Principal's Message

One of La Mariposa’s best attributes is the ease with which parents and teachers communicate about student learning and progress. According to the current body of educational research, parent involvement is one of the key factors to student success.  To that end, the La Mariposa encourages and supports the involvement of parents and families in student learning. 

            Though the importance of parent involvement is unquestionable, there are many questions as to HOW parents can and should be involved in their child’s learning.  One of the most common questions is: Should parents help with homework?  This universal question indicates a desire to be involved in the most helpful and appropriate ways.  I’d like to provide some guidance for parents in regard to homework by answering the above question. 

 Should parents help with homework?  Yes!  Parent help accomplishes a few goals: students have a guide for completing their work, and the work is given value when parents pay attention to its completion.

The type and amount of help are dependent on your child’s age. Younger students (K-3) require an adult to work directly with the student for most assignments.  Finding the balance of “how much help is too much help” is hard to define.  However, I suggest the following as a guide for parents: Ask yourself “who is doing the thinking on this assignment?  If you are the one completing the steps of the assignment, or leading your child to every answer, then you are helping too much. 

Instead, frame your questions in order to elicit thinking from your child.  Ask, “What do you think is the correct answer?”  Follow up with “How do you know this?” or “What makes you think that?”  These types of questions will get your child to explain their answers, and either defend their answer or find errors based on their explanations.

            Older students (4-5) may require help as well on nightly homework.  For these students, homework is typically a review of skills taught that day.  This presents a problem for parents, since they were not in the classroom to see the lesson.  Many of the skills (especially in math) are taught differently than when parents were in school.  Consequently, your help may sound different than the teacher’s.  To get a better sense of the lesson or concept, I suggest using the online version of our math textbook, found at www.thinkcentral.com .  This will lead you to the online version of the student text and helpful tools for our math curriculum.

An aspect of homework often overlooked is homework’s value for developing planning skills.  Parents should help students plan their week of homework and studying, just as adults plan their own to-do lists.   Parents can say, “Since we have soccer practice Tuesday and Thursday, when will be the best times for you to do your spelling homework for the week and study for your science test?”  You can put these planned work times on a shared family calendar, which gives value to the child’s work and lets everyone know what’s been planned. 

The goal of your child’s teacher is for homework to be a valuable tool for learning that reinforces the concepts learned in school.  The goal is never to cause frustration or conflict. If this happens…STOP!  Take a break and do something around the house, or select an easier assignment.  Then, come back to the assignments that cause frustration. If your child is having a hard time completing the assignment with your help, we encourage your child to contact a friend in the class.  If, after getting peer help, your child is still struggling with the assignment, write a note on the page or send an email to the teacher asking for help. Write the email with your child present, so you can model how to appropriately ask for help.  If this becomes a common problem, set up a meeting with your child’s teacher so you can all talk about homework and how to best complete it.