Talking to other parents I sometimes I think that ‘helping with homework’ is a thing of the past. So many parents seem to rely on the Internet as the new homework helper while they’re off doing whatever it is busy parents have to do.
Call me old-fashioned, but I always try and find the time to help my kids with their homework.
Of course, they do reach an age where their specialised knowledge of a subject surpasses most of us average parents, but that still doesn’t mean we’re off the hook.
I believe helping my kids with their homework is a way to keep up to date with the way my kids use technology and the Internet, and keeps me involved in their lives.
Now, when I say help, I don’t mean I do their work or lead them to the answers. I mean I sit down with them and we go over the work together, discuss it and they explain what it is they have to do. Together we work out a plan and we get out the books, the iPad or the computer and I will gently guide towards a narrower search if its needed, and then let them get to it.
This serves me in a couple of ways: it allows me, as I said, to be more hands on and involved in their day to day lives, and I can also go online and check over their work to make sure there’s no lazy copying straight from a website, or a book.
I also make sure they cross-reference things to make sure they’re not researching from a dodgy page or site.
If it’s mathematics (and I admit, I’m a bit rusty on some of that), I can use my smartphone to look things up when I’m in line at the supermarket, or in my lunchbreak, or waiting to pick my kids up.
It really pays to use all that technology at our fingertips to give our kids a better than fighting chance when it comes to school. And if you know what they’re doing, then you’re already one step ahead.
