homework clubs why shodul we bother?

[cod]

ok so state primary has asked for parental input intot he settign up of a hoemwork club tow nights a week afetr school

spoke ot friend and she said " why the hell shoudl we support flakey parents who see it as freee childcare adn a way of getting somoen else to do thier kids homework"

i think i agree

what do oyu think

why not call it a prep club then it sounds much posher

Doesn't that make you feel miserable Custardo?
I've decided to save up for extra driving lessons because I'm a parallelparkingf*wit and moving to a very narrow street where none of the houses have offroad parking.

Most volunteering is for something that you already have, or don't need, but others do need and haven't got and can't provide for themselves.

Obviously doubles as an opportunity to take a long enjoyable look down one's nose!

Of course i've the basic ability to understand primary homework. If it was a matter of me finishing it then it would be done in a matter of seconds. What i am not capable of doing ( even though i try) is translating it in a way they understand. I get frustrated at constant repition of simple things. My mind doesn't focus enough and i start stressing that i have a lot of other jobs to do. In comparison to others my life is quite simple and custardo made some fantastic points, what about families with a terminally ill or severely handicapped sibling etc.......

As for volunteering, i'll say it again, i know plenty of women who are well off, husbands busy at work, they thrive off it. Maybe thats because i come from an affluent area , who knows. Not everybody wants money for doing something, i'm happy to volunteer for most things if they fit in with my timetable.

We all should help each other.

Custardo and fairyfly, I agree with your reasons why many parents can't help with their children's homework. At secondary level, I can see some virtue in schools being "open" for children to work independently on their homework, perhaps with some properly trained helpers. I do think the help should be rationed to those who have actually thought the homework through properly to the best of their abilities before seeking help. At primary level, why can't schools just accept that many parents cannot help their children with their homework, and just not set the homework in the first place?

fairyfly, yes, some people like volunteering. Some people like giving money to charity. Would you accept that as a legitimate reason for being repeatedly pestered by good causes wanting you to give them money? Being asked once in a while is not a problem, but being asked in a spirit of "You should be helping as you don't work - it is your duty to help others" gets our backs up. I have no problem with other mothers working - I used to be a WOHM myself. But when I worked I paid for childcare - I don't see why I should be providing other people with free childcare now.

swedishmum, a friend who works at my children's school told me some time back that she had to take a literacy test. I think she may be an LSA rather than a classroom assistant though. I was going to ask her the details this afternoon, but I was too busy consoling DS2 following his defeat in the final school round of the UK Chess Challenge - at the hands of DS1...

In DS's school the Chess Club is run by volunteers.
Never heard that dismissed as free childcare.

Look, anyone who doesn't want to volunteer for anything at all can just say no politely without having to get all afronted that they were asked, and without being snotty about the cause itself.

At least Cod knew when iit was her cue to start goosestepping

But when I worked I paid for childcare - I don't see why I should be providing other people with free childcare now.

Bollocks to that theory, it's mean spirited.

Hallgerda, what about looking at it as helping the children?

i think its a good idea but i think that it should be paid for by the parents that work so that the people helping can get paid.

then .........
the children benefit

it creates jobs
people dont feel they are expected to help out.

I'm not against volunteering - I've even been known to do it myself. I don't even mind being asked to do it, a few times, politely, by people prepared to take no for an answer. But I don't think anyone should be subjected to emotional blackmail and pestering over the matter - I have had some very bad experiences and they affect my willingness to be involved in schemes such as this. I suspect from some of the other posts on this thread that I am not alone.

lovemygirls, I like your idea in principle. Nobody would feel exploited and jobs would be created. But I still wonder how well the scheme would work in practice. The only poster on this thread with direct personal experience, galaxy, said that the homework club that her children attended was a waste of time. I'm not altogether surprised. Children attending the club are unlikely to take the same amount of time to do their homework. Primary school age children tend to be collected by their parents rather than allowed to walk home. So some children will not be doing homework for at least part of the session. How are the helpers going to stop them from distracting those still doing homework? For that matter, how much "authority" will the helpers have to make the children do their homework, rather than pretend they've finished in order to take part in the activity the helpers have organized in order to keep the early finishers busy? One solution would be to run the homework club as a drop-in, with parents/carers on hand to take their children home when the work is completed, but that wouldn't help the working parents. I think the schemes in libraries work on that basis. If anyone out there has a good experience of homework clubs I'd be very interested to hear about it.