Kids and Homework

Do you help your kids with their homework? or do you believe that it is THEIR homework, and they need to do it alone?

I am somewhere in the middle.  I certainly won't do his homework for him, however, I am happy to help him with it.  He is 6 yrs old, and just learning to read. If I didn't help him with his homework, it wouldn't get done because he wouldn't know what he was supposed to do.

Being in grade 1, the homework isn't very much at the moment. If he sat down to do it and focused only on the task, it would take less than 5 minutes each night.  However, he will sit down, get up and get a drink; come back, get up to use the washroom. Come back and say he is tired, play with his pencil, change the subject 100 hundred times and the whole process takes up to 45 minutes some nights.

I really like the format his teacher uses.  They have a work book for homework, and a monthly calendar. They are to cut out each day from the calendar, glue it in the workbook and do the task.  This is for the first 3 weeks of the month, and then they hand in the book and she corrects them.  When it is returned the following week, it has the new calendar.

I find it's a great way for him to go at his own pace.  If he wants to move ahead by a few days, he can.  If he wants to take a few days of a break (knowing he will have to work a few days at a time to catch up) he can do that too.

Now that he is reading better, and has a good understanding of what he is reading, I am helping less and less. He normally reads the task, I will clarify it for him and then he does the work.  He likes me to sit with him while he does it, but I have slowly been moving into the kitchen to work on supper while he is working away.

What about you? Do you help your kids with homework? Do you think they have too much or too little?