<p>Five adults over the age of thirty, conversations in two Whats App groups and Google. Thatâs what I found out over the weekend.</p>
Itâs expected for kids in primary or secondary school to be sent home with homework. The question now is:
Oyin Egbeyemi,
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âThe child should do the homework with support from the parent so itâs more like a collaborative effort - but the parent shouldnât answer the question for the child,â she told Pulse.
Over the weekend, my friendâs daughter was given English homework that took the whole Independence weekend to solve. She struggled to work on her own and then with the help of her mum and dad and then her parentsâ friends got involved. If we adults were stressed (despite having fun finding the answers), imagine what this poor 10-year-old was going through.
Egbeyemi says the purpose of homework is to reinforce whatâs learnt in class.
âHomework should stem from what the child is taught in class. So the child cannot be completely clueless about itâ.
In expressing my frustration while helping with the homework, I suggested my friend report this homework difficulty and overload to the PTA.
Her response:Â âThe parents and teachers will just tell me that perhaps my daughter is not in the right classâ.
So what happens if both parent and child donât understand the homework?
âHomework shouldnât have to be this complicated unless itâs a proper project,â Egbeyemi explained.
Canât we just Google the answers?
As much as Google seems to have the answer to many of our questions today, itâs not recommended to be the first solution to solving questions for a childâs homework. The purpose of homework is not just to teach the child improve their memory and thinking or learn to retain knowledge; homework also serves as a means for parents and their kids to bond over what their children are learning in school.
Importantly, homework offers ways for children to learn about responsibility, prioritizing and dealing with deadlines and pressure - key life skills.