Homework. We seem to have a love/hate relationship with it. As parents, we want our children to truly grasp what they are being taught in class, support our children in their learning and show a united front as we partner with their educators in hope to see them excel in school and life afterward. We also want our kids to play – just ‘be’ and learn in the world around them. Watching our children bloom in the afternoon light, we see them come running up to house muddy and glowing with imagination and revelation, and we melt. We are raising wonders.
The battle to get homework done, and done well, is real. I am confident we can all remember a time in our youth when homework was the bane of our young existence and now we live it all over again from the other side of the table. And yet, deep down, we know that the reinforcement that homework delivers is vital to truly understanding new concepts and being prepared to move forward with the rest of the class. We urge our children to push forward in fear that they will be left behind.
Most children with a language or auditory processing disorder have been challenged the whole day at school and are understandably reluctant to start round two when they get home. Even the simplest homework tasks can be really difficult when they are already exhausted. Could you imagine being stuck in a job that was too difficult for you? Where every day feels like you are drowning in your work – constantly having to complete tasks that you aren’t good at, then having to take them home with you to work on, and to top it off, you are accruing debt every day because you could not finish things quickly enough. Pretty disheartening, right? Maybe the stress sounds familiar.
So, we ask, what do I do? If homework is fundamental to our education system and my child is floundering on the best of days, how can I help? Read on for 6 simple thoughts to consider when it comes to homework. [Read more…]