Homework

Tamsin Parker - 30 Nov 15

Correct me if I’m wrong but us mums and dads did not get homework until we reached high school, well let me tell you, times have a-changed.
Early Years lulls you into into a false sense of security, with no real homework. The closest you get to extra curricular commitment is having germ ridden Blue Bear for the weekend with the only stress being trying to come up with imaginative places to take him, to fill in his weekend diary with exciting adventures and photographs with him and Maisie to match.
Get ready to step up a gear in Year One though. When you hit Tesco in July, to avoid the pre-term uniform sell out, as well as buying four white shirts, two skirts, two dresses, black pumps and blue cycling shorts, stationary, PE bag, school bag and sandwich box, do not forget to stock up on the following:
Copious amounts of cardboard based products including cereal boxes, toilet rolls and obligatory shoe boxes
Glue, sellotape, cotton wool, various coloured paper, glitter, stickers, paints, paintbrushes
A top of the range laptop or tablet with a range of packages, fast internet access and google chrome (an absolute imperative)
A camera, with printer, replacement ink cartridges and enough photo paper to cover a royal wedding
A wise adult – who is considerably brighter than you, usually your Mum or Dad who have always impressed you with their encyclopaedic knowledge of almost everything in the world
A room – that will be the equivalent of a torture chamber because doing homework can feel like being in one after a long day at school or in the office.
Patience and time – you will need well over and above your usual reserves
And finally while you’re there see if they’re doing any special offers on ‘absolutely no distractions,’ because in order to achieve a maximum attention span you need to ensure there are no distractions in the room whatsoever including: no TV, no IPad, no Spotify, no drink or beverages and absolutely no toys. In fact keep the ‘torture chamber,’ as minimalistic as possible to avoid any undue interruptions – I’d go for a small room, with white walls, a table, two chairs and full internet access.
Only by having these fail safe homework options in place will you ensure a maximum attention span and potential homework success because it definitely gets more difficult the older they get.
Year One centred round ‘ making stuff,’ homework which could involve any small manner of things to fit in with whatever topic is being covered that term, ranging from creating your own pretend fish tank, to creating a Christmas cracker, no mean feat for parents with absolutely no artistic ability.
As kids move up through the school years and the school curriculum, homework steps up a gear too with reading every night, spellings every week ( playing spelling games in the car, has always been a guaranteed ten out of ten for us), and regular topic related home ( this is when Google comes into its own.
Getting a child to sit down and concentrate when they’ve concentrated all day at school and are shattered after school club is a battle in itself.
And it doesn’t help when little ones just don’t understand why they need to do more work when they get home from school when they’ve worked all day in the classroom.
“ But Maisie you have to learn it’s important.”
“But Mummy why? I am on this earth to have fun,” ( a good point well made by a then five-year-old and if it wasn’t for the mortgage I’d be following your lead kiddo)
Finally be warned it isn’t long before the homework goes way above your head. I mean let’s face it for some of us it’s thirty odd years since we started school and learning styles have definitely evolved over time. One word – phonics. Although I’m pretty sure that drafting in your dad (former primary school teacher and maths expert) to help with your seven-year-old’s homework is probably not down to learning techniques, or subject matter changing, but is probably more to do with the fact that even with hard work, revision and dedication, you only just managed to scrape a C at GCSE.

I’d love you to read more articles like this at my blog: www.asinglemumsjournal.co.uk You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter too.

Tamsin Parker

Tamsin is a 40-year-old bleached teethed, bleached hair, tattooed eye-browed single Mum of one who still wishes she was 25. A journalist and PR specialist Tamsin loves family, friends, football and fashion in that order. Her raison d'etre is nine-year-old Maisie Mae.

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