Homework Help

There comes a time in every parent's life when the homework gets  too difficult.  That could be an exaggeration.  There may be one or two brilliant people out there who can understand everything but for most of us mere mortals there will come a day when your child says, "Mum can you help me with this...." and you just want to stick your fingers in your ears and sing, "La, la, la, la,  I can't hear you."

My first encounter with difficult homework came quite early on, when I realised that although 2+2 did equal 4 the reason wasn't because, 'it just does!'  The school held a meeting to explain how maths was taught and despite having half an A level in the subject I was confused.  I get it now and understand why it's taught that way but at the time my brain just wanted to explode.

Having a wide variety of interests has meant that I can usually make sense of most things in the end.  I like to read, so that reading through essays is a pleasure, rather than a chore.  Music is usually the most difficult subject I'm asked to help with, or to check through, which is bizarre as it's the one I should be good at.  I often wonder how non-musical parents help if their child asks them to check through their composition to see if there are any parallel 5ths or Octaves they've missed.  I'm not much help to my children - I am a confirmed C grade student, 'good enough' is my motto but they always want better grades and so try not to ask for my help too often.  When my daughter was in year 8 she had a geography project on National Parks and she had chosen the Pembrokeshire National Park.  They were meant to work in groups and her group had fallen out at the last minute and she had to do the work on her own.  After a few hours of tears we spent a very interesting weekend researching and making a project that was good enough to pass (but not good enough for the grade she wanted).  I loved it because I found my favourite holiday destination.

This weekend has been particularly traumatic.  With one child in the middle of A levels and another in the year 9, 'I'm a bit bored so I think I'll do DofE, a bit of AmDram and a few other challenges'  phase I have been asked to help with A level French speaking practice, walking to get fit for DofE and learning lines for a Shakespeare play.

Shakespeare is a personal challenge for me.  I always feel a bit stupid for not really understanding it properly.  I know the man had his finger on the pulse of humanity and was incitful, witty and ahead of his time but the language always trips me up.  Iambic pentameters notwithstanding, I fell over my tongue several times before getting the lines I was reading out.  Luckily, my son didn't mind and was still able to recite his lines.  I find it an odd coincidence that he is playing the part of Flute in Midsummer Night's Dream.  Flutes are my favourite thing! (It's a good job he's not playing Bottom!!)

After O level French I gave up and although I enjoyed it I always got a little muddled between French and German (as you do when you study two languages).  The Long Suffering Husband never got much past 'ouvrir la port' and 'fermer la fenêtre' and so became extremely busy watching football when he was asked to help. On the other hand, I threw myself into the task, enthusiastically, stumbling over pronunciation.  Each time I got to the question about what Paris is like to work in, I got excited because not only could I say it I also knew what it meant.  Eventually, the absurdity of the situation got to me and "et pour le travail?", was immediately followed by a fit of the giggles.  I just hope the examiner doesn't ask the question with as much excitement and enthusiasm as I did because the giggles could be off-putting.