Oct

Homework

Calvin_and_hobbes_homework

I doubt any adult would look back on their youth and say, “I loved doing homework.” I never did. In fact, I would rush to get my homework completed before I even left class. If we were given a reading assignment, I would skip it; if we were assigned anything that didn’t require handing something in the next day, like staring a research project, I wouldn’t do it. I despised homework. I viewed homework as a violation of my civil liberties. When I’m home, I’m on my time. How dare a teacher expect me, to do work on my time? How arrogant can a person get?

I was an average student through grade twelve.

My daughter, on the other hand, loves homework. She can’t wait to get home, tell me about her day and complete her work.

We sit down at the table and begin immediately upon arriving home. I give her my unfading attention. The session only lasts forty-five or so minutes but, for me, it seems to last much longer. Observing her sounding out words while reading, or drawing little pictures to aid in subtraction problems, brings me unfathomable joy. You can learn a lot by observing a child’s homework habits. For instance, how they work out a problem. My child will reason out loud as she is adding, subtracting or sounding out words. Another example would be how they handle momentary failure.

I quiz my daughter every night on her spelling words. She has a spelling test every Friday. When she doesn’t get a word correct, we do a retest on that particular word until she correctly spells it. In the beginning, she didn’t care for the retest. She actually hated it. Now, she laughs when spelling a word incorrectly and says, “I’m just being silly.” She usually spells the word correctly the second time.

I enjoy the way she handles adversity. I aspire to handle adversity as she does – nonchalantly. Witnessing my unassuming daughter handle difficulty with such affluence makes me smile. I can’t wait for homework nowadays; it inspires me to no end.

Have a great day and God Bless.