Homework Limits Must Be Set By Parents Who Know Their Children Best, So Both School Work And Childhood Can Be Equally Served In The Lives Of Children Who Need A Balance Of Childhood Experiences And Educational Discipline
" Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make happy, not gold."
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Homework Limits need to be set by Parents to allow their children to not only excel in their school work and formal educations but to also learn to value and appreciate the fun, wonder, discovery, contemplation and play associated with being a child and with the beauties of nature and the wider world in which we all live.
Child behavior is affected by the balance Parents help to set for their children. Temper Tantrums may be a sign your child needs more variety and outdoor stimulation in their daily routine.
In the ‘old days’ children would go to school only as far as life at home (which usually meant life on the farm) would permit. If there were chores to do or potatoes to plant or sheep to sheer, or what have you, school was left aside for a week or two to allow the help around the home that was needed for the family’s existence and survival.
Just a generation ago even the very educated were close enough to nature, manual labor, and the good earth itself that there was balance in life.
Homework Limits were not needed in days such as these.
In today’s modern society the opposite seems to be occurring. Education has turned into a form of ‘Big Business’ where homework seems to dominate almost every free moment of our children’s lives, and hence the need for some form of Homework Limits.
In South Korea, for example, up to 18 hours of every day are spent in school and later in doing homework. That leaves only 6 hours for sleep and everything else that is non school related.
Where is the time that allows a child some of the simple pleasures of being a child?
Gone are the days when there was a natural balance between outside activities and indoor schooling and homework.
And even if our modern children do get a free moment they are tempted to spend it indoors watching TV, playing video games, or texting on their cell phones.
We need Parents to tell their children to go to the park and go play in the sunshine for a while. We need Parents who can set Homework Limits, and other limits as needed, for their children’s own good.
We need Parents who can help their children find a balance in life, and then teach their children how to recognize and value that balance for a lifetime of happy living.
It is my experience that schools give our students too much homework these days.
Homework Limits take Parental time and effort. They take knowing your child, deciding on what’s best for your child, and then acting on what you know for the benefit of the ones you love.
I have had to speak with my children’s teachers more than once about this concern, usually to find myself speaking with an unsympathetic listener who could only see the bureaucracy that needed to be followed.
That’s ok though. We are responsible for our efforts; the results are not ours to determine.
In each case I came home and had a family meeting about how much homework was enough, how my child was going to be successful in school and still have an outside life, and then supported the family decision to try again to find the balance in my young child’s life.
A positive by-product of working towards Homework Limits for your child is that it helps you to naturally consider the balance you have in your own life, or the lack thereof.
Since this is provided as fuel for thought and not as an absolute Parental road map for you to follow, here are a few more items to consider.
Our modern educational system, at least that which is found in the United States, is strongly focused on getting children ready to enter a four year University.
Please keep in mind that not all children are equipped emotionally or intellectually for a University education.
Many of our children are not even interested in attending a University.
That’s perfectly fine since the world needs all kinds of people and professions to make the world go around.
If we were all doctors and lawyers it would make the world a very homogenized place indeed.
This world needs mechanics as well as painters as well as plumbers and ship builders. Many worthwhile, honorable and enjoyable occupations are to be found outside of a University education.
The trick is to help your child to know what is right for THEM.
If your child wants to become a professional that requires a University degree and beyond, then support them in this dream.
But if they want to be the best auto mechanic the world has ever known, then support them in that dream as well.
(Who wouldn’t just LOVE to know a good, dependable and honest auto mechanic?) – PRICELESS!
Fight the temptation to live YOUR life vicariously through the life of your child.
Parents, keep an open mind as to the opportunities that are available to your child, and know that happiness lies in living a balanced life and in setting some form of Homework Limits, no matter which route or profession your child wants to take for their future.
That nobody misunderstands my position, I do support homework, school projects and the knowledge and discipline and sense of accomplishment that comes with excelling in scholastic endeavors.
It is simply my contention that Parents are responsible to judge for themselves what the proper Homework Limits are between work and play and childhood and nature for their own children and family.
Don’t allow others to make these most important decisions for you to the extent that you can make them for yourself.
Trust your parental instincts even if others don’t agree, or worse yet, if others don’t approve of the decisions you make as to what is best for you and your family.
If you have made the right decisions out of love and concern, then time will prove that you did in fact make the right decisions.
Remember that these decisions are for you, the Parent, to make.
Parental decisions made from the heart, following your instincts and guided by love are seldom if ever made in error.
Nobody knows or loves your child as much as you.
Help them to do well in school as it IS very important for their future.
But do set Homework Limits to ensure that school and homework are not the only things your child remembers from their childhood.
There is a lot more parenting wisdom to share. Here is another Homework Limits thought: Be the Parent who works in harmony with your child’s school and teachers to set a healthy balance between homework and the time children need to explore their world in the fresh air and sunshine, to know first-hand the joys of childhood and life in general at any time, for any reason, over and over again.
The following video is about a young boy who advocates zero homework, and the reasons why he feels this way.
I do not believe in the zero homework idea, as that would be moving too far in the opposite direction.
Parents must find the middle ground that best works for and serves their children’s and family’s needs.
Homework Limits is all about finding the right balance for your child and their future, while helping them enjoy the here and now.
Homework Limits Should Be Set By Parents To Ensure Their Children Do Well In School AND Have Time To Enjoy Being Children And Learn How To Put Balance Back Into Their Busy Lives.