Is homework for preschoolers really necessary?
After a hard day at work, you find yourselves rushing home to prepare dinner and then sit down with your child to coach him with homework.
What’s so strange about this scenario? It’s quite normal for parents to help their kids with homework after all.
But what if your child is still a preschooler?
The homework in question is typically worksheets — copying or colouring letters/numbers, name-writing practice or spelling. Nonetheless, homework is still homework.
While many parents agree that the idea of preschool homework is absurd, most go along with it anyway for for fear their child will not be on par with his or her classmates and lag behind.
They are also worried that in today’s rush to get young children ready for primary school, their children will fall behind once they start school. Because of this, most parents choose not to complain about preschool homework,
RELATED: Are we over-scheduling our kids?
Learn more with no homework
Research has proven that the first 3 years of life are critical to a child’s healthy development. Here are some of the things that happen to our kids during this period:
- They are discovering who they are and how others respond to them;
- They are finding out what it means to express their feelings;
- Their brains are being “wired” into patterns for future emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development.
With this in mind, the focus of preschool education should be on providing a young child with the opportunities to learn through play, and develop soft skills and positive learning dispositions.
Children benefit most when teachers engage in interactions that support learning and at the same time are emotionally supportive.
Homework that is inappropriate for the child’s age and cognitive levels will only result in a passive form of learning, which may not be beneficial for the child.
Age-inappropriate homework could do your child more harm than good.
Learning how to read and write during preschool hours is fine. But age-inappropriate homework may take away valuable play and family time.
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What some mums think
I asked some mothers about their opinions on homework for preschoolers. Here are some of their comments:
“After a long day in school, why are we bringing home more work for the barely potty-trained? We should not rob them of their childhood.”
“At this rate, many kids would get burned out by the time they get to primary school… if not, it’d be the parents who get burned out first.”
RELATED: Choosing a preschool for your child
Find out more about how to handle homework for preschoolers on the next page.
The post Homework for preschoolers: is it necessary? appeared first on Singapore Parenting Magazine for baby, children, kids and parents.
