Here’s to homework
My son Sam hates homework.
He’s in fourth grade and this is not unexpected. Sam is aflame with tense dread as he pulls papers and books from his backpack. Sometimes, getting him started on problems 1 -28, page 135 is like lighting a fire with a feather doused in chocolate pudding.
Practically impossible.
I am supposed to witness this and be dismayed. I am supposed to take this as a sign he is unfairly burdened. Free the children! Why can’t they get all their work done at school?
The trend today is to decry homework as punishing busy work, a conspiracy against tire-swing time and the harvest of freckles and fresh air. Homework can enhance our home time, even in a small way. It’s all in your attitude.
I love watching my kids around our kitchen table, solving the problems of the world. I like to help them. It’s my privilege. It doesn’t take long, especially when we work together and laugh a little while we do it.
I like to see the answer written in grey on white, discovered while drinking a cup of milk poured a few minutes ago with a piece of banana bread on the side. It’s one thing to demonstrate prowess with the word problem at school, it’s another to bring it on the trip home, land of the TV and pantry, kingdom of sidewalk chalk and sleeping stuffed animals which must be shaken awake.
After snacks we work, putting our heads together as we squint and consider diameters and the meaning of obtuse.
For parents who don’t homeschool, homework is the chance to become literally immersed in the work of the day. I can stir a pot of sauce and help determine what percentage 12 minutes represents in an hour. I ask questions, hoping my kids will figure it out on his or her own.
The book will be shut, the pencil put down.
Children will find a way to be children, even as they work. That’s the beauty of being a fourth-grader. In their world, feathers and chocolate pudding can make a bonfire.
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Gretchen, I love this post! Homework is a right of passage, in a way. I’ll never forget the birthday I had where one of my aunts gave me a puzzle that had a little frog hanging from a tree on it, and it said, “Homework makes you ugly.” I was devastated. Didn’t she know I did what seemed like HOURS of homework a night!? Did she think I was ugly?? That was probably 25 yrs ago, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Ha.
Stupid homework. ;)
Beautifully put, Gretchen.
Not obtuse at all.
Very acute, in fact.
:-)
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Long live homework! I struggle making them focus but it is a life skill and lesson that needs to be learned! The satisfaction and self-esteem found in completing something difficult. The fact that the sooner we get through the “have tos” the sooner we get to the “want tos”!
Great post! Again…
“Consider. . the meaning of obtuse.” Ha, ha.
I love to learn, but watching & helping my child through his K homework made me want to scream. It helps that 1st grade has no homework. . .yet.
Well put, my dear! Puts it all into perspective for me. I was that annoying kid who loved to do homework (and whose brothers hated me for it. :) I don’t think my kids will be the same way.