Homework

Aideen - posted on 02/06/2010

Liz, I am new to this circle, too...AND I am a teacher...AND a single mom. I understand the lack of energy you have when you get home, and with 4 children, I can't imagine! I literally have tried to MAKE time for myself, since I know that I will go crazy without it, so I wrote out a schedule of my time--and found almost none!
Now, my son is almost 4 years old, so I don't have the homework factor, but I have the ENERGY factor!!
But, as a high school teacher, I would recommend (not sure how old your kids are) some sort of situation where they all do their homework together and help each other out, with, of course, an incentive in which they will, if they work together (teamwork lesson!), have a half-hour or something to do something they enjoy--or on the weekend you'll take them to their fav restaurant....
I don't know--just an idea!
Hope something here helps!

Barbara - posted on 01/28/2010

Not at all! In fact, I think it should help you as a teacher keep HW in perspective. Students, too, have spent a long time at school working as well (hopefully), and may also be mentally exhausted!

So, -in theory- HW should be something that can be done independently,and within a reasonable amount of time. I believe the rule of thumb is 10 minutes per grade level? (Correct me if I'm wrong here...?) So kids in elementary school should be done in less than an hour, save their reading time. Middle schoolers should be spending about an hour to an hour and a half on HW. And HS kids should have no more than two hours a day.

But I digress. Don't feel guilty. Perhaps you can have your husband handle HW, or divide the workload between the two of you? Also, have them complete assignments first, then put it aside for a while, and then look over it again themselves. Only then should they have a parent look over the assignments.

Shelley - posted on 01/28/2010

Welcome to the group Kiz. I know what you mean. Things are easier now but I used to start thinking about homework with my own kids as soon as I was in the car. It turned out to be all in my head. Thinking of ways to make it fun worked. I have 3 kids to work with. All with years between them so it was a bit of a juggling act. Showing the older two how to find help online gave them more responsibility and eased my mind. I used to do everything and then thought, I make my students use a thesaurus, dictionaries, glossaries, internet links, etc., why not my own children. As a mother I used to think I was the one who needed to be the only resource they should need or depend on. It turned out to be guilt on my part for being so busy. Realistically they need to develop independence and confidence so I slowly started to step back and give them more responsibility. In turn I have been able to relax more and have stopped stressing so much.