Homework or family time, what do kids need the most to grow up happy and healthy?
Today, I answered to a fascinating journalist’s question - Do Young Kids Really Need Homework? - that brings me to the exact theme of this post. Kids need, most of all, dedicated parents that can transform any daily activities in learning opportunities. Homework is a part of it, yes. Still, even that has to be seen as something they are willing to do and not only as something that they just want to finish - it all depends on how it is presented to them.
We have been raising our kids with many artistic activities that allow them to develop fantastic creativity, think with their own heads, have an opinion.
Matteo is 8 years old now. He goes to an international school that has an exciting approach to homework. They bring optional activities to do over the weekend and parents are supposed to participate and help the children as well. They are crafted in a way to allow different approaches to reach the same learning goal, very well explained to parents on weekly newsletters.
Weekdays instead are free for the kids to play and do other activities of their interest. At the end of each year, they have exams, but all the preparation is done during school time in a very effective way.
Earlier this year, after inventing many stories and having dad's help to draw these in the form of comics, Matteo wanted to publish a book! We took time to understand how to do it, how to answer to his request. We made it!
He proudly presented it to his school mattes last week, and it was a success. We were thrilled on how this developed his capacity to talk to an audience - we practised many times at home, and each time he got better and better. We see this opportunity as a significant step for his learning, even though it does not depend directly on school chores.
We developed the website as well to present our journey to the public and Matteo took part in every decision. It taught him that whenever he wants to achieve something, he needs to work hard and it will come. And if his work is good, his friends will appreciate it. But Matteo's most exciting moment was when he got to help dad producing the book trailer. He almost did not sleep of excitement after finishing that video!
Who knows what the next step will be, but so far it has been an incredible journey for all of us :)
- Catarina -
Join us in our adventures! SUBSCRIBE to our blog today and receive all our news in your inbox!