I have had many parents ask about helping with homework. This is the best advice I can give:

1) Do NOT do the work for your child.

2) Establish a routine where your child does the work, skipping any problems she/he can’t do alone, then go over the work together- finding and correcting mistakes, and doing the skipped ones.
      —-You have an opportunity at home that we don’t have in the classroom: an opportunity to give your child one-on-one help on the things she/he needs help with. We don’t send work home that we haven’t already talked about and taught in the classroom. So it is considered “practice”.

3) If your child is continuously struggling with homework, keep to the set routine, but mention this struggle in a note to us so that we know about it.

4) Fourth Graders are transitioning to having less “hand-holding” and having more independence, yet they are still children who need help and guidance for success. Some students have more success with homework independence than others, and children shouldn’t be made to feel bad about their need for help and reminders. If routines are established and adhered to, then they WILL eventually gain the independence you are craving.

LARGE   PROJECTS

Students often need a lot of modeling for them to be able to do the work themselves. This is why whenever a large project is given in the classroom, we are VERY clear about our expectations and we give a model of what is assigned.

1) Do NOT do the work for your child.

2) Doing the work WITH your child can help your child tremendously. Most children at this age don’t know how to do an A+ report or science project all alone, but with the in-class instruction and modeling, and with parent help, they will know how to do it on their own relatively quickly.
     —–It is much better to help guide a child towards an A+ project so that they can do an A+ project alone in the future, than for a child to struggle without any help, never realizing what it takes to turn out high quality work.

3) We encourage parent participation and guidance in schoolwork at home, if the child is doing the bulk of the work.
    —–Examples:1- Child and parent alternate reading out loud and typing up the report information.
                           2- Child writes the report, and parents edit the report WITH the child.
                           3- Child practices reading the report out loud while parent practices being the audience and gives helpful feedback.
                          4- Parent creates a checklist for the child to go through to make sure everything is done for the project.

Even as adults we have others edit our work. (Writers even have hired editors.) So never feel bad about helping your child edit and correct mistakes. We ALL make mistakes, and the editing process (with guidance) is extremely valuable in helping children learn how to self-check and find mistakes.

 

I found a new website that has great science stuff! Activities, games, articles, movies, and more. The best part is “ask a biologist”. Any science question that you have can be typed on the website, and within 72 hrs. real scientists will answer your questions. They know that kids are asking, so the answers are supposed to be kid friendly.

Enjoy!

http://askabiologist.asu.edu/home

Warmly,

Ms.Bennon