Homework Involvement For Parents Beyond the Home

Parents' involvement in their children's homework is often viewed as limited only to guiding them on how to do it or in ensuring that children are doing it when they come home. To be more proactive about it, parents should also be in regular communication with their children's teachers. It doesn't necessarily have to be done everyday. A regular day for meeting with the teachers on a weekly basis will suffice.

The first thing that parents may want to discuss with teachers regarding homework is the amount of homework that the children are doing. If they are very much involved in their children's homework, they can be in the position to judge if the amount of homework is too much or too little. As a general rule, homework should be not more than thirty minutes for schoolchildren in third grade and below, and not more than an hour for students in the fourth grade to middle school. If there's too much, parents can suggest to teachers if it is possible to adjust the load.

Too much homework is one of the causes of child stress. It will also prevent children from taking part in outdoor and leisure activities that are equally important to their education and development. Of course, when it becomes too much for children, they will learn to hate it and give them more reason not to do it at all.

There are instances when children forget to write down homework or intentionally don't. During their weekly updates, parents should also ask if their children have completed the homework for the week. If the teachers reveal that some homework have not been submitted yet, parents can follow this up with their children. If the weekly meeting for parents is on a Friday, parents can impose that weekend activities won't start until homework for the week has been completed.