During the weekends, however, we tend to be a little more relaxed with this rule, but Ali Adem knows that each Saturday and Sunday he will still always be responsible for working on his school assignments.Some of his classmates attend other classes after school hours. A couple of his friends have music or sports programs that they attend following school. Others have tutors to help them with their studies, as well as their daily homework. All of this leaves little time for them to just be children and play. Private schools in Turkey seem to pile on the homework at an early age. When I was attending elementary school in the United States, many years ago, we generally only had homework over the weekends. If major exams were coming up soon, we would sometimes have assignments during the week, but I remember that as being a special event, rather than the norm. Once we started high school, we did have homework every night, as well as on weekends, in addition to ongoing projects in different subjects.
My mother, a former elementary school teacher in the United States, visited us last year, during Ali Adem's first year in elementary school. She was amazed at the amount of homework he brought home each day. But, she was also surprised at how much ahead of the American school system he was, particularly in mathematics. In his first grade class in İstanbul, he was working the same type of problems that are not introduced until around the third grade in the US system. Since school has just recently begun again for the year, so far the math class has been a review of what they learned previously. At the rate his class is progressing through the levels of math, he may soon surpass my own rather rusty abilities. I am not looking forward to having to check his algebra and trigonometry homework for errors in the years ahead. I suspect that I am only halfway joking when I say that my own son may very well have to tutor me in mathematics in the near future.
Even though Ali Adem knows the house rule about completing his homework before playing, he still tries to put it off as long as possible. One of the best incentives I have found to prod him into settling down and studying is the promise of a trip to the park afterwards to play with his friends. I have noticed that some of his classmates who live nearby are allowed to play first and do homework later, usually after dinner. This, Ali Adem has pointed out to me numerous times, seems to be a more desirable system. But, I have discovered from experience that if he waits until later he is just too tired to concentrate properly on his work, and as a result, the homework assignments tend to take much longer to finish. In his mind, the only logical solution to this dilemma is for his bedtime to be made later so that he can then play first, eat dinner and, finally, do his homework. This may work for some children, but I have noticed that our present system works better for him, much to his chagrin. However, with the daylight hours shortening, I may have to rethink our present routine so that there is time for him to play, interact with his friends and expel some of his seemingly endless amounts of energy.
Regardless of when a child does their homework, the important thing is that it is done by the child himself. Ali Adem's teacher constantly sends home notes, asking parents to ensure that their child completes their assignments on their own. Personally, this has been our system from the beginning. Ali Adem is allowed to ask us to explain points that he is unsure of, but the task of figuring out the problems falls on his small shoulders. Afterwards, we check his progress together, and if an answer is wrong, I will point it out to him and explain why it is incorrect. But, it is still up to him to find the right answer. It takes time and patience to help children learn and for many busy parents it is hard to set aside time each and every day to work together with their child. But, it is time well spent.
Send comments and questions to k.hamilton@todayszaman.com
