Homework Help

General Tips

• Take an interest. Stay informed. Why? Because kids value things that give them positive interactions and attention with YOU.
  Stay up-to-date on what your kids are learning by reading the class web page and talking about specific school projects with your child. Then you can ask questions like, "Are you still adding compound fractions?" instead of "What did you do at school today?" ("Nothin'...") Your child will learn from your genuine interest in the neat things he or she is learning that you value education, and your attitude will rub off!
  
• Let your child work (don't do the work for him or her).
  
• Encourage, facilitate, and reward good effort and attitude.
  In elementary school, we want to partner with you to help your child love learning, take pride in creating high-quality work, and feel good about improving. Model good educational attitude by taking an interest in learning things that interest YOU! Take an interest in what your child is learning. Talk shop. Notice good effort and compliment it, sometimes you might reward it!
• Read together for a few minutes every day.
  You can read together or alone (in the same room at the same time, though). Let your child see you enjoying reading what you like to read, whether it's a magazine, newspaper, mystery novel, or science textbook (some of us are that nerdy...)! You might even combine the two: read individually for 10-15 minutes, then come together for a few fun Shel Silverstein poems. Point out what you like (word play, funny situation, unexpected twist in the poem, alliteration/other word sounds, rhythm to the words, etc.

Specific Homework Help

Week of Oct 4

Science: We're working on leaf classification. May I suggest an after-dinner walk with the family? (Take the dog, too!) Allow your child to show you what he or she is learning.

Math: We're still learning our division facts. Keep a deck of flashcards out on the table and run through just a few of them (I'm talking less than a minute) once or twice a night. If your child gets one right immediately, then set it aside. Reserve the ones that were missed or which were difficult to go back into the pile for further questions another time.

Language Arts: Proofread your student's journals and other homework with special focus on semi-colons. (If you need help remembering yourself when to use a semi-colon see below.) Remember, use questions if you spot an error; do not give the answer away if you can help it! Also, we're continuing to read Holes. This unit we are hoping to reinforce the idea that reading is fun. Part of what can make reading fun is for the story to spark memories from the reader's own experiences, or the reader's knowledge of other's experiences in real life. So.... as always, take interest! Ask your child specific questions about "what happens next!"" to learn about the story. Talk about related things...

• how about when you went to camp?
• differences and similarities of the experiences in the book, your life, and your child's life
  
• what it would have felt like to be in the situation a certain character is in
• what you would have done differently, or the same
• etc...

Footnote: Semi-colons [ ; ] are placed between two complete sentences in order to join them. Why use a semi-colon instead of using a period and starting a new sentence? If two sentences are closely related in meaning, joining them into a single sentence can help the reader see the connection. For example, in this very post I wrote:

"Remember, use questions if you spot an error; do not give the answer away if you can help it!"