Children and homework stress

She sang the rhyme along with the cartoon characters but her mood changed when her mother called her to go to her reading desk for her homework. She became moody, complained of headache and suddenly became sleepy. This and many more are the experiences children pass through when they are ‘bombarded’ with homework.Doing more than […]

She sang the rhyme along with the cartoon characters but her mood changed when her mother called her to go to her reading desk for her homework. She became moody, complained of headache and suddenly became sleepy. This and many more are the experiences children pass through when they are ‘bombarded’ with homework.
Doing more than two hours of homework per night or after school hours may be making your child sick, according to a study.
The study, which was conducted by Stanford Graduate School of Education, surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-performing public and private high schools in affluent California communities, found that excessive homework causes high stress levels and physical health problems.
The study found a clear connection between the pupils and students’ stress and physical impacts resulting into migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss, co-author of the study, Denise Pope, said.
A new study found that too much homework is bad for children’s health. Researchers at Stanford say hitting the books for three or more hours a night won’t necessarily make a child perform better in school, but it can make them sick.
All in a bid to make the child study or be brilliant they are bombarded with different types of homework and it becomes worst when they are on mid-term break.
Mrs. Halima Umar complained when her 5-year-old child, a primary pupil, came home with about 13 homework in different subjects for the mid-term break. She said what was the need for the break in the first place when the child came home with such load of work.
She said the teachers should have known that children need rest even though she knows that they are training them to be hardworking, adding that too much of work even for any adult is bad not to talk of a child,  “the brain needs some rest,” she said.
Excessive homework is said associated with high stress levels, physical health problems, and lack of balance in children’s lives.
Homework causes more headaches for parents than it does for children. Some parents worry because their children don’t seem to do enough while others are concerned because they do too much.
But for many parents homework is that time of the day when they routinely harass, hassle and scold their child to “just do your homework!”
Mr. Tunde Joseph, who teaches in one of the public schools in Abuja, said though it is a good thing to give the children homework to prepare them ahead of time for their education but added that when it is too much it becomes bad.
“The children have minimum hour in which they can assimilate depending on their age range. So, giving a child of six years homework in the entire subjects after the day’s teaching in school and after school lesson is not good at all,” he said.
What to do?
Know the homework policy of your children’s school and understand what is expected of you as a parent. Most schools have parent interviews and information sessions at the start of the New Year so make sure next year you get a good handle on how your children’s teacher expects you to assist your child.
It is also useful to find out what your children’s teacher will do if your child doesn’t complete set tasks. Homework is basically an agreement between a teacher and a child so it should be up to the teacher to ensure the homework is completed.
Your role as a parent is to support the school if a consequence is put in place, such as missing some recess to complete or whatever.
Parents need to be mindful that it is hard for teachers these days as they don’t have too many options available to ensure children complete homework.