While we cannot deny the fact that homework is important to a child’s education, we also have to agree that sometimes children are given too much homework.

Homework is seen as a valuable resource for teaching, allowing children to practice what they have learnt in school, and in doing so, learn their academic curriculum.

Yesterday, CNN published an article ‘Is homework making your child sick’ where they cite that new research shows that some children are doing more than three hours of homework a night — and that all that school work may be literally making them sick.

The study’s researchers say that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; with 56% of the students in the study citing homework as a primary stressor in their lives.

“We found a clear connection between the students’ stress and physical impacts — migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss,” One of the researchers observed.

So when does homework become too much?

While this research was conducted in the US, Nigerian parents often complain that their children, especially those in primary school sometimes bring home too many homework or assignments.

Homework may be too much for a young child in the following circumstances;

1. When a child does not even have time to eat dinner and the only conversations he or she seems to have with their parents is about homework, then this may signal that the child is taking on too much.
2. When a child begins to hate going to school and the parent ends up becoming the one who does the class assignments and not the child, then your child may be overworked or fedup.
3. When a child frequently complains of being too stressed or too tired to go to school, then your child’s workload may be too much.
4. When your child spends his whole weekend and every single spare time he or she has doing homework or being taught by different lesson teachers with no time to play, then this may mean they are being burdened with too much.

What can you do?

• Talk to your child’s teacher, if you feel your child is getting too much homework.
• If you have employed lesson teachers for your child(ren) you need to make sure, that they actually make a positive impact on their grades. Sometimes Nigerian parents can had an extra burden on young children by preoccupying them with too many lesson teachers.
• Plan a homework schedule with your child. Allow for free time when assignments are completed.
• Praise your child’s efforts to encourage them. If questions arise about assignments, and your child asks for help, ask him or her questions or work through an example rather than simply providing the answer.
• Younger children need more parental assistance with homework than older children. Go over homework assignments with your child. Do several problems or questions together, then observe your child doing the next one or two.
• Always offer encouragement and support when your child is doing his or her homework, this alone can help reduce the stress of having to complete assignments.

Tell us: do you think schools give children too much homework to do?