first language was English. I liked talking English history though with her. (Yes they learnt English history.)

She is now a mature student doing a degree in my profesion, but a different branch. She sometimes sends me an essays to check for understandiblity I am learning and updating and she often explains things to me.

Gabriella G and Jane 10, I love your posts. Teachers can usually spot which homework is genuine and which has been done by someone else. The difference in style, quality, technique, form, and so on is recognisably different for every person, so if a child’s homework is not the same as class work, the teacher usually knows. Celebrating good work is always a joy. There’s sometimes a wry smile behind the celebration but praise encourages effort so if a child’s work improves as a result of celebration..... well hey, good job.

The only thing I'm (relatively) confident about is French and DGS will in no way converse with me

Nanny123 I totally agree. I couldn't even fathom out the new fangled maths my DGS was doing in primary school! However, every night my DC would read in bed to me before they went to sleep. I was usually the one who fell asleep

Some years ago this question arose when I was out with a group of girlfriends.
We were discussing our children’s GCSE coursework.
One girl said her daughters French work had been emailed to a relatvevwho was a French teacher to be corrected.
Another said she had done the majority of her sons coursework across the board.
I said I was shocked and that I had only ever given my 3 the tools to help and had never done any work for them.
They refused to believe me!!!

As we have them before and after school I make sure homework is done. I hear reading, chant tables, test vocabulary and supply an iPad for research. I only help with anything else if they ask, and by the time they’ve explained to me, they usually know what to do. I did the same for our children. Children whose parents are interested tend to do better than those whose parents aren’t. I just wish parents would talk with their children. When they come to school with a poor vocabulary and 2 word sentences it makes life difficult for them.

Of course I helped them, it helped them achieve their potential. I didn't "do it" for them but did assist them with formulating their ideas. Yes, they achieved some of their best work with me but that wasn't because I did their work for them. I knew of what they were capable, they knew I knew and they knew I would accept nothing less. I made sure they had the time to redo it if it was slapdash so they didn't bother to do less than their best because they knew it would be their time they'd be wasting. In doing this, I hoped the teacher would see what they could do and would encourage them to do the same. It would be easy to condemn the teachers when they didn't but we only had 6 children to organise whereas they had at least 33. If any of my children wanted to work independently, that was fine too as long as the finished result was the best they could achieve. Apart from the 17 year old who is still in education, they have all grown up to be the type of employee any employer is glad to have. This is not said to blow my own trumpet but feed back from the people who have employed them over the years and I am really proud that I led the horses to water but they all chose to drink!

I have a 15 year old GD and I am completely lost when it comes to her homework, I am no way thick, but it’s like double Dutch to me - I am pleased I am not a parents when it comes to homework

Parents absolutely have to help at first, hearing reading, practising tables etc etc. As time goes on its really important for children to learn independent study skills.
I must confess though that I was simultaneously proud and mortified to see a poem 'of my son's' in the school magazine - I'd been intrigued by the topic and enjoyed writing it!!

I gave help when asked I took my children to the local library and museum. l listened to them read and read to them. Practised their tables and spellings with them, however I feel that the point of set homework is to show the teacher if the child can do the task independently not to test the parents knowledge.

No.
Guidance and where to look for information - yes.
Oh! I lie.
Just remembered that DC2 (aged 13) had to write an essay given 5 subject choices but forgot about it. I wrote it overnight and he submitted without reading it.
It won class, year and overall English prizes.
I never won anything at school.

Encouraging learning - fine. Imposing homework on already stretched and tired families after work/school - not fine.

If the child cannot do the homework without help, then it is the wrong homework for that child.

Absolutely nothing wrong with helping them if they're struggling to understand and as long as you're not doing the homework for them.

Well it all depends on you nature . Some people will enjoy helping their grandchildren and others won't. I do help my grandchildren occasionally if they ask me. I was an ICT Teacher once so that is my speciality.
It is really up to the individual grandparent.
Best Wishes
Joseph

Depends what you mean by helping with homework?

I do not agree with doing the homework for a child but I think it helps a child if their parents show an interest in their childrens' schooling. We used to practice tables and spellings etc in the car. DH used to speak German with DD2 on the way to school. I also graciously allowed DDs to cook meals, do the washing and vacuum when it was required for one of their courses

Oops, I haven’t got the hang of ‘could’ underlined.

-could-

As a child I hated homework. As a teacher of English I hated giving homework. As a headteacher I came to the realisation that if all schools would ban it, then all schools -could ban it, but that would never happen while competitive parents liked it. Sad but true.