LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – When kids get home from school, a lot of parents help them with homework. It can be a grind, especially with all their extracurricular activities.
“My backpack is really heavy,” student Amara Young shared with 8 News Now.
Young carries it around school along with notebooks and a laptop to work on schoolwork.
Aside from being an honors student, she stays busy on the field playing flag football and running track. Young said she is sometimes there until 10 at night.
“If I had more time, I would [definitely] do more,” she said.
She does not stop and shared with 8 News Now that at times she feels overwhelmed. She said she has had to skip track practice to focus on schoolwork.
“I had homework that would take me hours to finish.”
She said homework can be beneficial depending on the class and student.
“You have to know your own limits,” she explained. “I try to do like leadership extracurricular or things that I am actually gaining some kind of knowledge.”
It’s all about balance. According to Education World, a free resource on the web for educators, some parents prefer extracurricular activities over homework. The reasons include homework can cause stress, can disrupt family time, or can decrease enjoyment of learning.
Learning does take time. A book called ‘The Homework Conundrum: How to Stop the Dog From Eating Your Homework,’ by author Jovita M. Castelino offers a deep dive into homework. According to excerpts available online, the book explains the key areas that matter to teachers wanting to ensure homework is well-designed.
It also said homework tends to divide people and has an image problem. For example, if you search the term “homework” online, a lot of what you usually see are images of frustrated children.
“Different students with different skills, abilities, challenges will take different amounts of time,” Katherine Lee, a licensed school psychologist who teaches at UNLV, said.
Lee said homework is a powerful tool for teachers to get to know their students.
“Too much homework is ineffective, but not enough homework is also ineffective,” she said.
She explained that when teachers assign the right amount of homework, it should not be a burden on their students.
“I think the challenge is when parents feel like they can no longer help their children, and they feel incompetent to be able to help their children, that’s where we hear complaining.”
She also said when parents can get involved, homework can be memorable for them and their kids, especially the ones in kindergarten through third grade.
Even for busy students like Young who, even at 15 years old, still wants to find that perfect balance between homework and everything else.
If your child needs help with homework in Clark County, the Teachers in Libraries program offers free homework help and tutoring from teachers and teachers’ aides who work for the Clark County School District.
