You and Your Child’s Homework

School hours are long and concentrated and provide little opportunity for relaxation and leisure. Consequently, there should be at least a half-hour to an hour’s pause between return from school and homework. This applies particularly during the spring months when the child is able to play and relax during daylight hours.

Kindly take a sincere interest in your child’s homework. “Have you finished all your homework?” is inadequate. Examine all homework for quality and neatness, and check your child’s homework plan books.

Direct your child to sources of help. If he/she has any difficulties, do not do the work for him/her because he/she will gain almost nothing from the lesson. Rather, have him/her explain what the difficulty is, then guide him/her to the correct solution or method. Do it by asking questions and reviewing the parts which are confusing. Point out the mistakes and let him/her do the work over after you have shown him his/her error. If you are not clear about how an assignment is to be done, write a note to the teacher to clarify the difficulty.

1. When your child objects to your help or becomes upset, the time has come to stop. When homework precipitates a struggle or argument between you and your child, you are no longer a help.
2. Making the child feel burdened by homework – Some parents berate the school in their child’s presence for the amount of homework assigned. “I don’t know how they can expect a mere child to do all this.” If you sincerely feel your child has an overload of homework, speak to his teacher about it—not your child and not in front of your child.
3. Look for things to praise-a neatly written paper, an improvement in spelling, an hour of quiet concentration. Praise should be given when an assignment is completed.
4. If your child comes home regularly with the report that “I don’t have any homework” or “I did it all in school,” check with his teacher. If the work consistently (not just once in a while) seems too difficult for him, find out from his teacher where the problem lies.
5. We endeavor to see that homework assignments, when given, shall serve as a link between the two strongest influences in your child’s learning career, the school and the home. It is therefore obvious that a free flow of communication must be maintained. The school urges both parents and teachers to develop means of keeping each other well informed.
6. All students in grade 5 and up are responsible for making up any homework or tests missed during absences. Absence is not an excuse for not completing homework.
7. Every child in grades 3-8 will be supplied with a Yoman booklet to record homework assignments. These are checked periodically by the teachers.
8. We encourage our parents to check these booklets and to assist their children in organizing and completing their homework assignments.
9. Parents may access all their children’s homework by logging into our web site (www.sigelacademy.org/homework) and follow the directions for homework assignments.
10. Please read the homework article on page 23 of the parent handbook.