I love the school my children attend, especially the interaction between the parents and the school. Obviously big involvement is not for everyone and not everyone has the time, but I am so pleased that our headmaster encourages parental involvement and if we feel the need we can ( with a days notice) go in to the canteen to check out the standards of the school dinners and eat with the children.
At the beginning of the school year the parents are all invited to meet the new teacher and listen to his/her ideas for the year, the excursions they are hoping to set up and the help that they require. I have found these meetings helpful and hopefully I have left them with more of an idea on how to help my child with background data. In this era where the curriculum are so full the teachers are begging parents to help where ever they can. Thanks to the web this is not impossible. Last week my son and I made salt crystals. It was so easy and satisfied his 5 minute concentration span. It didn't work first time so we checked another web page and tried a slightly different method with excellent results. Not only was the experiment fun but he had to read all the instructions and set out the utensils. Great team work!
http://chemistry.about.com/od/growingcrystals/ht/saltcrystals.htm.When my husband was 13 he was asked if he enjoyed school and when he said he was bored he was taken out and sent to work to bring in money for the family. ( hat a shame he wasn't means tested!). He had worked for two years before he was given a pay rise, which he did not report back to his mother and so he was finally able to have his own money.
I am glad that times have changed but often wonder if maybe we have gone too far and that children are now not expected to contribute anything to the household, not even to make their beds or take their plates to the sink. When my husband was pre-school age he went out into the cotton fields with his mother and helped her as best he could. When my husband's sisters had their children, doing simple household chores was part of their daily routine. I am obviously not talking about exploiting children but asking a child to make its bed, flop a duster around the room along side mum or putting clothes away is part of life training and can only benefit for the future.
I am glad that times have changed but often wonder if maybe we have gone too far and that children are now not expected to contribute anything to the household, not even to make their beds or take their plates to the sink. When my husband was pre-school age he went out into the cotton fields with his mother and helped her as best he could. When my husband's sisters had their children, doing simple household chores was part of their daily routine. I am obviously not talking about exploiting children but asking a child to make its bed, flop a duster around the room along side mum or putting clothes away is part of life training and can only benefit for the future.
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