This year, with six kids at school, my life is a constant juggling act. But more than ever, my priority is making sure they thrive and feel successful.
To me, that means focusing on the basics: good food, enough sleep and plenty of downtime to just play and be kids.
But lately, there seems to be so much pressure on children, some who have just started ‘big school’, to do homework every night. It leaves almost no time for anything else.
The last thing they need is more work
I still remember coming home from school as a child and if my mum even mentioned the word “homework”, I wanted to scream.
Thankfully, she was pretty relaxed about it, but it still caused me so much distress.
Now, as a mum myself, I feel like the last thing my kids need after a long day at school is to come home and worry about even more schoolwork.
Active young children especially need to run around and burn off energy after trying to sit still all day – for both their physical and mental health.
After all, true learning doesn’t just happen at a desk. So many of life’s most vital lessons are learned out on the sports field or simply navigating a backyard game with siblings and friends.
If we truly care about our children’s wellbeing, we have to teach them balance.
I understand the necessity of assignments and study schedules for older kids, but even they need time for sports, hobbies and to unwind.
Homework spells burnout for the whole family
And let’s be honest, who is this homework actually for? When a young child brings home a project, it requires heavy parental supervision right at the single most chaotic time of the day.
Trying to guide a five-year-old through a spelling worksheet while preventing dinner from burning and keeping the other five siblings from tearing the house down is an extreme sport!
It’s time to let kids be kids
Call me a rebel, but I firmly believe schoolwork belongs in school hours. In our house, we love reading together before bed – it’s a beautiful routine we genuinely look forward to.
Pair that with a quick bit of spelling practice and that is where I draw the line.
The years we get with our children fly by, when I look back on this time, I want to remember the laughter and backyard games.
I definitely don’t want to waste these precious years yelling at them to finish a worksheet.
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