by Kimberly Cleckenr

Created on: June 16, 2010

As a parent now and a student once myself, I have done a lot of homework in my lifetime. I must say that I was a great student and always did my homework, sometimes more that what was required. I felt that I had to make good grades and had to do the homework to get them. It was not expected from me by what I expected from myself.

I was a child that did my homework on my own. I did projects, reports and all assignments without the help of my parents. I am not very sure why I did not ask for help, but I didn’t. Now, I did ask for help setting up a typewriter for a report from time to time, but not much else. You could usually find me alone in my room doing my homework by myself.

These days, I do not see how a child can get through school without the help from a parent or adult. There is so much that a child is expected to learn and completing homework is sometimes the only way this will be accomplished. I have children that are very different from one another: one needs a lot of assisting while another one needs very little.

How much assisting a child needs with his or her homework has to be based on the individual child. Some children are able to sit in class and listen to the teacher and soak all of the information in and remember it all the very first time. This was the case with my oldest son. He was very good at this. He could be told or shown something one time and would remember it forever.  There are other children who need repetitiveness and need to study a lot. This is the case with my middle son. There are times when I would get worn out from studying with my middle son and my oldest son would have to pitch in and help to get it done.

There are children who will ask for help and others who will not. This is the difference between my son and I. There will be times when assistance will have to be forced onto a child. Many children today do not like school, bored with it and do not want to do any extra work at home.  I have come across this with my children at various times. This is a time with assistance is needed and should be given even if a child does not want it: to pull that child back in and get him or her interested again and excited about what they are learning.

Assisting a child with homework can be very challenging at times and take a long time, but there are many times it can be a lot of fun and very rewarding. When your child is succeeding and learning you feel that you are succeeding as a parent.

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