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Saturday, September 11, 1999

Homework Can Be Fun

Mukta Kunte  
Today, some teachers do not believe in giving any homework to their students. On the contrary, students are given the choice to decide collectively whether or not they should be given homework. Says Saroj Patwardhan, a teacher at the Loyola Convent ``I give group homework. I group boys who live in the same area, or have similar interests and talents.''

Many a times, homework is given in the form of projects related to the topic taught at school. These projects range from simple creativity enhancing activities to various excursions. A teacher at ``Gurukul'' says ``as a policy, starting from the first standard, we give homework only over the weekends. And believe it or not, children thoroughly enjoy it.'' The idea behind giving limited homework is to inculcate a sense of responsibility among the students without burdening them.

They are asked to discuss it with their parents. The homework is generally an extension of the topics dealt in the chapter. Small children are asked to collect pictures, write short poems or paragraphs pertaining to the topic being taught. For older kids it is seminars, projects, acting out a particular story and the like. So kids, you have something to beam about!If You feel homework becomes too boring,here are some tips for you:
Work as a group. Get together with your friends and complete the assignment as a team. In this way not only will your homework become interesting, you can also exchange ideas as regards the topic of work. You can take short breaks in between and have a singing or dancing session or exchange some jokes for that matter!

Experiments can be conducted at home by using very simple apparatus. Observe the different articles relating to the experiment available in the house. For homework relating to flowers or plants, explore your lawn or a nearby plot of land.

If you have a problem in learning words or spellings, Scrabble can prove to be extremely useful.

If you are connected to the internet, you can browse away your problems through this medium. You can also get connected to various schools, colleges, libraries and get instant solutions for your queries. There are also a host of CD ROMs available for different subjects taught at school.

Sick of sitting at home, but have to complete the homework too? Go to a garden or a recreational park or simply sit in your own lawn and complete your work. A giant wheel ride after you have completed your work could serve as an incentive.

If you find it difficult to learn those endless answers, try making jingles out of them. Tune them after popular songs. Record your lessons or read them out in front of the mirror and observe yourself. It helps!

Have informal discussions pertaining to a freshly taught subject, drawing examples from the various spheres of your life.

For smaller kids, mathematics can be made easy through Building Blocks. Another way is joining numbers to form figures which can be later coloured by them.

Letters can be made easy to learn and identify by asking the child to find out pictures of the objects starting with different letters.

So, if homework becomes monotonous for you, try out the above stated tips, and have a smooth sail!

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.


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