. . . and enlighten me. My oldest is now in the 4th grade. I’m trying to convince her that she’s at the point that she may need to actively study, not just do her assigned homework. How do I convince her to do this? Also, how do I teach her time management? Anyone? Anyone?
Well, I shall be closely following this thread, hoping for some pointers I can use with my own children. I have a 9th grader and it seems that he has yet to truly grasp these concepts. I also have other children who seem to just naturally study and organize well. So far, my best ‘trick’ is to clear a time and a space and allow NOTHING else but schoolwork. In other words, a desk or (in my case) the kitchen table, with no clutter. The child is not allowed to answer the phone, the t.v. is off, etc… Neighborhood children are firmly told that this is homework hour and they must not interrupt.
An interesting situation that has popped up from my diligent guarding of ‘homework hour’ : One of the neighbors has started coming in after school and plopping his books down at the table too! He never makes a sound except to occasionally ask me to proofread an assignment for him and he works diligently while he’s here.
Anyway - All you wise parents of honor scholars, please come help us out here.
I don’t think that there is any method that will work in all cases. All three of my childern were different. My daughter studied well lying on her bed with the radio blasting. My oldest son would just sort of sit there when given a homework hour. My youngest son, would come home, sit down and do his homework, then be off to play.
The problem is that different childern see the necessity of homework, study, and time management in different ways. For myself, I almost never did homework at home. I always saved it for the 10 minutes between classes. Worked fairly well for me. Although it used to drive some of my teachers crazy.
My thought is that Sandpipers method is good. However, I’d allow a radio as background music. Sometimes the mind needs to take an occasional break. But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
First, my two offside comments:
We got the Vorpal Sword and the Bandersnatch in the same thread. That is just asking for trouble.
Second, Bandersnatch - Ray IS a god. 'Nuff said.
Okay, back to the topic at hand:
Yep, all children are different. The trick is finding the motivation factor for your child. One thing I found helpful with my daughter (now in grade 8) is teaching her that there is no such thing as doing ‘good enough’ - either it’s done to the best of her ability, or I do not consider it to be done. It’s been painstaking at times, but over time she has learned that the extra minutes taken to give a complete answer make her and the teacher happier. As such, she is extending that on her own to include a little bit more reading, a little bit more research, etc.
Good Luck
I just learned at my 8th grade son’s parent-teacher conferences last week that his Science teacher doesn’t grade by accuracy. If he hands in his homework and has tried to put down some kind of answer for each question, he gets 100% credit. When test time comes, however, she starts grading by accuracy.
This seems to me to place too much emphasis on studying for tests (since he obviously doesn’t need to study for homework).
Our solution at the 4th grade level was to have a goodie box. This had gum, stickers, cracker-jack style prizes and toys. They also had a big honkin’ list of chores they had to do. Bathe, clean their rooms, do homework, go to karate class, whatever. Complete a chore, get a goodie. So, we were paying them to do homework.
Fast-forward to 8th grade. We’re no longer paying him to do his homework; however, if his grades drop too low, he loses computer, videogame, and friends-over privileges.
I’ve always liked the “learn by experience” approach.
My son is now in grade 5, but we had problems with him last year.
We would tell him to study and he ‘just does’. But we knew he ‘just wasn’t’. So his marks dropped and that pissed us off. We told him we were pissed of and he has learned to dislike pissing us off. Not to mention the fact that he was falling behind.
He always tried to pass the blame as all kids do, but he knew that I wouldn’t buy it and I kept telling him that he is responsible for his actions. If he chooses the screw around and fails he has no one to blame but himself.
Then I sat with him and said, “Now you know what happens when you fail test after test. Not a nice thing. So lets study for your next test and we’ll see how that goes.”
His next test came about, he studied and aced it. He was so pleased with himself. We tried it again for the next one, and the next one until he would know to study on his own. (He learned to like the praise rather than deal with the failure.)
He’s just been moved up to grade 7 level spelling and continues to do well.
The problem is that she knows that she has weak areas, like math, and that she needs extra work. I don’t think she’s completely adjusted to 4th grade yet. Until last year, she could rely on just “pushing her way through” and still doing well.
In addition, she goes to a “dual curriculum” school, where she has english and Hebrew subjects. She stays until 4:30 twice a week, and has some extra subjects she didn’t have last year.
Why, is Bandersnatch being too frumious?
You do? I have a 4th and 5th grader, and I think the schools give way too much homework as it is. I’m happy to have them get away with doing as little as they can get away with, which unfortunately, is still too much. (I did not think too highly of homework when I was a kid, and my perspective has not changed a whole lot since).
Time management is an issue in any event, however. Kids tend to drag these things out. We try to point out that they are only prolonging the agony, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work. (It’s like that with many adults too).
I have a daughter in Grade 2, now I can’t complain about the amount of homework, but some of it seems rather advanced.
For instance, one of the questions she had to do was:
I ended up doing it for her and then explaining it, but I couldn’t believe they had he doing this at such a low grade.
By IzzyR:
I felt the same way initially this year. However they’ve either reduced the amount or my kids got faster at doing it.
Anyway to the OP:
At night the kids and I have a game show type deal. I’ll ask 15 questions that might or might not be part of their assignments that week. I add $0.50 to their allowances for each correct answer. The way I do this is by reading ahead in their textbooks.
Math is a bigger problem. It’s been my experience that some kids take to it, and some don’t. My 10 y/o has trouble with it, but my 8 y/o takes to it like a fish to water. I’m not sure why this is.
Izzy, are your kids in a “dual curriculum” school? (I’m guessing they are, but I could be wrong.) The studying actually comes in more with the Hebrew side of things, because there are so many subjects and those subjects are well more advanced in 4th grade than 3rd grade.
You’ve gotta be kidding me. I would tear my hair out explaining that to my 2nd-grade son, and naturally, I think he’s pretty bright, and he’s pretty good at math-type stuff. Is all of her homework this advanced, or was that an oddity?
*Originally posted by Knighted Vorpal Sword *
Izzy, are your kids in a “dual curriculum” school? (I’m guessing they are, but I could be wrong.) The studying actually comes in more with the Hebrew side of things, because there are so many subjects and those subjects are well more advanced in 4th grade than 3rd grade.
Yes, but the homework is pretty much spread all around. I think teachers see their job as being to teach as much as humanly possible - a big mistake. Let the poor kids live, is how I see it. (Also, it may be abetted by shortsighted parents who focus too much on academic achievement at early ages. But most parents I know think there’s too much.)