Homework: how you can get involved

I agree entirely with your comments with primary school children under ten and the need for home work ! Why, do they need it. Being a teacher yourself, as you know, the younnger the child the shorter the attention their attention span. That is why infants start their lessons at 09:30, have a "play-time" (break) at 10:30-10:45; have lunch between 12:00 and 01:30, where there are two sittings, usually because the canteen is not large enough to accommodate the whole school and over all it gives them an hour to get away from learning from books, but how to make friends instead, play games etc. Finally another 15 Minuete break between 15:00 before they go home at 16:00 to finnish of the day's teaching. That overall teaching time is more than adequate for children under 10. They are not sponges that absorb massive amounts of information in one go, and need a play time after shool when they go home. Whilst I may be living in another era, up to the age of ten years old, I was going to bed at 20:30 and woken up at 07:30 the following morning by mother and until I was able to dress myself. I was allowed up to 09:00 on Fridays and Saturdays only, or perhaps to watch a programme that was of special interest. This gave me and my sister the recommeded sleep of 10 hours and 9 1/2 at the ages of 10 and 14 years respectively. I am not a fan of the TV being the baby sitter, and we were allowed out to play until teatime at 18:30 and again for another hour or in winter perhaps play indoor games before bed-time. This gave us a slow down before bedtime, and therefore all the exercise we needed both mentally and physically. (Play "it" for an hour can be exhausting for any child, but keeps them fit). The other thing my mother was very good at when I was very young, was this slow down process and whilst in bed before being tucked up, read a short story. As I got older I was encouraged to read back or we would read alternate paragraphs to eachother. This was teaching, but in a very informal style; and no, my mother was not a teacher, but a great mum. As parents will know it is important for children to know boundaries and they do really need a "time-table" which is familiar and do not really like massive changes to that regularity and ordeer of events. Finally, I agree with you Teacher YO1, I do not understand why this and other boards outsdie of i-village do not let you use parapraphs, even if you do insert them in to your text when submitting. So much for technology which we get rammed down our throats, and yet have no real control over. On an aside: why do we need to continuously have to type these absurd captcha codes after every submission?

I certainly agree with your closing sentence ! As some one who deals with a lot of inbound mail, both electronic and hard copy, I have found that even adults these days don't seem to be able to string a sentance together, let alone write in paragraphs. Your comment about very young childrens reading, the bed-time story is ideal, particularly if you have a good, clear speaking voice and don't run your sentances quickly. The other thing about small childrens board books, I feel that it is good to have a facing page for the story, in largish letters, and a picture relating to the story on the opposite page. Children learn both visually and phonetically so one supports the other with this type of book. Since a board book had deep pages, it encourages the child to turn the pages themselves. Older Primary School children who are confident readers tend to go through books quickly so a Library Card is a must. If you don't your house will become a library in its own right ! I also beleive that the "set book" which start in secondary school where you are told that you MUST read it, was a turn off to me and I had some pretty heavy stuff. Not just the likes of Shakespear but auto-biographies such as "Winston Churchill, my early years", and the most bizzare "Farenheit 451", Ray Bradbury which is about a world in which you are not allowed to read a book seems to me absurd. Again, putting me off reading for a long time after leaving school. In secondary school, there is a lot of reading, particularly in the sciences and having all this thrust down your throat for five years turned me off reading for pleasure for a long time. Probably as long as 15 years after leaving school. Ironcially, I now work in the area of Credit Management and Law and in fact didn't realise, until I started doing the exams with all the Cases and Facts of the Case, requires a lot of reading as well, not withstanding memory. Ironcially I have quite a weak short-term memory, due to epilepsy so it takes even more reading of the same material several times before I learn it; something I hadn't bargained on. Ironically Accountancy also needs more reading than actually using mathematics. However in the latter case more of the work is done on a spread-sheet basis, but even so you have to learn absurd equations, use of parentheses, and sub parentheses you almost need a degree in mathematics. In my opinion that is why there are so many mistakes since the advent of the computer for both writing and mathematics, are easily misled in to creating a sum which you did not intend. I really do think that I spend more time using the computer, but having to check whether its calculations are actually correct. Also it would have been nice if Bill Gates had realised that not everyone speaks American English and that Word should not automatically change my "ise" in to "ize". As for quality of English of school leavers I can't hope noticing in the "begging letters" I receive at about this time of year, a lot of Americanese terminology or spelling is used, including abbreviations used in "textese". These people rarely get a look in; or alternatively if they really do appear to be "textese based", pass it to my IT Manager (see even I do it !) to see if there language and usage can be passed on to them for translation in to C++ or other computing text/script. Equally I blame the TV and increasing use of mobile phones for the dumbing down of society and creating the abbreviated English seen to day. Fianlly on your point about these boards not allowing you to write in paragraphs, I find equally annoying, particularly when the unsent text is paragraphed, and the computer chooses to condense it ! Also why do we need these stupid Captcha, password things at the end of each comment typed ? I have already proved my identity by logging in ! Patsy.

The opening two sentances sum up the issues of very small children regarding reading and indeed writing. There are too many parents who just effectively handover the child to the education system, with many of them not even bothering to read a bed-time story to the child, instead some TV or pre-recorded story. Listening to your mummy or daddy read to you, encourages the child to learn to read and can match sounds to the letters and words. All very important. Reading to your child a gentle book with lots of story line, charachters and colour helps them slow down and more likely to sleep, providing the story and colour are not over the top. It als helps incredbly with language skills, and my teacher who although works in a Secondary School, has said that she can always tell a first year pupil (age 11) who has been encouraged to read and do basic maths at home when they were in primary school. Small children particularly love bright, primary colours, and the books that contain these, together with colouring-in books are important for children, especially if the picture goes along with a story; it encourages them to read, and they do tend to remember more. Boys tend to read less than girls as they get older, and their reading should be encouraged at home with things like read-along bed-time stories,they also deprived of colour earlier too. You only have to look at school uniforms to see that boys are often in long, grey trouser and a white shirt, although I have noticed that a lot of primary schools are introducing primary colour sweat-shirt/jumpers for boys and the girls these days. Also having a school colour always helps with identification when it comes to finding a child who is lost. The Police keep a record of school colours and to the school it relates to, and therefore makes the child easier to trace back to when found. A child who is distressed at being lost, is not very good at conveying the name of their school or where they live. Finally it is always worth reminding the child that you are there to HELP the child do their home-work, not that YOU will do it for them. Homework gives an insight to both you and the teacher in to the progress of a child and where they need support. However on the other side of the coin, particularly where you have parents who want to live their lives through their children, the amount of home-work certainly for Primary School Children should be kept to a minimum. I know that when I was at Primary School, I was an avid reader; the thing that killed that off was when, at Secondary School, I was forced to read "set-books" and write reviews on them. After five years of that, it was a considerable amount of time before I picked up a book to read for pleasure. In fact to this day, I would say that I read because I need to, not for pleasure.

I agree entireley with your opening sentance ! I remember my neighbours son asking me " Will you do my home-work with me?" I replied: I will HELP you; but Iam not going to do it for you"; and I think that is something which needs to be made clear from the start. With very small children, I do not see that they should be given home-work at the age of six or seven: I wish the Government would let children have a childhood ! From the age of two having a bed-time story read to an infant is very beneficial both in terms of language development, as well learning to read. Just hearing the sounds of the words in a gentle voice is very beneficial in learning language and diction. It also is a good way of getting children to wind down before they go to sleep. Certainly when I was very small, I would be given my bath, put in to my warm pyjamas or night dress, put to bed and have a story read to me by my mum; and when he was at home read by my dad (he was in the Merchant Navy so away quite a lot). As they get older, slightly older children, say five years old like to "watch" being read to. That is to say looking at the pictures as they are being read to, and (subconsiously) relating the picture with what is being read. Choose infant books which have bright colours in the pictures, largeish writing, ad thick pages; this would include "board" books. As the author rightly says, when they get older, encourage the child to read along with you as you progress through the page. I also agree with the " magic reading card", which allows the child to follow the script as you are reading it to them; and when they are reading to you allows them to concentrate on the line they are reading; not tempted to jump lines. (Something I used to do a lot when I was 7 !) When you start to move on to more advanced, multiple-syllable words, the "Magic Reading Card" is a good way of getting them to break-down a word so that they learn to read it confidentally. (That is a good example if he is having difficulty with reading it) Use the "Magic Reading Card veritcally in the text and break the word syllable by syllable. that is to say: Cover the whole word; "open the first few letters creating the first sysllable and get him to pronounce it; then expose the next syllable, and get him to run the two together, and then finally the last syllable and run all three together. So in this example it would be: Con fid ent ally; to run Confid ent ally, and finally confidentally. This can be done by rhyme as well if that is the way your child learns. There are two forms of memory: one is the way something sounds; the other is the way something looks. You will often hear grown ups say to themselves when they have mis-spelt something "that doesn't look right"; and then spell it again correctly. They are usuing the same method they learned as a child. Finally always praise the child or say good boy/well done; shall we try the next page? As the article's author rightly points out this is a great encouragement, particularly when a child learns to pronounce a word in one go which has taken them a long time to learn syllable by syllable. And remember each child learns at their own pace and some get more tired of reading more quickly than others. So don't drive to hard, particularly when they are eight or nine and quite confident readers as you can put them off reading for pleasure. I know that the biggest turn off for me was when I was 12, and told that I HAD to read a book and then write a review on it; and as I progressed to set books at secondary school and exams, that put me off reading for pleasure for a long time. So like most things with small children keep reading fun, and don't make them run before they can walk. And yes, you have guessed it: I am a Teacher ! Post Script: Why don't these Boards let you write in paraghs ? It makes reading easier for grown ups too !