Education is the key to choices in life. It can never be considered a waste of time and effort. Many parents wonder about the point of homework and the relevance of it, for their child. As with anything else we learn to do, homework is meant to be a practise of new skills acquired, to get better, faster or more confident at something. However, it can be difficult and time consuming for teachers to differentiate homework into need / skill levels and interest relevance for each student within a class. For this reason, genertic homework sheets can easily become a chore for children, rather than a positive experience.

Parents are the greatest asset a child has when it comes to homework. Parents can communicate with their child's teacher and find out exactly what their child's learning levels are. By supporting your child at home and targeting their areas of need, their abilities and understanding can quickly improve. This can then translate into more confidence and self-belief for your child at school. Be available during your child's daily homework session. It is difficult for children to develop productive study skills if the rest of the family doesn't model the behaviour or show that they value this time for learning. Busy, noisy households are not conducive to developing settled learning behaviour and increased attention spans. Set aside some easy paperwork you could do at the table alongside them while they try to progress independently. Allow them to have 'think time' and 'problem solving time' before offering support. Always ask first what is hindering their progress, if they get stuck, and guide them along with questioning that will help them work it out for themselves. Telling children the answer stops the thinking and learning process in its tracks. If the child cannot come to the correct solution on their own through your questioning, the learning gap may be too large between what they already know and what they are trying to learn.

Help Me Learn evaluates student workbooks and study guides that have been created by reputable publishers who have a long history in educational resources. If we feel that a book would be useful to our New Zealand clients, we will add it to our database. This eliminates the guesswork out of choosing a relevant book because, with our classroom teaching experience, you can be assured that our products are current and suited to the New Zealand Curriculum. If, after browsing our site, you are still unsure, ask your child's classroom teacher to have a look and recommend a book for your child's needs. From time to time, we also add Australian based books. These are included because they have suitable, quality content that is of educational value.

Choose a quiet time of the day, when neither parent nor child is tired. Directly after school or after dinner is not ideal for younger children. Turn off the television and radio. Only have calming, instrumental music playing in the background. This is called Baroque and has been shown to enhance the brain's ability to proof-read with higher accuracy, memorise spelling, poetry and foreign words, aid with learning and retention (The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell 1997). Have a glass of water at hand for 'brain juice' to help the synapses fire easily in the brain. Ensure no distractions occur for the learning period, 20 min for younger primary children and 30-40 min for older primary students (with a 5 min break).

Help Me Learn sells homework books at year levels 3-8. These books offer a range of topics to keep the learner engaged. All answers are provided in the books so that it is easy for parent and child to mark the completed tasks immediately. Part of the problem with school homework is that it is often not possible to mark it with the student present. This type of 'distance marking' is meaningless to the learner. The best situation is to mark together and discuss the thinking and learning involved. This quickly reveals how the learner is coping with the work.

These are some suggestions to assist children from preschool age to Y2 with their reading development:

- Listen to what your child is saying - good talkers usually make good readers. Answer their questions and encourage them to ask more.
- Read to your child as often as possible. Let your child read or recite back to you, even if they are 'reading' the pictures. Read and re-read favourite stories. Encourage your child to point to the text, turn the pages, read along with you, finish phrases e.g. "Mary had a ....."
- Limit television watching time. Use audio tapes of children's songs and stories to encourage listening skills. The car is a good place for this too.
- Join your local public library and use it regularly. Ask the librarians for advise on what would be suitable for your child. Take your child's school reader along to show the librarian.
- Point out words and symbols on signs, advertisements, packet labels to indicate the purpose of written communication.
- Encourage and help your child with writing and reading letters and cards. Correspondence with another person is a great motivator and distant family love to keep in touch. Paper and pencils can be personal and creative but don't discount email and typed work. Computer software will help the more fluent writer pick up on and correct their errors.
- Allow children to help with recipes, shopping lists, family notice boards, looking up phone numbers in phone books, etc.
- Sing songs, recite poems and nursery rhymes together, encourage your child to learn these by heart.
- Work on puzzles, play board games and make things together. Talk about what you are thinking and doing to extend vocabulary.
- Play "I spy..." - use letter sounds at first (sss) as this encourages your child to hear the sound at the beginning of a word. Change later to using letter names (es).
- Make your own alphabet book to learn letter names and sounds. Gather pictures and words from magazines, junkmail, advertisers, etc. to paste on the letter page that they go with.
- Cut pictures from magazines and make up stories together. Start by making the story up yourself and asking the child for imput in places (maybe offer choices throughout the story), then take turns saying sentences that follow on and finally your child should be able to create their own. The more stories that a child has been exposed to, the easier they will find writing their own as they will have a wealth of ideas to draw on.
- When your child wants to write, encourage them to hold pencils and crayons correctly - teachers can help here. Its more difficult (sometimes impossible) to unlearn a bad habit once formed. Start with writing the child's name, then mum, dad, siblings' names, pets etc. Start names with capital letters (don't capitalise the whole name) and write letters correctly on a line.
- A small white board and pen in the kitchen can be handy to keep young children writing while you are busy with chores. Magnetic letters on the fridge can be used to make words and biscuit dough can be formed into letters and then baked into deliscious treats.

Remember to make reading fun. Our aim as parents is to create a love for books in our children and to lead them towards being independent readers. We are their primary role models.

Help Me Learn have selected workbooks to support the area of Literacy development. These address areas like:

- Spelling, where words are used and worked with in a variety of exercises so that children become familiar with these in stages and use them comfortabley in their daily reading and writing activities.

- Comprehension, a critical part of reading. Children have and learn many strategies that enable them to 'read' the letters on a page - this is known as decoding the text. At times, children can be really good at this and are able to decode text that has a content more suitable for older children. However, the understanding of the content is what determines the child's 'reading age' and this is dependent on their life experiences up until that point. Comprehension workbooks expose children to a variety of text types and gives them practise at building their comprehension skills.

- Grammar is the backbone of Literacy and yet, is often neglected. By using a workbook to practise different aspects of grammar, childern will become more competent in decoding new text and composing well constructed stories.

- From Y3 upwards, we also promote a range of English workbooks that encompass a whole year's worth of skills in this area but still continue with the more targeted ranges for those students whose needs are more specific. For Y7 and up, the English study guides are indespensible as support material for all students wishing to improve and work to their own personal potential. These books also provide a window for parents on the curriculum that their children would be covering that year.

 

 

The easiest way is to first establish whether your child is needing help or extension in a particular area, eg. Reading comprehension, Mathematics problem solving, etc. See the classroom teacher. They will have the relevent information for you.

Find out how far behind they are. If its only by a slight margin, choose from books that are at their year level. The extra one-to-one help should quickly boost them up to par. If they are a year behind, they will be missing vital concepts from the previous year level. In this case, choose from books at a year level below their current one. This will help them review and internalise concepts needed for understanding their current year level and give them more confidence in their abilities when faced with new learning at school. Once the book is complete, judge whether your child is ready to go onto the next level (their current year level).

Find out how far ahead they are. If its only by a slight margin, choose from books that are at their year level. the extra one-to-one help should quickly boost them further ahead. It they are a year ahead they will need stimulating and extending at the next level. In this case, choose from books at a year level above their current one. This will help them preview and become familiar with concepts to come and give them more confidence when included in extension groups within their school. Once the book is complete, judge whether your child is ready to go onto the next level or whether you will now work on another area of learning or interest.

Work books will cover the whole year's Learning Intentions. By establishing a close relationship with your child's teacher or simply asking older children, you can establish what is being taught in class and select the appropriate section in the work book, to review. The classroom programmes are unique and designed by teachers to follow the needs of their students and will not follow the order laid out in the books. By choosing a work book, parents easily become familiar with all the milestones that children should be attaining at each year level, for that subject.

Sometimes children only need help in a narrow and specific area, eg. Basic Facts practise, Proof-reading, Grammer practise, Reading comprehension or Spelling. There are great books on the site that support these areas of need or extension, as required. Again, find out your child's level from their teacher before ordering.