by Evelyn Griffith

Created on: August 04, 2008

"Ring, Ring!", is the wonderful sound that many hard worked children long for at the end of the day. However, when that bell rings at the end of the day, you can clearly see the backpack's of the students full to the brim with all of the necessary materials for another round of review. You know that those children will lug textbooks that often weigh, three to four pounds each, home to complete a worksheet or workbook page, in almost two to four subjects. All this in the name of knowledge advancement.

How many parents have fought with their childen to do the work, or study. Bribery, has been a standard method of use, for years for this evil little pill. Most certainly threats and punishment have been handed out all in the name of completeng the task at hand. Children, on the other, are exhausted for 7 hours of intense learning during the day, they have shut down. For most adults, we do not like to bring work home. So why is this okay for our children?
Research is beginning to show that young children may not really benefit from homework, in fact the brain may not benefit from homework until high school. So why then, do we find the need to cram more work into are young ones? Are we preparing them for the daily grind of ten hour days? No, we are merely trying to muddle along with what we know best. Children need some level of review, it is the Use or Lose it mentality.
Can we find a happy medium, so our children don't suffer lifelong back issues- possible? Can we end the three hour extended class day- most certainly. What can we do? We can maintain a standard level of skill reveiw, make sure your child knows basic Math skills addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. All other Math process stem from this knowledge without it you can not continue in any other area of Math. Be sure to review basic foundation Spelling words, if your child knows how to spell simple words than all other words can fall into place. Lastly, be sure when your child is young that you as the parent set up guidelines for good study habits, if they are in place from the beginning then you may not have many battles later on in their academic life. If children know what you except from the beginning and you do not waiver than it should not be a rough road. If unfortuanetly, homework becomes unmanageable always talk to your child's teacher they want to improve your child's love of learning as much as you do.

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