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Homework Help To Boost Performance

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Author: keen2learn
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To most children homework is a bore or chore and wastes valuable recreation time. To most parents homework help induces a degree of anxiety; can they, should they help and if so how? To teachers homework is a vital element of lesson practice that results in 75% retention in learning. Compared to the activity in class, where learning retention can hover around 50%, ( National Training Laboratory) homework has a critical role that is ironically predominately beyond a teachers control. Can it be true that one of the most significant elements of the education armoury lies largely outside of the school gates? This is comparable to a car with the turbocharger not working. The performance is limited, the car struggles to reach 70 miles per hour and the fuel consumption is much higher than it need to be.

Homework, perhaps better described as - school work at home, is the single biggest opportunity for parents to turbo charge their children’s education. Modern educational games present a breakthrough to enable parents support to be enlisted as an additional teaching resource. Research has shown that what parents do at home to support learning can account for 80% of a child’s academic success ( PTA magazine). So how can parents and grandparents get more involved in effective homework help?

The prevailing view of homework is through text and exercise book tasks. Leaving many parents isolated and acting in an overseer role, many children gain support from their peers. Add, subtract, multiply, write a story, and read a chapter are simple tasks set by the teacher to induce the element of practice. Homework has to be set, collected and marked which amounts to a sizeable burden on a teachers’ time. It also gains more teaching time beyond the statutory minimum of 196 days a year. Expressed differently 53% of the year spent in school leaving 47% at home.

The best way to include parents is to make time spent with their children fun. Access to the maths games, English grammar and fun science projects used in school can make a real difference when also used at home. Greater interaction is possible than with conventional homework allowing parents to participate in “homework help” that avoid any conflict with manipulating homework. More importantly it avoids the parent having to be an expert in the subject area.

Educational games become “learning in disguise.” The subject areas, developed in games format introduce key elements of the subject as an interactive computer game, bingo, card or board game etc. The learning process is hidden in the fun; 30 minutes playing these games allows a child to practice maths, English, biology or history with the parent in the role of learning mentor. Witnessing a child’s performance dynamically rather than waiting for end of term or year school reports allows more timely adjustments. Ongoing guidance provided by the teacher avoids wasting precious time.

A survey of teachers in 2007 and a government report from the DCSF reveals unanimous support towards greater engagement of parents seen as crucial in the learning programme. With modern educational games toys and puzzles now available parents have the chance to rekindle their effective involvement and make a real difference to their child’s academic achievement.

Alistair Owens keen2learn

About the Author

Alistair Owens remembers all too well the struggle to help with his children’s homework ( now adults). He sees the fun element of educational games to help his grandchildren as a great opportunity to put some mutual productive fun into learning.See examples of fun homework help and educational games in these links geography games history gameseducational toys
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