Is it better to complete all the homework, rush, hand it in a little messy and half wrong? Or should we take out time, do what we can in the allotted 10 minutes and leave the rest?
Different teachers hold different philosophies on this subject. My philosophy on homework and classwork for that matter is to take your time. Children all work at a different pace. It is not fair to say you have to finish in x minutes. It may take one student 5 minutes to complete a math sheet and another student 20 for the same sheet. Also, the student who took longer may be a math wiz, but has trouble with handwriting, therefore, it takes him/her longer to write out the answers.
So, in order to make sure kids are getting out of homework what I want them to gain, let's choose quality over quantity. This may mean only writing 4 or 5 sentences on Thursday evening. That's ok. Encourage your child to choose the most challenging words for them to spell and write sentences with those words. Same thing for Tuesday night with Three Times Each. Don't start with the easy ones, start with the hard ones! Then, if they don't finish, at least they have practiced the ones they really needed to practice!
For math, it is the same concept. Go slow, let them do the work with just a little guidance. If they don't finish in 10ish minutes, that's ok. I'd rather them do less correctly and with good practice than rush through all of it and have half of it wrong. We are building a foundation for years to come in both language arts and math. These skills need to be strong. Rushing through will not make a strong foundation. And of course, going slowly will help with handwriting as well!
So, if you see your child rushing so he/she can get to Wii, ask them to slow down. The actual time should remain the same, they just may not finish the assignment and that's ok!
Different teachers hold different philosophies on this subject. My philosophy on homework and classwork for that matter is to take your time. Children all work at a different pace. It is not fair to say you have to finish in x minutes. It may take one student 5 minutes to complete a math sheet and another student 20 for the same sheet. Also, the student who took longer may be a math wiz, but has trouble with handwriting, therefore, it takes him/her longer to write out the answers.
So, in order to make sure kids are getting out of homework what I want them to gain, let's choose quality over quantity. This may mean only writing 4 or 5 sentences on Thursday evening. That's ok. Encourage your child to choose the most challenging words for them to spell and write sentences with those words. Same thing for Tuesday night with Three Times Each. Don't start with the easy ones, start with the hard ones! Then, if they don't finish, at least they have practiced the ones they really needed to practice!
For math, it is the same concept. Go slow, let them do the work with just a little guidance. If they don't finish in 10ish minutes, that's ok. I'd rather them do less correctly and with good practice than rush through all of it and have half of it wrong. We are building a foundation for years to come in both language arts and math. These skills need to be strong. Rushing through will not make a strong foundation. And of course, going slowly will help with handwriting as well!
So, if you see your child rushing so he/she can get to Wii, ask them to slow down. The actual time should remain the same, they just may not finish the assignment and that's ok!