<p>Five adults over the age of thirty, conversations in two Whats App groups and Google. That’s what I found out over the weekend.</p>
It’s expected for kids in primary or secondary school to be sent home with homework. The question now is:
Oyin Egbeyemi,
“The child should do the homework with support from the parent so it’s more like a collaborative effort - but the parent shouldn’t answer the question for the child,” she told Pulse.
Over the weekend, my friend’s daughter was given English homework that took the whole Independence weekend to solve. She struggled to work on her own and then with the help of her mum and dad and then her parents’ friends got involved. If we adults were stressed (despite having fun finding the answers), imagine what this poor 10-year-old was going through.
Egbeyemi says the purpose of homework is to reinforce what’s learnt in class.
“Homework should stem from what the child is taught in class. So the child cannot be completely clueless about it”.
In expressing my frustration while helping with the homework, I suggested my friend report this homework difficulty and overload to the PTA.
Her response: “The parents and teachers will just tell me that perhaps my daughter is not in the right class”.
So what happens if both parent and child don’t understand the homework?
“Homework shouldn’t have to be this complicated unless it’s a proper project,” Egbeyemi explained.
Can’t we just Google the answers?
As much as Google seems to have the answer to many of our questions today, it’s not recommended to be the first solution to solving questions for a child’s homework. The purpose of homework is not just to teach the child improve their memory and thinking or learn to retain knowledge; homework also serves as a means for parents and their kids to bond over what their children are learning in school.
Importantly, homework offers ways for children to learn about responsibility, prioritizing and dealing with deadlines and pressure - key life skills.