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Newsletters>
November 2008 Newsletter
November 1, 2008
Hello everyone
I started this letter just before Halloween and here it is nearly time for another holiday! I hope all the bumble bees, Dracula’s and other dress-ups had a wonderful and safe night!
We are now well into the term and there seems to be mixed feelings towards the Homework. Some schools seem to have cut back on their demands of the students. The teachers from these schools set work in class. If this work is not completed in school time then it would be done for “Homework.” Some parents are quite satisfied with this as the evenings are stress free. Other schools are trying to stick to the 10 minutes per grade. For example grade 1 has 10 minutes homework, grade 2 twenty minutes and so forth. Then of course there are the other schools that set homework that takes so much longer and involves mom and dad. What can parents do in situations like this? Making the teacher aware of what is happening is important. Sometimes the teacher does not realize that the work they have set takes some students a longer time or perhaps there has been a misunderstanding and it was never meant to have been done like that. The teacher wants the work to be done by the student after all and by insisting that this is the case might mean cutting back on the expectations. Not knowing the expectations for a project makes it harder for the parent who likes to get involved, to know whether to “help” or not. Experience at the Centre has been that once the child knows a certain percentage of the work has been done by a family member then his/her self esteem is affected.
Schools seem to be forging ahead and packing as much as possible into the already busy school day. Parents need to keep a keen eye on what is happening in their child’s school life as the child could easily become over whelmed. A variety of outlets is needed to release his/her energy which does not involve just playing video games. Physical activity is important and finding an outlet for this might involve some sacrifice on the parent’s part. How you as a parent figure this out could be of interest to share with the rest of us.
We hope all our students and parents are having a successful term.
Best regards
Christine
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